a life unschooled
Unparenting
E1: "Tradwives aren't even trad" with Caroline J. Sumlin
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E1: "Tradwives aren't even trad" with Caroline J. Sumlin

S2 of my re-vamped pod begins today! I chat to Caroline J. Sumlin about tradwives, capitalism, whiteness and what's actually "traditional."

Hello hello!

I’ve renamed my pod and we’re embarking on a new season!

The title, Unparenting, is somewhat provocative - this pod is aiming to do social commentary on parenting trends & discourses around childhood from a lens of children’s rights and child liberation. It’s going to be fun/harrowing - buckle up!

In this episode, I talk to Caroline J Sumlin about the worrying tradwife movement and its political implications, and of course, the white supremacy of it all.

There is a transcript you can access, but pls not that I don’t edit it for errors, etc.

A little bit about Caroline: Caroline J. Sumlin is a writer and speaker dedicated to inspiring others to break free from societal expectations and reclaim their authentic lives. Through her work, she challenges cultural norms and highlights the intersections of self-worth, identity, and systemic oppression. Caroline is the author of We'll All Be Free, How a Culture of White Supremacy Devalues Us and How We Can Reclaim Our True Worth. You can also find her as a contributing writer at The Everygirl. Caroline received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Howard University in Washington, DC.

I hope you enjoy the show! Comment below with your thoughts and please share, rate and review on whatever app you’re listening on - it really helps!

Fran x

Some links from the show:

This pod now has a Patreon

You can follow me on IG @radical.mothering, and follow Caroline @carolinejsumlin.

Find the pod on Youtube.

Caroline’s piece on tradwives:

We'll All Be Free
What's Missing From the Trad Wife Trend Convo
If you had asked me a week ago if I knew what a trad wife was, I would have stared at you with a dumbfounded look on my face. I had never heard that term before. Honestly? I still wish I didn’t know. I would love to travel back in time to about seven days ago when my ignorance of what a trad wife is was strong. Sometimes, ignorance truly is bliss. But, alas, I now know what a trad wife is. I can thank TikTok for that. Someone mentioned this trad wife movement on another social media app, and in an effort to cure my ignorance, and at the risk of screwing up my algorithm, I took to TikTok to teach me about this odd phenomenon of trad wife-ism…
Read more

My piece on tradwives:

The article I quoted from: Sykes, S., & Hopner, V. (2024). Tradwives: Right-Wing Social Media Influencers. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 53(4), 453-487. https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241246273

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