I stumbled upon a series I hadn’t watched yet called Minx. Season 2 popped up on my HBO home page and I had no idea a Season 1 even existed.
Naturally, I love a good binge week, so off I went, starting from the beginning.
Before I dive in, I’m using this series as a lens to explore something deeper. The roles of Tradwives and the Matriarchal woman. Yes, I know. Casual Tuesday thoughts.
Minx, set in the 70s, stirs up a whirlwind of controversial topics. Women stepping into CEO roles. Pushing boundaries in print media. Sexual exploration. Holding your ground even when society hisses at you to sit down and smile politely. It’s a ride.
And then there’s the set design. The styling. The Los Angeles 70s aesthetic done so right it practically hums. Beyond the visuals, I fell in love with the characters and storyline. Constantly thinking, where is this going?
The character that stood out the most is the main character’s older sister. She’s tucked between two very different worlds. On one hand, the traditional homemaker and dutiful wife. On the other, a deeply independent, sensual woman who wants to explore who she really is.
She’s the tension many women feel but don’t say out loud.
As a woman at the precipice of my Midlife era, I’m feeling my feminist fire more than ever. It’s like I’ve time traveled back to my 20s and early 30s when I didn’t care about anything except where I wanted to go. You can join me or be left behind. I’m not slowing down to negotiate.
Then I started thinking about the women who’ve gone in the opposite direction.
The Tradwife women who choose to fully embrace a traditional homemaker role. Cooking. Cleaning. Childcare. And the whole cozy domestic universe, often with a curated presence on social media.
An acquaintance of mine, someone I know IRL, has become a Tradwife content creator. She originally started out as a beauty and style influencer with her sister. They gave early 2000s Hilton sister energy, but eventually the two disappeared from the online world.
One sister moved away, the other got married and had three kids. When she was pregnant with her second child, she reappeared on social media looking completely different. No makeup. No glam. Very Pamela Anderson going natural.
But beyond the visual shift, her entire lifestyle had changed. She began sharing her farm-to-table ancestral diet. Growing her own produce, gathering eggs from her chickens, preparing everything from whole ingredients.
I was mesmerized by her pivot.
Because I knew her from a completely different personal brand era.
And she isn’t alone. Many women are claiming this role as the backbone of their family. Dare I say the Tradwife is still Matriarchal? Just… in a very different outfit.
Then there are the other women I follow. The go getters. Entrepreneurs building empires, celebrating 100k cash months, retiring their husbands from their 9 to 5. These women are Matriarchs with a different flavor of feminism.
At this point in my life, I lean farther toward the feminist Matriarch. Maybe because I’m 54 and I’ve cycled through so many roles women are expected to play.
Maybe because hormones and zero fucks left to distribute create their own internal revolution.
Social media gives us a front row seat to both lifestyles. And of course, the judgment flies loudest from other women. Not legendary.
Here’s where I landed after all this mental wandering. Women aren’t templates. We’re eras. We evolve, reinvent, expand, contract, rise, unravel, rebuild and surprise even ourselves.
Some of us become homestead goddesses making sourdough starters from thin air. Others become CEOs, coaches, creators and empire builders who treat ambition like oxygen.
And some of us blend both, depending on the day, the hormones or whether DoorDash actually delivers the right order.
There’s no wrong version of womanhood. There’s only the one you’re willing to claim.
So if you wake up one morning and feel the urge to pivot, detour, burn it all down or step into a completely different expression of yourself, do it. No permission slip required.
Because at the end of the day, the legendary move isn’t choosing a side. It’s choosing yourself.
xx, Maria – redefining midlife as your savviest era
