Can You Hear Me Now

The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.

Alvin Toffler

Bear with me while I set the scene for this week’s blog topic.

Linda and I are both graduates of Arizona State University — she in education and me in computer science. Guess whose diploma carries the distinction of Summa Cum Laude? Need a clue? It’s not mine.

After receiving her degree, Linda taught elementary school for three years. She was an amazing teacher, but we both wanted a family, and after a lot of discussion, it was decided that Linda would stay home to raise the children. Unlike her teaching salary, technology jobs pay enough to get by on one paycheck.

To be clear, Linda was not your stereotypical 1950s housewife. She was and continues to be a strong feminist. Together, we created a household where chores were fully shared and the paycheck made out in my name was considered to be money we both earned. There was no “yours” or “mine.” It was always “ours.”

The Tradwife

This leads me to one more scene-setter. Again, bear with me.

I am sure most of you have heard about the tradwife. For those who haven’t, it can be defined by these key characteristics:

• Homemaking as a Primary Focus: Emphasizing domestic responsibilities, such as scratch-cooking, home organization, and child-rearing, as a full-time calling.
• Traditional Financial Dynamics: Relying on a single-income household where the husband acts as the sole provider and head of the family.
• Rejection of Modern Hustle Culture: Framing the lifestyle as an alternative to corporate burnout and modern feminism’s pressure to build a career.
• Aesthetic and Nostalgia: Frequently adopting vintage, retro, or cottagecore aesthetics inspired by mid-20th-century idealizations of domestic life.

While the family Linda and I built has some similarities to those aspects, the differences are far more important. There was no head of the family, no rejection of feminism, and we didn’t fall into rigid gender roles. We were two strong individuals who came together to do what we thought was best for our children.

While some people (e.g. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson) might see the tradwife movement as a return to traditional American ideals, I see it as yet another MAGA way to demean and control women.

As Oliver Haug writes in Ms. Magazine:

“Throughout history — though particularly now, as conservatives are increasingly saying the quiet part out loud—the family has always been a political structure. And right now, we’re experiencing the backlash to the rights won by queer people, poor people, people of color, and everyone else who does not fall into the Christian right’s version of what “America” and an “American family” looks like. That’s what systems of power do when they are threatened — they scramble for control, and they do it through both political and cultural avenues. I see the parallels between the rise of the tradwife and Project 2025 as a perfect illustration of this.”

A Plethora of Memes

The scene has finally been set and it’s time to get down to what I really want to write about.

For the past many months, memes like this one have regularly shown up on my LinkedIn feed.

They are usually accompanied by commentary about how important learning a trade is and how we need to do more to support those who choose them as an alternative to college.

Despite the one-sidedness of the memes (which are often laced with outrage and anger), I have no issue with people who choose to be plumbers, carpenters, welders, or electricians. All are noble professions and I fully support the education choices anyone makes.

What Charlie Brown and Snoopy have to do with trade schools is beyond me, though.

Sadly, the memes don’t stop there and quite a few get downright nasty.

Here they have moved well beyond “learning a trade is a good thing” to “going to college is for losers.” Even worse (according to the meme creators), going to college has somehow become woke and we know how much the right hates woke.

And then there are those that fall into the current Republican attacks on higher education.

Rather than saying trade schools are an option, these people are against universities as places of higher education and, in some cases, want to eliminate them altogether. Just look at what the current administration has done to Columbia, Brown, Harvard, The University of California, and The University of Pennsylvania. Under the completely false guise of antisemitism and pro-Palestinian protests, they have cut funding and intervened in student admissions. The goal is to starve them into either capitulation or closure. Praise to those who are fighting back.

Universities are the enemy. If any of us wants to do the things we want to do … We have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities. JD Vance

Once more, I am still not sure what Charlie Brown and Snoopy have to do with all of this. Do they consider them anti-woke?

Traducation

After seeing one too many of these memes and their anti-college attitude, I suddenly realized that they are not all that different from the tradwife movement. There is a segment of the population that is angry with the strides we’ve made in terms of gender equality and anti-racism and these people want us to return to some idealized America where men labored and women stayed at home.

I love the poorly educated. Donald Trump

The backlash against the growing educational and economic opportunities available to women and minorities is an important part of the rhetoric found in both MAGA and the Manosphere. They have turned their inability to accept social change into a call to arms to discredit and defeat it — note the previous snarky reference to a degree in lesbian dance. The tradwife ideal promoted by many MAGA and Manosphere voices would have women barefoot, pregnant, uneducated, dressed in frills, and subservient to men. Trade school advocacy has become part of that broader message.

And as Donald Trump clearly said, he wants poorly educated voters who are easily swayed and manipulated by wedge issues. He see these people as the foot soldiers in his culture wars and a college education gets in the way of that.

Unspoken Truths

Again, I will reiterate my admiration for people in the trades. Quite a few of my friends chose that route and are proud of their accomplishments.

At the same time, I have heard countless stories of how hard the trades can often be on the human body. I know people who have issues with their legs, feet, hands, wrists, and backs that they attribute to years of hard, physical labor. One gentleman I know quit a job he was good at because he started to see the effects it was having on his body. He walked away from something he loved because he didn’t want to end up in a wheelchair.

It’s also important to note that people in the trades often deal with hazardous materials and work under dangerous conditions. I have another friend whose health was severely compromised by years of inhaling and handling hazardous chemicals. He, too, loved his job, but the residual damage to his body has forced him to rethink his feelings about it.

Along with the drive to put people into the trades, where is the call to provide medical care for those who suffer from the physicality of their jobs? Support for trade schools needs to go hand-in-hand with workplace regulations and money to deal with any needed care after years of manual labor.

Why isn’t that part of the MAGA push for traducation? I want to see the pro healthcare trade school memes, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for them to appear. Today’s conservative movement hates universal healthcare as much as it disdains educated women and minorities.

Striking a Balance

There is certainly room for a balance between universities and trade schools, but angry and untruthful memes are not the way to achieve it. Neither is the MAGA assault on universities around the country. We can support education in all forms without denigrating or destroying college degrees.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats

I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish with my degree. I am also proud of what my father was able to accomplish in his career in electronics without a college diploma. We both parlayed our schooling decisions and life experiences into successful careers.

Give me memes that support those stories. I want a narrative of choice and not right-wing propaganda. That is how we move the needle forward. That is how we all do better.

Thank you for reading.

Let your hands and knees get dirty
grit beneath your nails
mud between your toes
let your heart be filled, indulged, and sometimes broken

Let your voice be too loud
and your mind rest in stillness
let your eyes see the world
well beyond your nose

Move your body
the best that you can
stretch your soul
as far as you are able

Let mistakes be your teacher
and forgiveness be your guide
let the flame that dwells within you
be the force that defines your life