Trads on Offense

Peachy book out how long?

The game is called life.

The only Chiefs players I can name are the ones who date Taylor Swift. But one of them, a kicker (whatever that is) named Harrison Butker gave a commencement address at Benedictine College a couple weeks ago—and the entire world lost its mind. 

Here’s one of the quotes that had everyone’s pink pussy hat tied in knots:

“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolic lies told to you. Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world."

No, he’s not a domestic extremist—as it turns out, he’s just extremely domestic.

Benedictine College is a small classical Catholic college in Atchison, Kansas, about an hour west of Kansas City, MO. It’s a “real” Catholic school and on the trad-friendly Cardinal Newman list of approved colleges. Catholics I know send their kids there and love it. It’s the type of school that produces young people who want to get married and start families after graduation; not ten years after graduating, but right after graduating.

Don’t see this at Harvard.

Benedictine, like some of the southern SEC universities and other authentically Christian and Catholic colleges, is a place where more than a few students come for a BA and graduate with an MRS degree. Your cap and gown comes with an engagement ring. If you aren’t getting a “ring by Spring,” what even are you doing?

The entire universe went bananas when Harrison Butker delivered his now infamous speech extolling the virtues of traditional marriage. He spoke lovingly of his wife who stays home to raise their children, and he praised “homemaking” as the highest calling a woman can have. I obviously agree with him—I wrote an entire book on this subject last year!

My book, Domestic Extremist, made the case that women can work, have careers, pursue their dreams (I did!) but should try not to wait too long before starting a family, and once they do have a family, it becomes job one. These ideas were noncontroversial and widely accepted as “normal” within recent memory, but not anymore! 

Buy book.

As I have pointed out, it is now absolute taboo to even suggest to a young woman that marriage and children will matter more to her than whatever career she pursues, and that this is good and healthy and normal. If you dare to present these ideas in public, you better duck. 

Especially if you are on a college campus, home of the real extremists in America: feminists and Hamas appreciators. This is often the same person! It never ceases to delight me that the same young, braindead feminists who positively swoon at the idea of Hamas genociding every Israeli are also stanning a patriarchal culture that gives women no rights, where marital rape is rampant, domestic abuse common, and where the man rules the household as the supreme leader. Truly, the jokes write themselves.

Saying that motherhood gives you more clout than your career is not the same thing as saying women should not work or pursue professional goals. Obviously. Duh, even. To suggest that is gaslighting of the gassiest order. Girl, you can have a marriage, children, and a career. After all, look at me! What am I, chopped liver? Yes, I stayed home with my babies because I wanted to but also because I had to. No force on Earth could have kept me from them. Yes, I worked freelance. Yes, I went back to the office when they were big enough. Yes, I finally quit 9-5 life when I had baby number 5. Yes, it was a major financial sacrifice. Yes, I kept working, for much less money, but the trade off was always worth it.

Saying that a woman’s most valuable contribution to the world is raising her own young children is therefore not a political statement; it is a biological fact.

Reminding young college graduates that motherhood is a magnificent choice and should not be denigrated as inferior to other more “prestigious” choices, should not be offensive.

Defending motherhood as the job that will end up mattering much more than any other job you ever have is not “trad.” It’s a universal truth.

 Human infants do best when in close physical proximity to their mothers for as much of their day as possible. This is by design. It’s natural. It’s how humanity has operated since the first breeding pair emerged. What we have lost is the ability to speak this basic truth about women and motherhood.

And the biggest losers have been women and young children. 

Enter the Longhouse Nuns

The Boomer nuns at Benedictine were not happy with the Butker speech. They issued a sternly worded statement condemning it. These crotchety farbissinas are typical for their age. This demographic of nuns in America are mostly OG social-justice warriors, lefties, and feminists, and I'm not surprised to see them leap at the chance to issue a political statement.

All the sisters are senior citizens and all of them are named Mary, which is cute.

I think they were just miffed that Butker overlooked the work that women like them do. I don’t think he meant any offense, Sisters!

One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman. We sisters have dedicated our lives to God and God’s people, including the many women whom we have taught and influenced during the past 160 years. These women have made a tremendous difference in the world in their roles as wives and mothers and through their God-given gifts in leadership, scholarship, and their careers.

I love nuns! No one would ever minimize this wonderful vocation, and I don’t think that Butker was trying to hurt any nun’s feelings as he gave his talk.

We reject a narrow definition of what it means to be Catholic. We are faithful members of the Catholic Church who embrace and promote the values of the Gospel, St. Benedict, and Vatican II and the teachings of Pope Francis.

Ah, here we are. When they talk about how they love the values of Pope Francis, you know you are dealing with Boomer lib Catholics.

We want to be known as an inclusive, welcoming [except for you, Harrison Butker! Get the hell out!] community, embracing Benedictine values that have endured for more than 1500 years and have spread through every continent and nation.

USA Today took offense that the Super Bowl-winning kicker “attacked Pride Month, transgender people and the coronavirus pandemic. Butker also said he believes women belonged in the kitchen [false].”

Oh no—not Pride month!

Of course, he didn’t just attack Pride month—a grave sin that mustered a full battalion of Sisters in comfortable shoes to grab their consecrated pitchforks.

He also mocked Joe Biden and pro-choice Catholics. Butker said, “Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time is delusional enough to make the Sign of the Cross during a pro-abortion rally. He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I'm sure to many people it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice.”

His other thought crimes include quoting from Josemaria Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei, and praising the Traditional Latin Mass, which the Butker family attends. Opus Dei? The TLM? I’m surprised he made it off the stage without Merrick Garland’s goon squad perp walking him to the nearest gulag.

To anyone who deeply admires the liberation theologian in the Vatican, Harrison Butker is a major problem. He’s one of the “bad” Catholics, like the conservative Catholics Pope Francis bashed in his 60 Minutes interview this week as having “suicidal thinking.”

“It is a suicidal attitude. Because one thing is to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box."

To Pope Francis and Butker haters, perhaps Pete Buttigieg is the model for fatherhood, or even Hunter Biden, and Nancy Pelosi is the model for a good Catholic.

Game recognize game.

The Trads Are Winning

This episode and a few others point to an unmistakable trend: the trads are winning. The keynote address from the “Natalism Conference” I attended and spoke at last year was retweeted by Elon Musk, himself a famous natalist.

Just this week, this Coke commercial from Argentina from a few years ago started making the rounds again. It is a pure, wholesome, joyous celebration of parenthood and babies, a mother and father and their baby, and their epic reaction to finding out that they’re having another baby.

I posted this commercial on X and added my own story of how I found out about my surprise fifth pregnancy, and my husband’s reaction. My story went viral:

It has almost 6 million (!) views to date, 24 thousand likes, and best of all, thousands of replies and comments filled with other parents sharing sweet stories of how they found out about a surprise baby a bit later in life.

People celebrating the joy of finding out you’re pregnant, the hilarious reactions, and then meeting your surprise children—this is the stuff of life.

Would I have gotten this same reaction if I shared the story of the time I came home and told my husband about the new job I got?

Harrison Butker and his wife have nothing to apologize for.

Even the heiress to the Kansas City Chiefs (also a Taylor Swift friend) came out in his defense with an epic pro-motherhood manifesto on Instagram:

Here’s her post:

I’ve always encouraged my daughters to be highly educated and chase their dreams. I want them to know that they can do whatever they want (that honors God)…. Affirming motherhood and praising your wife, as well as highlighting the sacrifice and dedication it takes to be a mother, is not bigoted. It is empowering to acknowledge that a woman’s hard work in raising children is not in vain.

Countless highly educated women devote their lives to nurturing and guiding their children. Someone disagreeing with you doesn’t make them hateful; it simply means they have a different opinion. Let’s celebrate families, motherhood and fatherhood. Our society desperately needs dedicated men and women to raise up and train the next generation in the way they should go.

Hey, maybe not all nepo babies are bad!

A final quote from the evil football man’s speech: “If we are going to be men and women for this time in history, we need to stop pretending that the "Church of Nice" is a winning proposition. We must always speak and act in charity, but never mistake charity for cowardice.”

We need more smart, educated women taking the trad pill. All my mom friends have college degrees and, at various stages in their lives, work and pursue professional goals. But their priority is their children; not because they are “right wing,” but because it’s the most natural thing in the world.

Harrison: may your balls go right where you want them to go.

Trads: keep winning. Never forget that the other side is not reproducing in meaningful numbers, voluntarily. In a generation or two, who knows?

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, please subscribe now!

—Peachy

P.S. Readers — yesterday morning a dear longtime friend of mine lost her precious unborn baby at 40 weeks, the day before her due date, because of an undetectable knot in the umbilical cord. Unimaginable tragedy has struck this lovely family. Now they have to do the unthinkable: bury a newborn they only got to meet after she died.

Please, if you pray, pray for the soul of sweet Moira Rose!