Is Katie Britt A “Trad-Wife?” She Seems Cray, But That’s Scope-Creep

There is a bigger lesson here, though.

If you are unfamiliar with the name “Katie Britt,” she is the junior senator from Alabama (#RollTide) and gave the GOP response to the State of the Union last week. Most people, Republicans and Democrats alike, mocked her for her response. The mocking was largely about how over-dramatic (and over e-nun-ci-ated) the whole thing was, but then there was also a subset of online chatter about her kitchen and whether it was too fancy or not fancy enough. The Internet is very fickle.

Well, now some people are claiming Britt is a “trad-wife:”

If you are similarly unfamiliar with what a “trad-wife” is, that means “traditional wife,” I.e. “keeps the home and raises the children.” In other words, The Man Wins The Bread And The Woman Prepares The Bread.

Semantically, Katie Britt is not a trad-wife, because she has a job, and a relatively powerful job at that: she is a U.S. Senator. Before that, she was Chief of Staff for another Senator, and I believe she has a law degree. I personally believe that if a woman has an advanced degree (law, doctor, nursing, any Masters, etc.), even if she “returns to the home” and maybe works 10–20 hours/week, she is not a “trad-wife.” In my brain, “trad-wife” is a very specific type of SAHM (stay at home mom) who is probably also deeply religious, or at least performatively religious, and “kept” by her husband. It’s the sex for stability model, which many men enjoyed for generations and is now changing, and OMG that’s terrifying.

Now, if you are wondering who Katie Britt’s husband is, he played in the NFL and now appears to work for a lobbying firm in Alabama:

I’d honestly say this guy is “kept” in this relationship, but whatever.

So no, Katie Britt is not semantically a trad-wife. Why are we discussing that, then?

Well, first off, she was placed in a kitchen for the State of the Union response. The kitchen, which drove immense online debate, is obviously associated with female domestication. I am sure the Republican party decided to put her there via “kitchen table issues” and that underscores the “mom” part of things, which is “relatable,” and she can speak to other conservative women who maybe think Trump is a terrible dog (“I don’t trust anything that bleeds” “Those women are pigs, slobs, and dogs”) but are concerned about little Preston and little Harrison’s futures.

In reality, Katie Britt has two kids. Their parents were (a) a U.S. Senator (mom) and (b) a third-team All-American at Alabama (dad). Those two kids will never suffer or want for anything economically, aside from maybe automation coming for every opportunity in the American Southeast. You could put her in a kitchen, a pawn shop, or a porn set and it wouldn’t really matter that she’s “relatable to other conservative moms,” because she’s not. Her kids are already on second base, and taking a lead towards third.

But, Tommy Tuberville — a coach of hated Auburn (!) and the other Senator from Alabama — kinda said the “middle-aged white guy” quiet part out loud when he said the GOP picked Britt because she’s a “housewife.”

Again, I’m not really sure a U.S. Senator can also be a “housewife.” I know Senators probably don’t work as hard as we think they do, but this parallel is offensive somehow to both Senators and housewives. I would love to see Wesley Britt, who probably despises Tuberville since he coached Auburn, reacting to some old white guy calling his wife “a housewife,” when Wes Britt knows all too well that Katie Britt is pulling that family into the next generation with her Senatorial privilege and kickbacks. Ha. Pointless college football wars.

The bigger story here, as noted by some outlets, is the GOP’s semi-inability to connect with women. They put up this “upcoming darling” and she seems like she’s been cut from a terrible movie on Lifetime, being over-dramatic as hell and basically dripping with privilege as she does so. I am not a woman, but if I was, I wouldn’t relate to this one, even if I was conservative. She seems very out of touch with actual “kitchen table” issues that most women face, even the kept ones.

She’s not a trad-wife, though. We need to be careful not to scope-creep that term like we did “Karen,” or else everything becomes even more chaotic semantically.