First off--I admire the message that Peachy is sending. I subscribe to her Substack, and I read her pieces wherever I can find them. She's funny, bitiFirst off--I admire the message that Peachy is sending. I subscribe to her Substack, and I read her pieces wherever I can find them. She's funny, biting, and most importantly, traditional--and this book makes the case for why that last one is so important. The big issue here is--I'm not the intended audience for this book. I'm in my mid-40s, married to the love of my life, with one 7-year old son. We won't be having any more, unfortunately (at least naturally...God only knows who might be brought into our lives at some point). I work full-time, remotely, and despite a long-term desire to be at home with my kid, that was never an option for our family (and probably never will be, and I'm at peace with that). The issue with reading these types of trad-wife "manuals", when you're not the intended audience (and this also applies to some trad-wife content on Twitter, a few accounts I had to unfollow), is that it generally makes one feel badly if they can't be domestic ENOUGH. I wanted more children--we couldn't have them (even with assistance! We started too late.) I wanted to stay home--that's not a possibility. I wanted to be married in my 20's! That didn't happen and it wasn't for lack of trying. I feel so grateful for my place in the world now, but it's aggravating to be preached to (and again, I'm too old to change things now) when I missed my opportunity to make changes (although I'm not exactly sure which changes I would've made, but I have some ideas). But I didn't know I wasn't the right audience when I started this book.
But let's say I'm the Erin-at-27 version of me...this book would've been awesome. Because 27-year old Erin was WAY more liberal about abortion, and birth control, and even romantic partners (although I was kind of a late bloomer there) . And now being a middle-aged mom, I absolutely believe we were sold A BUNCH OF LIES re: feminism and "female empowerment" (AKA being an easy lay) and "reproductive healthcare" and it is mostly bullshit. I honestly wish I had a daughter so I could share with her ALL the ways I was lied to when I was young, about sex, alcohol, abortion, career ambition--ugh, the list goes on. A great example of bullshit female programming is just how much young women were told (at least I was told in the early 90s) we'd easily get pregnant, basically any day of the month, making most women completely freak out about the likelihood of pregnancy, and it's JUST NOT TRUE (but if it DID happen, just abort it! No big deal, right??) I didn't even realize there was a fertility WINDOW based on the way I was told about sex ed as a teenager until we tried to get pregnant ourselves. Those little buggers are actually hard to conceive! LIES. And my orientation in my 20's was a church-goer who actually wanted to get married! Heaven help the young woman who thinks relationships are stupid/evil and men are a waste of time and dating is to increase your "female empowerment" body count. I didn't believe in any of those things and I still had a hard time finding my person and starting my family.
Anyhoo--I digress. Peachy is preaching to the choir, basically, and I'm too old to change much of anything. But I'd hand this over tout suite to a young woman who was on the fence about pursuing conservative values. This generation, both men and women, are just so unhappy, and smart phones, social media, too much therapy (Abigail Shrier's Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up is next on the to-read list), and feminism has done it to them. It's ruined them. I can't even imagine dating now. Hell, I got out right before the Tinder craze, and I'm glad I missed that! I'm old-fashioned (mostly), and married an old-fashioned man (our beginning relationship was based on telephone calls, not texts! How novel), and we're trying to raise our kids in an old-fashioned way. And I hope Peachy gets more people to join our little rag-tag crew of old-fashioned domestic extremists. We need all the converts we can get. Keep up the good work, Peach....more
Scarier than a horror novel. I've beeen following Shrier's work for a while now, and have heard her interviewed on many podcasts. I've always found heScarier than a horror novel. I've beeen following Shrier's work for a while now, and have heard her interviewed on many podcasts. I've always found her to be smart, measured, and reasonable (which is absolutely not how she's painted by the progressive media). I didn't think I needed to read this book because it didn't "apply" to me (we have a son under 5 who has shown an interest in the opposite sex since he was like...6 months old. And that's not an exaggeration. The boy was a flirt from birth, basically). But after yet one more article or interview that I'd read from her, I thought it would be worth my time to pick it up. And oh man, it was. Because honestly, this isn't really about being transgender--that's Shrier's whole point. What's happening to young women isn't really about them magically discovering they're transgender, because they don't check any of the boxes of a gender dysphoria diagnosis (and she doesn't deny this is a thing, and in facts interviews multiple trans men and women). This is something more malicious and destructive than that, because it's catching, like a virus, and it's hurting young women. Extremely eye opening. ...more
I found this book very inspiring--he really elucidated the reasons why conservatism, at its heart (by giving purpose to people's lives through the valI found this book very inspiring--he really elucidated the reasons why conservatism, at its heart (by giving purpose to people's lives through the value of work, and that no job is too menial--everything has purpose if you let it) is about value, generosity, and hard work. I just really loved his approach to the subject, and his person background (former musician) that reminded me of my libertarian husband. Thought provoking and patriotic, and realistic about people's human motivations, and why ingenuity, hard work, creativity, and ownership is not just an American value but a human one....more
With a title like this, you can't say you didn't know what you're getting yourself into! If you're a conservative, you know Bernie Goldberg's work, anWith a title like this, you can't say you didn't know what you're getting yourself into! If you're a conservative, you know Bernie Goldberg's work, and I enjoyed Bias quite a big (which is what put him on the map). Bias had a lot of authenticity because he worked for CBS for so many years and really understood that culture and what the world of television news was like. I do respect his point of view.
This book isn't long (barely 200 pages) and Bernie just zips through his points bam-bam-bam. Despite the inflammatory title, I didn't find the book all that shocking or vulgar (like an Ann Coulter book might be). Regardless of what side you were on during election season last year, you had to admit--the media loved 'em some Obama. If even SNL is making jokes that the media is Obama's lap dog--there's a problem. Goldberg makes some damning points that Obama was an unknown candidate when he came into the race, and he left as a unknown President. the hard questions just weren't asked. All the questions that should've been asked--about his associations, about his policies, etc.--were just ignored by the mainstream media. He has some amusing quotes by journalists like Tom Brokaw in October AFTER the election saying things like "We just don't really know the guy or what he stands for." What?!? You're part of what got him elected! You're part of the process!! It's pretty unbelievable. Goldberg's conclusion is that the media, a huge majority of which are liberal (and research testifies to that) wanted to be part of social change, to be part of the story, and of course Obama is a great story. But...that's not what journalism is supposed to be about. I see so little of actual objective journalism anymore that I do wonder if that will ever return, or if every talking head, AP reporter, or local news guy will inject his or her opinions into every news piece. It's a dangerous trend, and this election really highlighted it.
However, I was on the losing side of that debate, so I must just be bitter. Ha! ...more
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