From Monica Hesse: Can we #Romanticize our way out of this dumpster fire called life? https://t.co/TcUqnwYUX8
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) April 7, 2025
So many dear front-pager comrades over thr yeaes…Monica Hesse, at the Washington Post, brought back one particular stalwart in her larest boost for the young & Democratic, “Can we #Romanticize our way out of this dumpster fire called life?”:
… I have learned that I could romanticize laundry by adding lavender oil to the wash cycle and storing the detergent in Mason jars. I could romanticize cooking by doing it by candlelight and storing the ingredients in Mason jars. Yardwork doesn’t have to be a slog; it is #Romantic when performed in a wide-brimmed hat at dusk — which, to be honest, seems like an unsafe time of day to be operating a riding lawn mower. Ethereal dresses are nonnegotiable, and many content creators of the #Romanticize movement have at least one video in which they indignantly explain that ethereal dresses are actually the most practical attire for unclogging a drain.
To #Romanticize means that you take something nobody wants to do and find a way to make it feel desirable. Luxurious. Feminine. Cozy. The influencers who show up on my phone have thousands of followers interested in what they are trying to teach us, and so I have spent a truly dumb amount of time thinking about what they are trying to teach us…
“I love to romanticize motherhood and the mundane,” one mother explained, swaying in her nap dress. Another shared that she did 95 percent of the cooking in her household, but she could make it romantic by lighting a candle when she defrosted the pizza. A third showed us how romantic “a rare 30 minutes of alone time” could be: At the bumcrack of dawn, while her children and husband still slept, she lit a candle, brushed her teeth, cleaned the birdcage, gave the bird a bath, and this is the point at which I wanted to reach through the phone and tell her: Honey, those are just chores. You can add a tiny vanilla-scented fire to the routine, but they’re still just chores.…
Nobody ever jumps down the rabbit hole of a vintage dress Pinterest page and ends up watching TikTok edits of “Norma Rae” or reading Hannah Arendt. But there’s a decent chance that within 15 minutes, you’re going to be reading about how public schools harm children and how instead of vaccines, we can just eat bee pollen. It’s the Duggars meet Jane Eyre; it’s Anne of (Marjorie Taylor) Green Gables.
I’ve read no shortage of think pieces about how the Democrats can’t start winning elections until they find a liberal equivalent of Joe Rogan, someone to speak to the overwhelmed young men who are just trying to figure out how to live. But I think what they also need is someone doing “Sarah, Plain and Tall” cosplay — a liberal influencer who tarts up a loaf of sourdough while casually quoting from floor speeches by Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.…
It is truly empowering to feel that you are the master of your own happiness — that you can simply wake up one day and decide that with the right blend of raw milk and cottagecore, motherhood and homemaking will be soulful and beautiful. Empowering and at least partially incorrect. Because real-life success requires a harmonious confluence of community, relationships and policy, and I cannot help but note how many of the women in these videos are almost always being romantic alone.
I raise my pixilated adult beverage glass to Our Sarah, and her spiritual left-wing heirs!
War for Ukraine Day 1,138: A Brief Monday Night Update
Old School
Cheers to Sarah!
frosty
There’s a name I haven’t seen in a long time. She had great stories – off to read your post now.
Philbert
Hear hear to Sarah! I have recalled her so much in this craziness.
Though I’m not sure her or HS Thompson could do justice to these trying times.
Westyny
Miss Sarah, and Tony Jay.
YY_Sima Qian
Let’s all hope the stays a joke:
Economic sanctions & embargo from the West is one of the deterrents against the CPC regime just YOLOing on an invasion of Taiwan (the difficulty & riskiness of the amphibious invasion itself is an even higher deterrent). If Trump is actually able to coerce the ROW (including Taiwan) to economically & technologically decouple from the PRC, then that deterrent is gone.
Fortunately, I highly doubt PRC will be the one that is left isolated at the end of Trump’s global trade war.
trollhattan
@Philbert:
I’d give anything for her to give it a go.
A treasure, always.
Eolirin
I weep for the childrens.
ArchTeryx
These tradwives have more ways of denying reality than your average Republicans.
cain
@frosty: I have missed her.
cain
@Westyny:
I hope Tony Jay comes back .. did not know he left.
VeniceRiley
Men being drawn to far right figures is a longtime phenomenon that democrats cannot fix. Men made Rush famous. Etc. There will always be a Joe R … An A.Tate, a Trump.
Men need to sort themselves out. There is no other solution.
Most women know the TRADWIFE bullshit is exactly that, even while watching what the algorithms push in our faces
NotMax
Guessing that flowing ethereal dresses, lit candles and a hot stove not a good mix.
Just sayin’.
;)
John Revolta
Hey, little girl, comb your hair, fix your make-up, soon he will open the door
Don’t think because there’s a ring on your finger, you needn’t try anymore
For wives should always be lovers too, run to his arms the moment he comes home to you- I’m warning you………
Day after day there are girls at the office, and men will always be men
Don’t send him off with your hair still in curlers, you may not see him again
For wives should always be lovers too, Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you- He’s almost here……..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6svU1UknifM
SpaceUnit
Romanticism will be key. I make it a point to read Lord Byron while roasting my sparrows over the fire.
ETA: Eye roll.
VeniceRiley
@John Revolta:
Keep young and beautiful
It’s your duty to be beautiful
Keep young and beautiful, if you want to be loved ….
https://youtu.be/pfk8kLJMab0?si=jLc04KT1Lk2r0MRj
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@cain: Tony Jay occasionally pops up, but he mentioned that the November catastrophe broke him emotionally.
buskertype
Delurking to recommend everyone read “This American Ex-Wife” by Lyz Lenz
O. Felix Culpa
They want to take us back to Kinder Küche Kirche. Just say no.
ETA: Sarah is missed. Glad you’re here, AL!
Mart
@NotMax: It’s all good until hubby and the kids get out of bed and reality rears its ugly head.
prostratedragon
A familiar tune
NotMax
A Little Romance.
];)
H.E.Wolf
From further into that article:
“[It is] backdoor “trad wife” content. Any time you have landed on a mother of young children telling you that life will feel more sparkly if you milk a goat while dressed like Laura Ingalls Wilder, you are three clicks from a #MAHA hashtag and five clicks from #MAGA.”
H.E.Wolf
For a corrective to #Romantic propaganda, I recommend Shirley Jackson’s housewifely memoir, “Life Among the Savages”, first published in the early 1950s.
Underneath the humorous veneer is a great deal of information about why Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” had such a galvanic effect on suburban white women.
Baud
Who washes their bird every day?
Nukular Biskits
Sarah Proud & Tall. Now that’s a nym I haven’t seen in a while. At the risk of sounding like the dolt I am, whatever back of her?
Ditto for Tony Jay.
And early good morning all.
Tony Jay
Awww. Thanks folks for those kind words. Rest assured I’m still around, just restricting myself to the odd comment and lurking in the bushes like one of those pallid Persons of Interest you later find out from the evening news had three unhappy families and a gig talking salvation at a c-list Missouri megachurch.
I hope, eventually, to find the time to compose a reprehensibly bloated note d’horreur about the predictable (and predicted) disaster newnewlabourinc are making of government here in the UK, but it’s hard to fit it in with the job. I’m going to have to do it, though, they’re making me soooooooo angry on a daily basis it’s getting to vent or blow time.
Baud
I also miss SPT.
Geminid
There was nothing very romantic about the scene in the Oval Office yesterday, unless it was Donald Trump attesting to his bromance with Turkiye’s R.T. Erdogan: “I like him…and I think he likes me.”
Trump did most of the talking as Israeli PM Netanyahu, Vance, Waltz, Hedgseth and three Israeli officials looked on. There was a whole lot to unpack, but The Economist‘s Anshel Pfeffer summarized the meeting on Twitter:
Baud
Congratulations to Betty C and other Gator fans!
Rose Judson
@Tony Jay: Every day I live that meme with regard to Starmer’s crew: “our expectations for you were low, but holy fuck”.
Baud
@Geminid:
I think that’s pumping up Trump.
Aside from tariffs, how has Israel’s position worsened? Israel was forced to accept Obama’s Iran deal too. It’s not like Israel is being restrained in Gaza under Trump.
JPL
@Geminid: trump mused that unlike mean, cruel Hamas the Germans snuck extra bread to their captives. Bibi must have been surprised at the comparison, but maybe not.
Baud
@Baud:
I get that people elsewhere might care more about bringing down Netanyahu and pumping up Trump to do it.
lowtechcyclist
@JPL:
Anyone sneak extra bread to the captives who were being flown to El Salvador? [insert bitter laughter here]
lowtechcyclist
Maybe that’s why I hate mowing the lawn – it’s just that I haven’t tried doing it while wearing an ethereal dress!
MagdaInBlack
@lowtechcyclist: You might enjoy reddits tradfemsnark.
Lots of tips on being ethereal and ridiculous =-)
Baud
@H.E.Wolf:
There it is.
MagdaInBlack
@H.E.Wolf: I read that in maybe 8th grade and I am sure it was part of my child-free life choice.
Hoodie
Reminds me of this from Kundera:
“Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass.”
It’s escapism that turns into marketing.
Baud
@H.E.Wolf:
@MagdaInBlack:
Tradwifeism is like Trumpism, or MLMism or any other right wing scam — it’s all about closing the deal because once you’re in, you’re trapped.
Princess
@YY_Sima Qian: That has a destroy the village in order to save it feel.
Princess
@Geminid: Netanyahu sounded like someone in a hostage video. Which is apt, I guess.
Geminid
@Geminid: Correction: Trump doesn’t just think Turkish President Erdogan likes him. From Ankara-based Clash Report:
I detect here the hand of Erdogan’s formidable Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan.* Back during Trump’s first term, the brainy Fidan was Erdogan’s intelligence director, and the two men seemed to have figured Trump out. They established a relationship through Erdogan’s and Trump’s frequent phone conversations. Now that Trump is back in power, they’re playing him like fiddle.
* Hakan Fidan is considered an “intellectual,” and he did earn a PhD at Turkiye’s prestigious Bilkent University. But before that he served as a noncom in the Turkish Army for 15 years. Fidan headed up the Turkish intelligency agency M.I.T. from 2011 up until June of 2023, when Erdogan made him Foreign Minister.
YY_Sima Qian
When Japan decided to dilute & discharge the stored waste water from the Fukushima NPP that was damaged by the 2011 tsunami, w/ IAEA approval, the PRC (& SK) made domestic political hay fanning hysteria & used it as the excuse to ban the import of Japanese seafood. Perhaps this is laying the path to resume the import, & facilitating the consummation of a Sino-Japanese or even Sino-SK-Japanese deal:
Princess
@JPL: Trump thinks Hogan’s Heroes was a documentary.
YY_Sima Qian
This is a very different tone from von der Leyen vis-a-vis the PRC from 2 weeks ago:
Countries don’t know what will satisfy Trump, to even reach a temporary deal to stall for time. What he seems to want, balance in bilateral trade in goods, is impossible to satisfy.
Geminid
@Princess: Netanyahu is on very shaky ground back home, both politically and legally. Trump knows this, because his buddy and special envoy Steve Witkoff has briefed him on the situation in Israel. Netanyahu knows Trump knows this, and he knew he had to grin and bear it while Trump put him in his place.
pluky
The thing I don’t get about the whole tradwife schtick is, if they’re all so blissed out baking sourdough, milking goats, ethereally dressing, and so on, why the need to spend so much time and energy posting TikTok content?
Nelle
@Tony Jay: Hi!I! Do you have any takes on Mark Carney’s time at Bank of England? I’m quite pleased at the tone he is taking toward His Orangeness.
MagdaInBlack
@pluky: Income stream.
Geminid
A report on the deportation case of Rumeysa Ozturk, from Clash Report:
Clash Report followed this with the notorious video of Ms. Ozturk’s arrest, which went viral in her native Turkiye.
The hearing was in a federal court in Vermont. I expect Massachusetts and Vermont media have covered it with more detail.
Another Scott
@pluky: Yeah, funny that.
After the Red Sox game on TV yesterday, I didn’t immediately change the channel. Some infomercial for some joint supplement for oldsters started up. The huckster was a “famous” telegenic “medical expert”. I immediately looked him up. His occupation is listed as “actor”, though he does have an MD and a listed practice. It has all the usual paid actors mouthing the grandiose claims (with the tiny fine print disclaimers).
Spend your time and money with us, join our tribe, let us do the thinking for you, and then you will finally be happy.
Same as it ever was.
Maybe enough of our fellow humans will learn that that actually isn’t the best path forward….
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Princess:
If that’s the worst thing that happens to him, life will be letting him off way too easy.
Princess
@YY_Sima Qian: “What he seems to want, balance in bilateral trade in goods, is impossible to satisfy.”
This seems clear from the deals he’s turned down already. For parity to occur, other countries would need to be both as rich and as populous as the US. There’s only so much American stuff 45 million Canadians can buy.
Geminid
@Baud: I think Israel’s position is actually improved in the short term by Trump overriding Netanyahu in Syria. The PM and his clumsy Foreign and Defense Minister were buying trouble with their efforts to destabilize Syria. As Hakan Fidan pointed out yesterday, Israel’s own national interests are not well served by its government’s actions in Syria..
As for Iran, Netanyahu wants a war and Trump does not. There might still be one, but the Iranians know Trump wants to make a deal on their nuclear program and they may be able to meet him halfway. Talks are set to begin in Oman this coming Saturday.
Netanyahu is the loser in this, because he’s bragged about his close relationship with Trump, and Israelis just saw it’s not that close at all.
Princess
@Nelle: I can tell you that his time at the Bank of Canada basically shielded Canada from the 2008 recession (along with a tighter regulatory structure in general). That’s why he’s leading in the polls.
YY_Sima Qian
Perhaps New Deal Dem can speak to how bad this is, cash (whose holding is surely to be depreciated in the coming inflationary environment) being perceived as “safety”, as opposed to 10- & 30-year Treasury notes, in a time of stress & uncertainty (gift link to FT article below):
Tony Jay
@Rose Judson:
How does the old saying go?
“When you buy tickets to see Splatterpants the Diarrhetic Clown at The Hot Seafood and Black Coffee Festival, Papa Hindsight ain’t covering no laundry bills!”
This is who they always were. All that’s changed is the range of things they can break and the Media’s fading need to cover for them now that it’s not just Lefty scum they’re screwing over.
PIGL
@Tony Jay: what you say about the labour party matches my Vague impression but I would very much like to read somebody knowledgable speak to it.
Bupalos
@Geminid: I actually want to go back and watch again, I must have hallucinated one thing I thought I saw- a bunch of times Trump would mention a huge amount of money-50 billion, 200 billion, 500 million…. whatever, he’d reach his hand over towards Netanyahu and say “this guy would love that!”
WaterGirl
Just a reminder, for anyone who wants to read the old Sarah Plain and Tall posts, you can find them in the sidebar underView by Past Author.
Another Scott
@Princess: +1
It’s about 47 being in the middle of everything possible. And wanting to be paid.
That’s it.
And about 20 Republicans could end this dangerous stupidity at any time…
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Bupalos
@JPL: That was one of those jawdroppers that we miss on the regular amidst the torrent.
Trump telling the pm of Israel that the German guards in concentration camps were kind.
He also I believe made a couple or three asides intimating that Netanyahu gets excited hearing about large amounts of money.
YY_Sima Qian
@Another Scott: This is beyond just being corrupt, vindictive & malevolent. Using tariffs to eliminate the US’ huge deficit in the goods trade is something of a long held article of faith for Trump, & his current (Navarro, Bessent, Lutnick & Miran) & past (Lighthizer) advisors. That is already dangerously detached from reality, but expecting every bilateral goods trade to balance is totally unhinged.
Unfortunately, they will not relent until the whole debacle blows in their & everyone else’s faces, if then.
Another Scott
@YY_Sima Qian: It’s a pressure point.
They want to eliminate the income tax. They think that tariffs will let them do that, or think that they will give them an opening to do so.
Remember their press minion saying a few weeks ago that the tariffs would be a tax cut.
Of course all of it is stupid, none of it will work the way they say, but they’ll just lie about it and hope that enough of their supporters believe the lies. It’s all designed to serve 47 and his billionaire supporters. They can hornswoggle big tax cuts, pave the way for doing away with the income tax (as apparently at least a couple of states are working on), drive up unemployment to cut the cost of labor and labor power, gut safety and health regulations, let the banksters run wild again, etc., etc., etc.
Cui bono? answers almost all the questions with 47. Taking their arguments supporting their policies at face value is a mistake.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
YY_Sima Qian
@Another Scott: Of course Trump & gang wants to eliminate the income tax, but that is far from the only reason they are imposing so much tariff on the ROW.
Madame Bupkis
@WaterGirl: Thanks, Watergirl for the reminder!
Lyrebird
@Tony Jay: Thought of you the other day, someone had a vanity (custom) license plate that almost said “Flobalob” but I think it was meant to refer to the Buffalo Bills (regional team).
Toast to you!
Tony Jay
@Nelle:
Not really, sorry. Carney was in post prior to what you might call my ‘awakening to the political world. All I remember is ‘banker’, and that’s usually followed by another word that rhymes.
That said, he’s taking exactly the right tone of combative contempt with The Pustule, which is more than I can say for the UK’s Current Glorious Leader.
Tony Jay
@PIGL:
I can’t do knowledgable, per se, but hopefully I’ll manage vituperative and scathing some day.
Tony Jay
@Lyrebird:
Ah, Flobalob. What a humiliating example of this nation’s vast stupidity.
frosty
@Tony Jay: Vituperative and scathing will do. You can fake knowledgeable – we’re on the other side of The Pond and we’ll never know. But vituperative and scathing are required!
Citizen Alan
@ArchTeryx: As I’ve said, conservatives are the worst, but conservative women are the worst of the worst. Because deep down, they bitterly resent women who made different, non-trad choices and are happier and more satisfied. And worse, are happy without smiling all the time, unlike those Stepford Wife grins that you see plastered on the faces of young conservative women, like they’ve been sprayed with Joker Gas.
And that resentment is why they are obsessed with taking away the possibility of any other women ever having the opportunity to choose differently than they did. Spitefulness incarnate.