This week I stumbled across a photo by the famous African-American photographer, Gordon Parks. The first time I heard of Gordon Parks was when I was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. As students, we had free access to the Art Institute of Chicago and it was there that I saw Gordon Parks’s photos during a special exhibition.
I believe Gordon Parks was one of the most captivating and influential photojournalists of the twentieth century. He had a keen eye for capturing both the joys and struggles of African-American life. Even today, his photos represent an ongoing problem in American society– the often unrecognized labor of black women.
This week, I used one of Gordon Park’s photos to leverage a critique of the Tradwives trend or movement that garnered a lot of attention on social media. So in this episode, we’re going to chat more about it!
Welcome to episode 3 of the History & Culture Series. If you missed out on an episode, check them out below:
What is the Tradwives movement/trend?
Over the past few months, there has been an increase in accounts and viral videos on social media of women who broadly embrace the idea of being a “traditional wife.” For many, this means returning to the notion of a 1950s upper-class ideal housewife. It is a stay-at-home mom, who cooks everything from scratch, and makes her husband’s needs her number one priority. For some, it may just be a desire to cosplay, but for others, there’s a deep desire to make the American wife “traditional” again. However, if we go back in history to this point of nostalgia for so many Tradwives what will the realities of the home reveal?
What can history tell us about the realities of this movement?
For centuries, black women have served as the backbone of wealthy, established, and white households in America. From the time of slavery to Jim Crow America and today, black women have served as wet nurses, sexual objects, manual labor, and much more in the households of the wealthy and the powerful.
There is this notion that since we all have the same 24 hours in a day that means we are all equal. So the housewife who seeks to keep her husband happy and home clean on the surface may seem like she’s just choosing how to spend her 24 hours. In reality, there is an abundance of unrecognized labor that allows that traditional wife to “choose” how to spend her day. There are black babysitters and live-in nannies who take that labor from the traditional wife. People of color who clean the houses, drive and clean the cars, and garden the picturesque lawns. They are all people who make the traditional wife aesthetic possible.
What has emerged out of centuries of unrecognized labor is the mammy stereotype. It’s this notion of a big, strong, and wise (often religious) black woman who serves as not only house help but also helps with the moral and character problems of her employers (including children). The mammy stereotype is still perpetuated today in Hollywood.
The underbelly of the Tradwives movement in popular culture
Tyler Perry Movies
As seen in the 2014 film Dear White People, the mammy trope in many ways has been exacerbated by Tyler Perry films, especially the one that features Madea, the sagacious matriarch who reoccurs in many of his films. I remember being in college when the film Dear White People came out (a decade ago 🤯). Many of the critiques it had of black domestic worker films like The Help and Lee Daniel’s The Butler remain true today.
The Help
Based on the 2009 book by Kathyrn Stockett, the film follows the plight of black domestic workers in the 1960s deep American South. However, the main character of the film is a white woman who writes about these black women’s lives. What has been the foundation of many of the critiques of the book and film, is the perpetuation of the idea that black women can not tell their own stories.
Now the film features two of my favorite actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Butler. However, back in 2018, Viola Davis expressed regret over playing her role in The Help because of how the women were depicted.1
“Trini 2 De Bone” Episode 7 of Season 3 of Atlanta
In this episode of Atlanta, a Trinidadian caretaker for a wealthy New York family passes away suddenly. The young white boy she essentially raised, more than she did her own kids, shows the influence of having a black babysitter. He starts to crave, for example, spicy curry mango sauce on his “bland” bread. Check out this clip below.
Part humor, part social critique, this episode of Atlanta shows the long-term impact of black women’s labor even when their contributions go unrecognized by their wealthy often white employers.
So the next time someone says they want to be a Tradwife, ask them what do they really mean 🤔?
Until next time,
Hi, I’m Shae and I am a doctoral candidate in History at Harvard University. I discovered my passion for education while teaching at the college and ever since then, I’ve been on a mission to bring the classroom learning experience to all of you. Everyone deserves a world-class education and I’m so glad you’re here 🤓.
📚Further Reading
Thomas Jefferson & Sally Hemmings by Annette Gordon Reed
This Bridge Called My Back edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
Mammy: A Century of Race, Gender, and Southern Memory by Kimberly Wallace-Sanders
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/09/viola-davis-the-help-regret