Tea at Trianon: A Bad Recipe For Motherhood

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, November 1, 2025

A Bad Recipe For Motherhood

From Ally's Substack:

While certainly not all women need to be mothers, a society with fewer mothers in it suffers, not just economically but spiritually.
Each new baby brings hope and renewal. Mothers are the builders of nations, the developers of morality and potential.
Mothers bring warmth and humanity to communities and the culture, and fewer mothers means a society that feels increasingly cold and inhumane.
So while I don’t think we should talk women who don’t want babies into having them, it would be nice if we could convince more women to start wanting them, and love life with them.
But first, we have to ask, how did we get here? Why am I receiving these sorts of responses from American young women, when it is doubtful any woman in 1880 would respond thus?
For the past seventy years, our culture has served young women a steady diet of messages potent enough to make even the most grounded among them question — or outright reject — motherhood. And for those who do become mothers, these same messages can turn the experience bitter.
What follows is the recipe our broader American culture seems intent on perfecting — one of the few meals that modern women aren’t told is demeaning to make.
Even just a few of these steps are enough to sour anyone on motherhood.. So, I don’t recommend sharing this at your next recipe swap. (Read more.)