The “traditional wife” trend online involves a small but visible movement of women Advocate A “return to traditional gender norms” through domestic behavior and submission to their husbands.
They tend to be conservative, and some consider them anti-feminist – part of a movement called “lifestyle”. preaching religionTraditional Wives embodies the philosophy of Sheryl Sandberg’s best-selling book.Lean In: Women, Work, and the Desire to Lead,“which urged women to overcome society’s expectations, take risks and pursue their ambitions.
The death of Diane Keaton is an opportunity to consider these dueling ideologies. Keaton led an unconventional life – from her quirky personal fashion to adopting two children as a single mother after turning fifty. She also made a career of portraying women who were anything but “conventional”.
he sure excellent The non-traditional role was as Lewis Bryant, Early 20th century journalists And the radicals in Warren Beatty’s film “Reds”. The film focuses on Bryant’s epic entanglement with John Reed, an American communist journalist, played by Beatty. “Lewis was Never A Communist,” an acquaintance of the two later said. “She had only slept with a Communist.”
In 1917, Bryant and Reed traveled to Russia to cover the Russian Revolution and produced vivid eyewitness books – his, “Six Red Months in Russia,” and hers, “Ten Days That Shook the World.” The latter is now widely considered a classic.
Bryant rejected traditional expectations of women by insisting on creative and sexual autonomy in an era in which women had little of either. In “Reds,” Keaton brilliantly brought that defiance to life on the big screen.
It’s tempting to label Bryant a “skinny” heroine ahead of her time. Yet both lean and traditional models offer lofty slogans but little understanding of human nature or how to live day to day while leaning or behaving traditionally, especially for women of limited means. How can a woman devote herself to “domesticity” if both she and her husband have to work full-time to support the family? Or how can she be “committed” to her husband if he is abusive? How can a woman lean toward an exciting career that, as someone said, “Terrified If I tried to take more time off to be with my child, my coworkers would think I was not committed to my job.”
Bryant had his own struggles. After Reed’s death in Russia in 1920, she returned to journalism and then married the scion of a wealthy Philadelphia family who would later serve as ambassador to Russia and France. They moved to Paris and had a daughter. Did he triumphantly lead a “traditional” lifestyle – well, traditional for an American living in Paris, anyway? After all, she was the envy of us all, a mother whose domestic life was one of governance and devoted to her ambitious husband’s career.
Not enough. Although the “Reds” did not tell this part of it his storyShe reportedly felt “useless” managing an upper-class household. Her husband divorced her after he discovered her alleged homosexual relationship. She lost custody of her child, became an alcoholic, and died in 1936 at the age of 51. By then, he and his book, his “Lean In” achievement, were long forgotten, while Reed’s memory and his book to bear Till today.
When it comes to assessing the life of Louise Bryant, or living her own life, catchy slogans like “traditional wife” and “lean in” aren’t much help, because life is never that simple.
Gregory J. valenceHe was a federal prosecutor in the Carter and Reagan administrations and a member of the ABSCAM prosecution team that convicted one U.S. senator and six representatives of bribery. He is the author of“In Siberia: George Kennan’s epic journey through the brutal, frozen heart of Russia,,
