Earning vs. Effort and the Feminine Ideal

There are lots of different women held up as the ideal homemaker. Pre-industrial, Little House on the Prairie, 1950s, homesteader, trad wife, witch. Some speak to us, some don’t. For instance, I have zero attraction to the 1950s housewife. She doesn’t inspire me. The homesteader mixed with a bit of witch gives me plenty of “scope for the imagination.” We each have to decide which ideal inspires our effort. What we must not do is worship at the ideal’s feet. What we must not do is judge others by the ideal we have chosen. We are all here to make an effort, ladies, not earn our worth.

Ideals go in and out of style. When I was young, it was June Cleaver, the 1950s American, who was the ideal. Now it’s the homesteader/trad wife/pre-industrial. All of these have good and bad elements. They’re all flawed.