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Domestic Extremist: A Practical Guide to Winning the Culture War
Spot-on, often satirical, always insightful, contributing editor of The American Mind and mother of a brood, Peachy Keenan argues that the only way we can save our families, ourselves, and the world—even California!—is by embracing our inner domestic extremists, and sweeping failed notions of third wave feminism and identity politics nonsense into the garbage can of history.
In This House We Believe
Parents Are the Bosses of Their Kids
Babies Are Good, More Babies Are Better
Two Sexes Are Plenty
Your Career Is Overrated
Feminism Is How the Unpopular and Undateable Cope with Life
Mainstream American Culture Destroys Families
We Are Going to Win
We’re in a culture war, and Peachy Keenan is not taking prisoners. This raucous new book is her rallying cry for normal people stuck in the foxholes and appalled by the status quo.
Mothers and fathers, regular American families, men and women, can win this battle together. But a lot of ground has been lost. For decades, we stood around and watched as feminists and progressives steamrolled through our institutions— those formerly robust, now comically inept, pillars of civilization like our government, our schools, and, crucially, our families.
With matchless insight and devastating humor, Peachy Keenan makes the case for domestic extremism—turning away from the diseased offerings of the elites, the media, Hollywood, your child’s school, and Big Tech, and embracing a more human way of life. The life-changing magic of domestic extremism will spark joy and help you build a legacy that will enrich the lives of your (many) descendants.
In This House We Believe
Parents Are the Bosses of Their Kids
Babies Are Good, More Babies Are Better
Two Sexes Are Plenty
Your Career Is Overrated
Feminism Is How the Unpopular and Undateable Cope with Life
Mainstream American Culture Destroys Families
We Are Going to Win
We’re in a culture war, and Peachy Keenan is not taking prisoners. This raucous new book is her rallying cry for normal people stuck in the foxholes and appalled by the status quo.
Mothers and fathers, regular American families, men and women, can win this battle together. But a lot of ground has been lost. For decades, we stood around and watched as feminists and progressives steamrolled through our institutions— those formerly robust, now comically inept, pillars of civilization like our government, our schools, and, crucially, our families.
With matchless insight and devastating humor, Peachy Keenan makes the case for domestic extremism—turning away from the diseased offerings of the elites, the media, Hollywood, your child’s school, and Big Tech, and embracing a more human way of life. The life-changing magic of domestic extremism will spark joy and help you build a legacy that will enrich the lives of your (many) descendants.
347 pages, Hardcover
Published June 6, 2023
79 people are currently reading
2424 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews
June 9, 2023
I don't care whether you agree with the politics of this book or not -- and given the fierce takedown of liberal feminist pieties herein, I suspect many do not -- you still have to hand it to Mrs. Keenan for writing what is probably the funniest book on politics since the heyday of P.J. O'Rourke. This is one helluva enjoyable read, and when you strip away all of the political baggage people want to bring to these conversations, strictly as an empirical matter, what's she's saying about America's cultural hostility towards creating healthy marriages and families is largely common sense we all know to be true.
June 13, 2023
I would give this zero stars if I could.
What a pile of disgusting hateful GARbaaaage.
“Peachy Keenan” writes this under a pen name because she(???)…they? (See how pronouns work everybody?) don’t want to be exposed for this ignorant bigoted racist homophobic transphobic sexist rhetoric they’re regurgitating straight from fox news right to the page.
I refuse to believe a woman actually wrote this…but if she did, the alt right pick me energy is strong with this one.
You have to hate yourself and other women, who’s lives truly have nothing to do with you, SO MUCH to have these absolutely absurd thoughts floating around in your head—let alone to preach them to others as if you feel like you’re gracing us with some knowledge or saving us from…idfk—our autonomy and independence?
MISS ME WITH EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS!
What a pile of disgusting hateful GARbaaaage.
“Peachy Keenan” writes this under a pen name because she(???)…they? (See how pronouns work everybody?) don’t want to be exposed for this ignorant bigoted racist homophobic transphobic sexist rhetoric they’re regurgitating straight from fox news right to the page.
I refuse to believe a woman actually wrote this…but if she did, the alt right pick me energy is strong with this one.
You have to hate yourself and other women, who’s lives truly have nothing to do with you, SO MUCH to have these absolutely absurd thoughts floating around in your head—let alone to preach them to others as if you feel like you’re gracing us with some knowledge or saving us from…idfk—our autonomy and independence?
MISS ME WITH EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS!
April 4, 2024
Very sarcastic. Not very helpful. So. Much. Hyperbole. Similar to the Babylon Bee, but far worse.
It does highlight important cultural issues of the day. But there’s too much fear-mongering and too many conspiracy theories for me. She keeps crediting "those" almighty leaders with corrupting or manipulating people (Who really are "they"?).
I am not the target audience. And I have to wonder… who is? Like most books written by conservatives, for conservatives: the people reading it already agree, those who disagree aren't going to read it, and the few who disagree and do read it won't be converted as a result.
This book doesn't improve rhetoric but instead just heaps more kindling in the raging culture war fire.
It does highlight important cultural issues of the day. But there’s too much fear-mongering and too many conspiracy theories for me. She keeps crediting "those" almighty leaders with corrupting or manipulating people (Who really are "they"?).
I am not the target audience. And I have to wonder… who is? Like most books written by conservatives, for conservatives: the people reading it already agree, those who disagree aren't going to read it, and the few who disagree and do read it won't be converted as a result.
This book doesn't improve rhetoric but instead just heaps more kindling in the raging culture war fire.
June 14, 2023
I tried my best to keep an open mind while reading this essay about present culture in feminism. I appreciate the author's perspective, and she has a bit of a fun, biting personality, but this book isn't for me. Women, especially those who don't follow the idea of "domestic extremism," seem to be blamed for a lot of the issues in society today, when it is more or less the patriarchy and capitalism. One issue that stood out to me that I disagree with is that the author lumps women who decide to use birth control, or decide to not want to be pregnant, into a group that is sleeping around for fun with multiple partners and having abortions left and right if they don't use contraceptives. There are women out in society who are choosing not to get into relationships, not getting pregnant, or staying completely celibate, because that is their last resort and choice. Let's face it, masculinity and the male perspective on love and relationships is rotten, and has been dangerous to women. Why would we risk getting left with taking care of the household, deal with weaponized incompetence, getting abused, or even killed? And don't forget all of the perspectives from women of color, disabilities, or backgrounds. I honestly had to read this book with a view through A Modest Proposal lens, because I honestly couldn't take it seriously. If this truly is a satirical book, then the author did well. If not, then this narrative of women having to be the scapegoat for society's woes needs to stop.
August 26, 2024
اینکه عدهای گفتهاند حس شوخطبعی در مردان بیشتر از زنان یافت میشود، حرف نامربوطی نیست. حس شوخطبعی و بامزگی اصولا روشی است برای جلب توجه دیگران، از جمله جنس مخالف. ناگفته پیداست که زنان برای جلب توجه نیازی به برخورداری از حس شوخطبعی و بامزهبودن ندارند. صرف حضور زنان در جایی همهی توجهات را به سویشان جلب میکند. بنابراین، از دید تکاملی، جای تعجب نیست که زنان از حس شوخطبعی بهرهی کمتری داشته باشند. ولی زنانی که شوخطبع باشند معمولا بامزگی حیرتانگیزی دارند و نویسندهی این کتاب یکی از آن زنان است؛ در حدی که آدم برای ریویوی این کتاب میتواند فقط تکههایی از متن را نقل کند و تمام. خود نویسنده بهتر از هر کسی از پس معرفی کتابش برمیآید. اما هرچند نویسنده بینهایت طناز است، هدفش خنداندن خواننده نیست. درست برخلاف آن، موضوع کتاب بسیار جدی است. نویسنده از تئوری توطئهمحوری پرده برمیدارد که مدعی است کل تاریخ بشر را میتوان در سرکوب زنان به دست مردان خلاصه کرد. امروز این تئوری حماقتهای تازهای را هم در دل خود جا داده، مثلا اینکه جنسیت هیچ دخلی به طبیعت و بیولوژی ندارد و صرفا ابزاری است در دست مردان دگرجنسخواه و غیر ترنس برای سلطه بر زنان و اقلیتهای جنسی
..........
نقش زنان در جامعه - جایگاهی سنتی که تا چند دههی پیش به زنان تعلق داشت - اکنون به نام «رهایی و آزادی» بهکلی محو شده است. در دوران گذشته، زنان میتوانستند ملکه، کاوشگر و مخترع باشند بیآنکه قدرت خود را در امور مربوط به خانه و خانواده واگذار کنند. اما حالا به لطف جنبشی سیاسی به نام «فمینیسم» زنان در بیشتر حیطههای خانوادگی و اجتماعی بیقدرتند، زیرا قدرت ذاتی خود را تسلیم دولت و کارفرما کردهاند
فمینیسم هم مانند ویروسهای مسری دیگری که به انسان هجوم میآورند چندین موج دارد. ما تا اینجا دستکم گرفتار چهار موج از این ویروس بودهایم
ما اینک در مشت محکم موج چهارم فمینیسم گرفتاریم، موجی که آن را «جریان ووک» هم مینامند. موج چهارم با جنبش #میتو آغاز شد. این جنبش بنا داشت مردانی را بازخواست کند که به زنان تعرض میکردند. ولی بعد تغییر حالت داد و به تحسین مردانی پرداخت که خود را زن به شمار میآورند و از این رهگذر زنان را مورد تعرض جسمی و روانی قرار میدهند
موج چهارم فمینیسم زنان را یاری میدهد تا به آخرین گونهی رهایییافتهی خود دست یابند. این گونه همان زنانی هستند که مرد به دنیا آمدهاند. زن کامل اکنون زن تراجنسیتی است، همانگونه که مرد کامل مرد سویاخور زنمنشی است که وجود خود را از «زهر» مردانگی پاک گردانده است
فمینیستها دههها مبارزه کردند تا یاریگر زنان در مسیر کامیابی باشند، ولی از هدف تعیینشده تخطی کردند. آنها از خط پایان رد شدند و بعد پدال گاز را فشار دادند و ماشین را از لبهی پرتگاه به پایین انداختند. اگر فمینیستهای متقدم، که خواهان حقوق برابر برای زنان بودند، بفهمند اخلافشان تا کجاها رفتهاند، در گور خود خواهند لرزید
پینوشت: ترجمهی فصلی از این کتاب را میتوانید در کتاب «فمینیست نباش» بخوانید
..........
نقش زنان در جامعه - جایگاهی سنتی که تا چند دههی پیش به زنان تعلق داشت - اکنون به نام «رهایی و آزادی» بهکلی محو شده است. در دوران گذشته، زنان میتوانستند ملکه، کاوشگر و مخترع باشند بیآنکه قدرت خود را در امور مربوط به خانه و خانواده واگذار کنند. اما حالا به لطف جنبشی سیاسی به نام «فمینیسم» زنان در بیشتر حیطههای خانوادگی و اجتماعی بیقدرتند، زیرا قدرت ذاتی خود را تسلیم دولت و کارفرما کردهاند
فمینیسم هم مانند ویروسهای مسری دیگری که به انسان هجوم میآورند چندین موج دارد. ما تا اینجا دستکم گرفتار چهار موج از این ویروس بودهایم
ما اینک در مشت محکم موج چهارم فمینیسم گرفتاریم، موجی که آن را «جریان ووک» هم مینامند. موج چهارم با جنبش #میتو آغاز شد. این جنبش بنا داشت مردانی را بازخواست کند که به زنان تعرض میکردند. ولی بعد تغییر حالت داد و به تحسین مردانی پرداخت که خود را زن به شمار میآورند و از این رهگذر زنان را مورد تعرض جسمی و روانی قرار میدهند
موج چهارم فمینیسم زنان را یاری میدهد تا به آخرین گونهی رهایییافتهی خود دست یابند. این گونه همان زنانی هستند که مرد به دنیا آمدهاند. زن کامل اکنون زن تراجنسیتی است، همانگونه که مرد کامل مرد سویاخور زنمنشی است که وجود خود را از «زهر» مردانگی پاک گردانده است
فمینیستها دههها مبارزه کردند تا یاریگر زنان در مسیر کامیابی باشند، ولی از هدف تعیینشده تخطی کردند. آنها از خط پایان رد شدند و بعد پدال گاز را فشار دادند و ماشین را از لبهی پرتگاه به پایین انداختند. اگر فمینیستهای متقدم، که خواهان حقوق برابر برای زنان بودند، بفهمند اخلافشان تا کجاها رفتهاند، در گور خود خواهند لرزید
پینوشت: ترجمهی فصلی از این کتاب را میتوانید در کتاب «فمینیست نباش» بخوانید
October 4, 2023
It’s always good to see women fighting the good fight in this culture war with common sense and strong arguments against feminism. And it was especially encouraging to find a woman author doing so from the trenches of the Roman Catholic world.
(I’m a Protestant myself, so I prefer to recommend Rebekah Merkle’s book, Eve in Exile).
(I’m a Protestant myself, so I prefer to recommend Rebekah Merkle’s book, Eve in Exile).
August 24, 2023
The problem with Keenan's book, I'm afraid, is that the people who need it won't touch it with a 10 foot pole. She's probably preaching to the choir, and those few who don't already agree with her positions but actually still pick up the book are the ones you see below, giving it scathing 1 star reviews. Most of them probably didn't bother to read much of it, if any, which is a real shame. But if there are just a handful of readers who are open-minded and on the fence about the kind of future they want - for themselves, their progeny, and society as a whole - then maybe, just maybe, Keenan's advocacy for traditional marriage, lots of kids, and a mother who actually raises them, will resonate. I pray that's the case. As it is, there are going to be a lot of lonely, bitter old women in a few years, and a generation - or many generations - of confused and miserable adults who spend 60 hours a week in an office, and can't understand why they don't feel fulfilled.
February 5, 2024
Oof. I wanted to try something different, and this looked like it could be funny while being entertaining and provide a different point of view. I get the overwhelming feeling that I would not be liked by this woman despite checking off the boxes that she states should be priorities and values in American home lives. She is not, to paraphrase, someone I could sit down and have a cup of coffee with.
There are so many things that I do thouroughly dislike about this ostensible "Christian" I cannot even begin to enumerate them all. Here I am, middle-of-the-road mom wanting to hear what the self-described "normal" people think... And instead I'm slapped in the face with a middle-to-upper-class white judgy ivy League lady who didn't have reproductive endocrine issues and doesn't have any kids with special needs, working to make anyone who fails to meet her "normal" standards sound like they're part of some Feminist/ CIA-conspiracy against the All American Family. Go home "normie" you're drunk. ✌🏻
Other obnoxious crap:
#1) some of us can't have big families. Our reproductive systems just don't work that way despite all of our best efforts. So please do not make pushing babies out of your body a necessary part of your agenda, when you could just say "have a big family" or "raise a lot of children." Of course, I don't know how the author feels about adoption, especially of children who don't look like her. Maybe that's too much out of her comfort zone? Regardless, it was super off putting to me right away.
#2) could it be, that the reason you feel so ostracized from your peer group is that you walk around with a giant chip on your shoulder? Just a thought ✌🏻
3) having read Ann Coulter... This is basically a younger version of her, minus the copious footnotes. If you couldn't stand Coulter's attitude, this level of "I'm being sarcastic, but you know that I believe every word that's coming out of my mouth with actual vitriol to back up my sarcasm" might not be for you.
4) there are a lot of things that this family chooses to do. That may be just completely and utterly outside of the bank accounts for your average American. The author attended an Ivy League school, she works as a homemaker, she has a spouse who is able to bring in enough money that residuals (or whatever the author makes as a writer) isn't the only income. She describes herself being raised as a "fairly spoiled...American princess"... It's not like she's gonna marry "down" to an average income, y'know?
Their children attend a combination of private parochial schools, and homeschooling -- WHICH IS NOT EASY. BUT she has always lived in cities "where tending plants is something the gardener does" (As a gardener from the lower side of the socioeconomic spectrum, I would like to kick this American Princess right in her overpriced Uggs).
I'm guessing that the author also has the benefit of A) no children with special needs and B) a larger circle of family and friends who are able to assist with child care and rearing. I'm sure of this because she has the appalling attitude and lack of awareness to describe childcare as "toddler jail care" uhhhh.... K. It literally cost us thousands of dollars to have a baby and you think I was HAPPY to go back to work in order to maintain health insurance while my husband finished nursing school?
There are so many things that I do thouroughly dislike about this ostensible "Christian" I cannot even begin to enumerate them all. Here I am, middle-of-the-road mom wanting to hear what the self-described "normal" people think... And instead I'm slapped in the face with a middle-to-upper-class white judgy ivy League lady who didn't have reproductive endocrine issues and doesn't have any kids with special needs, working to make anyone who fails to meet her "normal" standards sound like they're part of some Feminist/ CIA-conspiracy against the All American Family. Go home "normie" you're drunk. ✌🏻
Other obnoxious crap:
#1) some of us can't have big families. Our reproductive systems just don't work that way despite all of our best efforts. So please do not make pushing babies out of your body a necessary part of your agenda, when you could just say "have a big family" or "raise a lot of children." Of course, I don't know how the author feels about adoption, especially of children who don't look like her. Maybe that's too much out of her comfort zone? Regardless, it was super off putting to me right away.
#2) could it be, that the reason you feel so ostracized from your peer group is that you walk around with a giant chip on your shoulder? Just a thought ✌🏻
3) having read Ann Coulter... This is basically a younger version of her, minus the copious footnotes. If you couldn't stand Coulter's attitude, this level of "I'm being sarcastic, but you know that I believe every word that's coming out of my mouth with actual vitriol to back up my sarcasm" might not be for you.
4) there are a lot of things that this family chooses to do. That may be just completely and utterly outside of the bank accounts for your average American. The author attended an Ivy League school, she works as a homemaker, she has a spouse who is able to bring in enough money that residuals (or whatever the author makes as a writer) isn't the only income. She describes herself being raised as a "fairly spoiled...American princess"... It's not like she's gonna marry "down" to an average income, y'know?
Their children attend a combination of private parochial schools, and homeschooling -- WHICH IS NOT EASY. BUT she has always lived in cities "where tending plants is something the gardener does" (As a gardener from the lower side of the socioeconomic spectrum, I would like to kick this American Princess right in her overpriced Uggs).
I'm guessing that the author also has the benefit of A) no children with special needs and B) a larger circle of family and friends who are able to assist with child care and rearing. I'm sure of this because she has the appalling attitude and lack of awareness to describe childcare as "toddler jail care" uhhhh.... K. It literally cost us thousands of dollars to have a baby and you think I was HAPPY to go back to work in order to maintain health insurance while my husband finished nursing school?
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September 27, 2023DNF - I read this book because it was recommended to me and I left feeling like what I read, missed the mark. Although I agreed with many of the author’s points, I found myself thinking, “Gahhh why are you saying it like that?”
As I get older, I appreciate when authors are blunt and just say what they believe, but it wasn’t her bluntness that missed the mark for me. It was the satirical tone that seemed so confusing. It seemed that the author was trying to change your mind but went about it in a way that honestly, did not make me want to agree with her, even though in most points, I did agree with her! Sometimes when someone tells us truth, it challenges us, it strengthens us in what we truly believe. I love to be challenged by a book, so that wasn’t the problem here. Many times I have read a book that I was “offended” by but it touched on something in my heart that made me rethink what I believe and search for the truth. This book was not that. Maybe it’s because I am not a fan of satire and never have been but I was just annoyed, constantly, by the tone of this author. I found some of her humor to be unreasonably crude and most of her humor to be mean spirited.
Also I felt like she was repeating herself over and over. This book could have been condensed to probably half of what it was, honestly quit reading because I was bored and felt like I already got her point.
The good? I agree with most of her views of family and her encouraging and uplifting view of women and that they don’t have to pursue a career to be successful. I love being a stay at home mom and feel so much value in it, even though it’s not a paid position or I’m not a CEO. I love taking care of my kids and feel it’s my calling. Other than that, I thought she had a couple of good one liners that made me laugh. I would give parts of this book 4/5 stars in terms of the overall point and view of family. The author’s tone and way she presented the material, I would give 2/5 stars.
As I get older, I appreciate when authors are blunt and just say what they believe, but it wasn’t her bluntness that missed the mark for me. It was the satirical tone that seemed so confusing. It seemed that the author was trying to change your mind but went about it in a way that honestly, did not make me want to agree with her, even though in most points, I did agree with her! Sometimes when someone tells us truth, it challenges us, it strengthens us in what we truly believe. I love to be challenged by a book, so that wasn’t the problem here. Many times I have read a book that I was “offended” by but it touched on something in my heart that made me rethink what I believe and search for the truth. This book was not that. Maybe it’s because I am not a fan of satire and never have been but I was just annoyed, constantly, by the tone of this author. I found some of her humor to be unreasonably crude and most of her humor to be mean spirited.
Also I felt like she was repeating herself over and over. This book could have been condensed to probably half of what it was, honestly quit reading because I was bored and felt like I already got her point.
The good? I agree with most of her views of family and her encouraging and uplifting view of women and that they don’t have to pursue a career to be successful. I love being a stay at home mom and feel so much value in it, even though it’s not a paid position or I’m not a CEO. I love taking care of my kids and feel it’s my calling. Other than that, I thought she had a couple of good one liners that made me laugh. I would give parts of this book 4/5 stars in terms of the overall point and view of family. The author’s tone and way she presented the material, I would give 2/5 stars.
September 20, 2023
Picks the right fight and swings like hell is on the other side. Which it is.
Keenan wades right in, seeking to yank women out of Feminism and feminism out of women. Simultaneously evangelizing for traditional femininity and exorcising those who are already "on the right side."
Very good. Get it for your wives and daughters, but read it too.
Audio version ready by author, 5*
Keenan wades right in, seeking to yank women out of Feminism and feminism out of women. Simultaneously evangelizing for traditional femininity and exorcising those who are already "on the right side."
Very good. Get it for your wives and daughters, but read it too.
Audio version ready by author, 5*
August 10, 2023
Not so long ago, women who chose to stay married to their (one) husband, have many children, and prioritize family over career were considered “normal.” Now, this is deemed by society as extreme. In this snarky screed against modern feminism and secular culture, Peachy Keenan—a former feminist and atheist turned devoted wife, Catholic, and mom to five—shows how we got here and what we can do about it. She looks at all the hot-button culture issues (abortion, gender, fertility, and evolving values), explaining how culture’s modern approach has been destructive for everyone, particularly women and children. She shares her own twisty journey and inspires others to stand up for their families, their femininity, and their values.
I’ve read a number of books on similar themes, but this one feels different. It is uproariously funny with snarky humor that is a little cruel but also insightful and absolutely relevant. I agree with nearly all of Peachy’s views (I, too, would qualify as a Domestic Extremist, having scored 11/12 on the Are Domestic Extremist? quiz in the book’s preface—I sadly lost a point for having fewer than four children). And her examination of historical trends and current statistics was a helpful reminder of why I have chosen to live this life of staying home with my kids.
Though I won’t deny the humor in this book, I didn’t always love the biting tone or the warlike stance. I do think we are in a culture war of sorts, but I don’t know how helpful this tribal rhetoric is. (My differing thoughts on this may stem from the fact that I came to my values and beliefs differently from Peachy, whose faith seems to be a byproduct of her politics whereas I let my political views flow from my faith. We arrived in similar places, but this difference explains our approaches to how we address/share our values with others.) Many of her critiques of feminists seem harsh and undeserved, and she discredits the very real hurdles of underprivileged women who would love to be domestic extremists but are unable to make it a reality. She does attempt to address this at the end of the book, but her suggestions are more systemic than actionable for the reading audience.
If your are expecting a skills-based book about homemaking, you won’t find that here. Peachy admits that she does not love housework and has zero crafting or cooking skills, and I appreciated this about her as I, too, feel called to stay home but am not the most “domestic” parent by traditional standards. It is helpful to distinguish those skills from motherhood—one does not necessarily require the other!
I’d be curious to know how this book lands with those who are not in Peachy’s same conservative demographic. I wonder if her strong stance and sarcasm would appeal to skeptics or turn them away. I hope that her words have at least given some women a new way of thinking about family, gender roles, and the value of building a lasting family legacy.
My Rating: 4 Stars // Book Format: Audiobook
I’ve read a number of books on similar themes, but this one feels different. It is uproariously funny with snarky humor that is a little cruel but also insightful and absolutely relevant. I agree with nearly all of Peachy’s views (I, too, would qualify as a Domestic Extremist, having scored 11/12 on the Are Domestic Extremist? quiz in the book’s preface—I sadly lost a point for having fewer than four children). And her examination of historical trends and current statistics was a helpful reminder of why I have chosen to live this life of staying home with my kids.
Though I won’t deny the humor in this book, I didn’t always love the biting tone or the warlike stance. I do think we are in a culture war of sorts, but I don’t know how helpful this tribal rhetoric is. (My differing thoughts on this may stem from the fact that I came to my values and beliefs differently from Peachy, whose faith seems to be a byproduct of her politics whereas I let my political views flow from my faith. We arrived in similar places, but this difference explains our approaches to how we address/share our values with others.) Many of her critiques of feminists seem harsh and undeserved, and she discredits the very real hurdles of underprivileged women who would love to be domestic extremists but are unable to make it a reality. She does attempt to address this at the end of the book, but her suggestions are more systemic than actionable for the reading audience.
If your are expecting a skills-based book about homemaking, you won’t find that here. Peachy admits that she does not love housework and has zero crafting or cooking skills, and I appreciated this about her as I, too, feel called to stay home but am not the most “domestic” parent by traditional standards. It is helpful to distinguish those skills from motherhood—one does not necessarily require the other!
I’d be curious to know how this book lands with those who are not in Peachy’s same conservative demographic. I wonder if her strong stance and sarcasm would appeal to skeptics or turn them away. I hope that her words have at least given some women a new way of thinking about family, gender roles, and the value of building a lasting family legacy.
My Rating: 4 Stars // Book Format: Audiobook
October 5, 2025
My plan was to skim this but I ended up reading it straight through. It was surpsingly entertaining.
The book is a reaction to the Biden administration labeling Christians (specifically, Catholics) as domestic extremists. Mrs. Keenan decides to embrace the title, embrace domisticism, and shows you how too. This is very much an opinion piece, though there are footnotes. The writing is casual and engaging and is easy to read quickly. It is sometimes sarcastic, always unapologetic, and not at all politically correct.
Home and family are the center of human happiness yet are under attack by leftists. Mrs. Keenan takes shots at modern feminism that preaches hatred of men and pushes hookup culture when it’s not erasing womanhood altogether. She argues for the idea that women feel most fulfilled by having romance and family, particularly children, in their lives. (I would add that choosing this is much better than having it forced upon you.) How does anyone feel fulfilled by sending emails and filling out forms all day? How does that compare to being CEO of your family? How does that compare to creating a posterity that will continue for hundreds of years? If careers were so great, you wouldn’t see everyone pining for the weekend nonstop.
Speaking for myself, I never saw a new mom returning to work who wasn’t in tears. Yet I fear that women entering the workforce has deflated incomes and made it very hard for moms to be with their babies. But if you really want to, you can find a way. Kids are not that expensive! I never owned a crib or a changing table. The baby never had his or her own room. We rarely bought clothes—they just multiplied on their own. Everyone gives you them. And boys will wear the same underwear for months! Dinner is just a little more rice in the pot.
Mrs. Keenan points out how most young women today destroy their femininity by either embracing the streetwalker fashion and reveal everything or uglify themselves and remove all traces of natural feminine beauty. She speaks out against modern feminism that declares all men the enemy and that vilifies women who want romance and families and who don’t want a life of partying and endless hookups.
Embrace your domestic side, she says. The workplace is supposed to support the home, not the other way around. Babies are cute.
Language: Mild
Sexual Content: None
Violence/Gore: Mild
Harm to Animals:
Harm to Children:
Other (Triggers):
======================================
HIGHLIGHTS:
Pornography is not only highly deformative to the male psyche—it’s also one of the most addictive substances on earth. It does all sorts of awful things to your brain and makes permanent changes to your cortex. It has basically the same effect as a meth addiction and is just as hard to quit. It’s well documented that a pornographic stimulus quickly loses its ability to excite the viewer, so he or she is forced to seek ever more extreme or taboo content. Like drugs, the porn user needs a bigger hit to get the same high. At the end of this descent into the abyss wait truly demonic horrors like sissy porn (where straight men are subjected to “forced feminization” sadism), torture porn, and then, the final circle of Hell: kiddie porn. Pornography is not a harmless way to satisfy urges when you’re alone. It is truly a portal to selling your soul to the devil—for both the performers and the consumers.
NoFappers are accused of being Christian fundamentalists, misogynists, and even racists (!). You know feminism is completely fake when men who choose not to interact with pornography are vilified. Real male feminists spend at least eight hours a day supporting sex workers—by watching them get abused on camera. In college, I was forced to write English papers about the oppressive “male gaze.” Now, if you aren’t addicted to gazing at exploited females all day, you are literally a white supremacist. In a neat trick, the oppressed and the oppressor have changed places. “The Male Gaze: Why It’s a Good Thing, Actually.”
Instead of getting kids to turn on their parents, they get women to turn on their own kids. You are allowed—encouraged, even—to reject your own helpless dependents as impediments to fulfilling your true destiny. Children are in your way, okay? They even convinced some smooth-brained liberals that your natural maternal instinct is fake, a right-wing conspiracy theory being perpetrated on us by, yes, the Invisible Patriarchy.
The dark, unmentionable secret about babies is this: they want to be with their mother, like, all the time. Dad will do in a pinch, but Mom is where the action is. To deny this is to deny nature itself. And yet, at every step in the contemporary motherhood journey, the desires and needs of the baby come last. Society’s needs come first, then the mother’s boss’s needs, then the mother’s needs, then her husband’s needs. Of course, you are legally obligated to feed a child, but what does the child desire most? Don’t tell them I told you this, but your kid just wants … you.
“Spending more time with your child during this critical period of development [infancy] means she will have a greater chance of being emotionally secure and resilient to stress … But a mother’s physical presence is not enough. What is vital for both the short-term and long-term well-being of your child is your emotional presence. And … if you are not with your child, you cannot be emotionally present.” [Erica Komisar] Believe the Science, unless you’re a feminist.
If you have the money, you may prefer to hire a nanny to raise your baby for you. Nannies are trustworthy and loving strangers who you allow into your home to spend all day alone with your baby. Parents trust their nannies, which is why there is a multibillion-dollar industry of spy-cams and snooping technology you must install in every room of your home so you can watch the trusted nanny the whole she is with your child. Leaving your baby home alone with the nanny is so liberating and safe that Amazon sells over two thousand different types of hidden nanny cams! In your empowered, baby-free state, you will spend hours at work watching live hidden camera feeds, scrutinizing each frame for signs of neglect or abuse being inflicted in your small child, who will not be able to report these things to you when you get home.
You went to all this trouble to conceive, you put together a crib, you waddled around for nine months, and you actually delivered the thing, but you won’t consider for a moment what this little creature would prefer? Raising your own baby is sustainable, cruelty-free, organic, non-GMO, and gluten-free. It is better for the environment (no commuting to a daycare required!), and it introduces fewer germs and viruses into your home. Raising your own children is also FREE. Crazy, right?
Imagine explaining the concept of “daycare” to an alien. “See, you finally have your baby, the one you spent $75,000 on fertility treatments to create, and then as soon as it’s born, you’re supposed to count down the seconds until you can drop him off at a store, usually in a strip mall, where minimum-wage unregistered felons you wouldn’t trust to walk your dog are in charge of infants from age six weeks and up, along with up to a dozen other crying babies at a time. Feel free to leave your baby for eight hours, nine hours, whatever. Then you pick up your baby and spend an hour or so with him before you repeat the process the next day (and every day for five years!) until he starts kindergarten.
“Daycare frees you spend more time answering emails and reviewing documents, which you could do on your phone from literally anywhere, but then you would be forced to admit to your zealot girlfriends that you would rather spend the day nursing your baby in the nursery you lovingly designed and painted yourself—instead of pumping and crying in the lactation room at work. Daycare is freedom!”
Daycare is just an essential release valve for the liberal world order, exactly like abortion is. Without “quality affordable childcare,” as the Democrats in D.C. call it, women can’t achieve any real worth or value. Work is where women belong—not tending their own children. Let the government-subsidized childcare union take that noisy six-week-old off your hands! You have more important things to do that bring glory and honor to the sisterhood, like prepare Google Slides presentations. Lots of babies that manage to make it through the Great Filters of birth control and abortion will get caught by the Daycare Filter. It catches all the kids Planned Parenthood missed. … You will do some quick math and be shocked to discover that even at the bargain-basement daycare in the bad neighborhood, your daycare bill will wipe out at least 40 percent of your after-tax income. You realize you will be working for two bosses: yours, and your baby’s unsmiling caregiver. … Your child won’t get hugs, kisses, affectionate words, or love. A daycare worker’s only job is to keep your child alive without running afoul of state regulations. … It’s not their fault. I have coached several friends out of the daycare mindset, and it’s like deprogramming a cult victim.
It [feminism] is mixed up with a muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers but slaves when they help their husbands. – G. K. Chesterton
We have drifted far from the original feminist notion that women have the equal right to work to a nightmare world where women must work in order to have equal value. It is abortion that makes it possible for a woman to participate fully in society—because it enables her to work without interruption by pregnancy and demanding children. In other words, pregnancy and babies prevent you from being a full and equal member of American society! [according to Merrick Garland] … My smart friend Jeremy Carl said this about Garland’s statement: “For the Democrats, women ‘participating fully and equally in society’ means destroying the most precious and unique thing that only women can do.”
It’s true that career women usually have more money, higher incomes, and much more impressive LinkedIn pages. Stay-at-home mothers make less money, if they make any. They are forced to wear comfy pants, watch cartoons, go to the park, maybe hang with other moms they like, and drink coffee. What hell! How could women be subjected to this nightmare?
When you work, you are a free woman. You are an equal woman, just as important and valuable as a man. Think about it: feminists believe women are so pathetic that they need jobs to be equal in value to men!
These graduates move on to college, where their high school indoctrination is hardened and polished by professors. The end product is a citizen who will go to his grave believing a set of Ministry of Truth-approved lies: “whiteness” is intrinsically evil, abortion is health care, there are dozens of genders, America was founded on racism and must be dismantled, marriage is oppressive and bad for women, children hold you back, and unchecked sexual “exploration” with a variety of partners of every gender is the surest path to emotional happiness.
Educators know that any adult with the authority to influence a child has the power to expose said child to any radical or extreme ideas they want. To them, you are the extremist if you don’t think young children need to learn about sex and gender dysphoria yet. You are the extremist if you question a teacher or school administrator’s choice of books to read or lessons to teach. You are an extremely racist extremist if you’d rather not force a five-year-old to feel bad about the color of his skin and apologize for it.
Truly insane people have taken over the American education system, Big Pharma, and Big Tech. They know the best way to teach the Final Solution of the American family is to focus on young, impressionable minds. We are enjoying the fruits of their labor now: an explosion of teen depression and suicide, an epidemic of children who are confused if they’re boys or girls, and an incredible 40 percent of Gen Z reporting that they are some letter in the ever-expanding alphabet soup known as LGBTQ+.
Feminism has created a “gender gap in happiness.” Enjoying guilt-free access to an infinite number of sterilized young women available for casual sex has, shockingly, made men happier than women. If I were a man, I’d laugh, too.
Top Ten Lies: 1. Abortion is health care. 2. Marriage is unnecessary to a successful and happy family. 3. Children don’t need a father. 4. Children don’t need a mother, either. 5. The highest expression of female power comes from your career. 6. The more lifetime sex partners you have, the better. 7. All men are potential rapists unless proven otherwise. Believe all women. 8. If a man tells you he is a woman, he she is. Believe all women. 9. It’s the government’s job to provide childcare, and it’s your job to use it. 10. Public schools know best when it comes to educating your children and would never indoctrinate them politically or groom them sexually.
Those who leave the tradition of truth do not escape into something which we call Freedom. They only escape into something else, which we call Fashion. – G. K. Chesterton
It took a first pregnancy to transform me into my final domestically extreme form. At just seven weeks gestation, I was stunned to hear the galloping hooves of a tiny heart beating in the obstetrician’s office. The little peanut on the ultrasound machine bounced and wriggled. Where was the “clump of cells? I’d been told about for years? How could a clump of cells have little arms and little legs and a heart—that beats!? What sorcery was this? According to feminist hero Stacey Abrams, the “heartbeat” I heard was fake, a manufactured sound that was part of a hoax my evil doctor orchestrated to trick me into thinking the fetus was alive.
It is not enough to not be a feminist—you, men and women both, must become anti-feminists. I think of feminism, in its simplest form, as the opposite of femininity. Feminism convinces you that women are weak, only the State can dispense and defend a woman’s rights. Femininity is the deep confidence that you were born with innate power and don’t need to rely on a faceless bureaucracy to grant you permission to wield it. Feminism teaches you men are bad—they are your sworn opponents, competitors, and oppressors. Femininity reveals the truth: men are vital protectors, providers, husbands, and fathers. Anti-feminism does not mean men should suddenly revel in misogyny and start slapping their wives around. I’m pretty sure it’s the staunch feminist men who are taking full advantage of sex-positive hussies looking to increase their body counts. Anti-feminism requires everyone to stop pretending women are the same as men. Anti-feminism requires women to stop sneering at men for being less like women. … For a woman to be able to express her innate femininity, she needs some men around who are comfortable expressing their masculinity. When both femininity and masculinity are suppressed in favor of gender-neutral mush, both sexes suffer in the extreme.
There is a good reason the Left embraces ugliness, which manifests in young, pretty women as physical defacement: tattoos, piercing, brutalist clothing choices, and humiliating behavior.
Hooking up with anyone who’ll have you is good for your ego, and it makes you temporarily happy. Plus, your antidepressants can pick up the broken pieces of your psyche after you’re ghosted. “Hook-up culture is a terrible deal for women and yet has been presented by liberal feminism as a form of liberation,” [Louise] Perry notes. “A truly feminist project would demand that, in the straight dating world, it should be men, not women, who adjust their sexual appetites.”
And just like all dopamine hits, the high from a brief encounter quickly fades. The next day, you are left with—what exactly? A slightly shameful memory, embarrassing bragging rights, and someone you hope either calls you immediately (he won’t) or forgets you immediately (he will). Meanwhile, each roundtrip takes its toll on your fuselage and your well-being. Years spent living like an unpaid escort are not healthy or beneficial to your fading youth. What young woman fantasizes about being used like a rented mule for a couple decades? (205)
The damage pornography causes to the developing brain is by now well documented. It is highly addictive and deformative. It can incite people to seek out ever-more extreme videos as they chase an eye-meth high. Even worse, many of the young females in the videos are trafficked or enslaved in other ways to drugs and a vicious lifestyle that grinds their souls into dust. Suicide rates and drug addictions among porn performers are real boner-killers. There are a hundred reasons to avoid this mind poison, but because it has been normalized as “just another form of content,” few resist the urge. Sitting inside masturbating to broken, underage, bipolar child-abuse survivors humiliating each other for money is a terrible way to spend your days, especially if you are a young person. Focus your energy elsewhere: on improving your life, your health, your real relationships—and on saving your soul from demonic possession. There is nothing cool or fun about pornography.
It’s one thing to make a mistake or two. It’s another to make this your actual lifestyle, for years—for decades even. It turns out that all their language around empowerment and confidence and equality is pure horse manure. Feminists and their male allies have turned several generations of young women into nothing more than budget sex slaves. Women’s studies professors are the real sex traffickers.
People fear and hate the concept of chastity. Mention it in public, and you are accused of being a backwards medieval peasant. Someone who wants to put women back in chains, or worse, back in the kitchen. Maybe the furious reaction to chastity is triggered because committing to it would mean missing out on promising Tinder dates.
CONTINUED IN COMMENTS
The book is a reaction to the Biden administration labeling Christians (specifically, Catholics) as domestic extremists. Mrs. Keenan decides to embrace the title, embrace domisticism, and shows you how too. This is very much an opinion piece, though there are footnotes. The writing is casual and engaging and is easy to read quickly. It is sometimes sarcastic, always unapologetic, and not at all politically correct.
Home and family are the center of human happiness yet are under attack by leftists. Mrs. Keenan takes shots at modern feminism that preaches hatred of men and pushes hookup culture when it’s not erasing womanhood altogether. She argues for the idea that women feel most fulfilled by having romance and family, particularly children, in their lives. (I would add that choosing this is much better than having it forced upon you.) How does anyone feel fulfilled by sending emails and filling out forms all day? How does that compare to being CEO of your family? How does that compare to creating a posterity that will continue for hundreds of years? If careers were so great, you wouldn’t see everyone pining for the weekend nonstop.
Speaking for myself, I never saw a new mom returning to work who wasn’t in tears. Yet I fear that women entering the workforce has deflated incomes and made it very hard for moms to be with their babies. But if you really want to, you can find a way. Kids are not that expensive! I never owned a crib or a changing table. The baby never had his or her own room. We rarely bought clothes—they just multiplied on their own. Everyone gives you them. And boys will wear the same underwear for months! Dinner is just a little more rice in the pot.
Mrs. Keenan points out how most young women today destroy their femininity by either embracing the streetwalker fashion and reveal everything or uglify themselves and remove all traces of natural feminine beauty. She speaks out against modern feminism that declares all men the enemy and that vilifies women who want romance and families and who don’t want a life of partying and endless hookups.
Embrace your domestic side, she says. The workplace is supposed to support the home, not the other way around. Babies are cute.
Language: Mild
Sexual Content: None
Violence/Gore: Mild
Harm to Animals:
Harm to Children:
Other (Triggers):
======================================
HIGHLIGHTS:
Pornography is not only highly deformative to the male psyche—it’s also one of the most addictive substances on earth. It does all sorts of awful things to your brain and makes permanent changes to your cortex. It has basically the same effect as a meth addiction and is just as hard to quit. It’s well documented that a pornographic stimulus quickly loses its ability to excite the viewer, so he or she is forced to seek ever more extreme or taboo content. Like drugs, the porn user needs a bigger hit to get the same high. At the end of this descent into the abyss wait truly demonic horrors like sissy porn (where straight men are subjected to “forced feminization” sadism), torture porn, and then, the final circle of Hell: kiddie porn. Pornography is not a harmless way to satisfy urges when you’re alone. It is truly a portal to selling your soul to the devil—for both the performers and the consumers.
NoFappers are accused of being Christian fundamentalists, misogynists, and even racists (!). You know feminism is completely fake when men who choose not to interact with pornography are vilified. Real male feminists spend at least eight hours a day supporting sex workers—by watching them get abused on camera. In college, I was forced to write English papers about the oppressive “male gaze.” Now, if you aren’t addicted to gazing at exploited females all day, you are literally a white supremacist. In a neat trick, the oppressed and the oppressor have changed places. “The Male Gaze: Why It’s a Good Thing, Actually.”
Instead of getting kids to turn on their parents, they get women to turn on their own kids. You are allowed—encouraged, even—to reject your own helpless dependents as impediments to fulfilling your true destiny. Children are in your way, okay? They even convinced some smooth-brained liberals that your natural maternal instinct is fake, a right-wing conspiracy theory being perpetrated on us by, yes, the Invisible Patriarchy.
The dark, unmentionable secret about babies is this: they want to be with their mother, like, all the time. Dad will do in a pinch, but Mom is where the action is. To deny this is to deny nature itself. And yet, at every step in the contemporary motherhood journey, the desires and needs of the baby come last. Society’s needs come first, then the mother’s boss’s needs, then the mother’s needs, then her husband’s needs. Of course, you are legally obligated to feed a child, but what does the child desire most? Don’t tell them I told you this, but your kid just wants … you.
“Spending more time with your child during this critical period of development [infancy] means she will have a greater chance of being emotionally secure and resilient to stress … But a mother’s physical presence is not enough. What is vital for both the short-term and long-term well-being of your child is your emotional presence. And … if you are not with your child, you cannot be emotionally present.” [Erica Komisar] Believe the Science, unless you’re a feminist.
If you have the money, you may prefer to hire a nanny to raise your baby for you. Nannies are trustworthy and loving strangers who you allow into your home to spend all day alone with your baby. Parents trust their nannies, which is why there is a multibillion-dollar industry of spy-cams and snooping technology you must install in every room of your home so you can watch the trusted nanny the whole she is with your child. Leaving your baby home alone with the nanny is so liberating and safe that Amazon sells over two thousand different types of hidden nanny cams! In your empowered, baby-free state, you will spend hours at work watching live hidden camera feeds, scrutinizing each frame for signs of neglect or abuse being inflicted in your small child, who will not be able to report these things to you when you get home.
You went to all this trouble to conceive, you put together a crib, you waddled around for nine months, and you actually delivered the thing, but you won’t consider for a moment what this little creature would prefer? Raising your own baby is sustainable, cruelty-free, organic, non-GMO, and gluten-free. It is better for the environment (no commuting to a daycare required!), and it introduces fewer germs and viruses into your home. Raising your own children is also FREE. Crazy, right?
Imagine explaining the concept of “daycare” to an alien. “See, you finally have your baby, the one you spent $75,000 on fertility treatments to create, and then as soon as it’s born, you’re supposed to count down the seconds until you can drop him off at a store, usually in a strip mall, where minimum-wage unregistered felons you wouldn’t trust to walk your dog are in charge of infants from age six weeks and up, along with up to a dozen other crying babies at a time. Feel free to leave your baby for eight hours, nine hours, whatever. Then you pick up your baby and spend an hour or so with him before you repeat the process the next day (and every day for five years!) until he starts kindergarten.
“Daycare frees you spend more time answering emails and reviewing documents, which you could do on your phone from literally anywhere, but then you would be forced to admit to your zealot girlfriends that you would rather spend the day nursing your baby in the nursery you lovingly designed and painted yourself—instead of pumping and crying in the lactation room at work. Daycare is freedom!”
Daycare is just an essential release valve for the liberal world order, exactly like abortion is. Without “quality affordable childcare,” as the Democrats in D.C. call it, women can’t achieve any real worth or value. Work is where women belong—not tending their own children. Let the government-subsidized childcare union take that noisy six-week-old off your hands! You have more important things to do that bring glory and honor to the sisterhood, like prepare Google Slides presentations. Lots of babies that manage to make it through the Great Filters of birth control and abortion will get caught by the Daycare Filter. It catches all the kids Planned Parenthood missed. … You will do some quick math and be shocked to discover that even at the bargain-basement daycare in the bad neighborhood, your daycare bill will wipe out at least 40 percent of your after-tax income. You realize you will be working for two bosses: yours, and your baby’s unsmiling caregiver. … Your child won’t get hugs, kisses, affectionate words, or love. A daycare worker’s only job is to keep your child alive without running afoul of state regulations. … It’s not their fault. I have coached several friends out of the daycare mindset, and it’s like deprogramming a cult victim.
It [feminism] is mixed up with a muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers but slaves when they help their husbands. – G. K. Chesterton
We have drifted far from the original feminist notion that women have the equal right to work to a nightmare world where women must work in order to have equal value. It is abortion that makes it possible for a woman to participate fully in society—because it enables her to work without interruption by pregnancy and demanding children. In other words, pregnancy and babies prevent you from being a full and equal member of American society! [according to Merrick Garland] … My smart friend Jeremy Carl said this about Garland’s statement: “For the Democrats, women ‘participating fully and equally in society’ means destroying the most precious and unique thing that only women can do.”
It’s true that career women usually have more money, higher incomes, and much more impressive LinkedIn pages. Stay-at-home mothers make less money, if they make any. They are forced to wear comfy pants, watch cartoons, go to the park, maybe hang with other moms they like, and drink coffee. What hell! How could women be subjected to this nightmare?
When you work, you are a free woman. You are an equal woman, just as important and valuable as a man. Think about it: feminists believe women are so pathetic that they need jobs to be equal in value to men!
These graduates move on to college, where their high school indoctrination is hardened and polished by professors. The end product is a citizen who will go to his grave believing a set of Ministry of Truth-approved lies: “whiteness” is intrinsically evil, abortion is health care, there are dozens of genders, America was founded on racism and must be dismantled, marriage is oppressive and bad for women, children hold you back, and unchecked sexual “exploration” with a variety of partners of every gender is the surest path to emotional happiness.
Educators know that any adult with the authority to influence a child has the power to expose said child to any radical or extreme ideas they want. To them, you are the extremist if you don’t think young children need to learn about sex and gender dysphoria yet. You are the extremist if you question a teacher or school administrator’s choice of books to read or lessons to teach. You are an extremely racist extremist if you’d rather not force a five-year-old to feel bad about the color of his skin and apologize for it.
Truly insane people have taken over the American education system, Big Pharma, and Big Tech. They know the best way to teach the Final Solution of the American family is to focus on young, impressionable minds. We are enjoying the fruits of their labor now: an explosion of teen depression and suicide, an epidemic of children who are confused if they’re boys or girls, and an incredible 40 percent of Gen Z reporting that they are some letter in the ever-expanding alphabet soup known as LGBTQ+.
Feminism has created a “gender gap in happiness.” Enjoying guilt-free access to an infinite number of sterilized young women available for casual sex has, shockingly, made men happier than women. If I were a man, I’d laugh, too.
Top Ten Lies: 1. Abortion is health care. 2. Marriage is unnecessary to a successful and happy family. 3. Children don’t need a father. 4. Children don’t need a mother, either. 5. The highest expression of female power comes from your career. 6. The more lifetime sex partners you have, the better. 7. All men are potential rapists unless proven otherwise. Believe all women. 8. If a man tells you he is a woman, he she is. Believe all women. 9. It’s the government’s job to provide childcare, and it’s your job to use it. 10. Public schools know best when it comes to educating your children and would never indoctrinate them politically or groom them sexually.
Those who leave the tradition of truth do not escape into something which we call Freedom. They only escape into something else, which we call Fashion. – G. K. Chesterton
It took a first pregnancy to transform me into my final domestically extreme form. At just seven weeks gestation, I was stunned to hear the galloping hooves of a tiny heart beating in the obstetrician’s office. The little peanut on the ultrasound machine bounced and wriggled. Where was the “clump of cells? I’d been told about for years? How could a clump of cells have little arms and little legs and a heart—that beats!? What sorcery was this? According to feminist hero Stacey Abrams, the “heartbeat” I heard was fake, a manufactured sound that was part of a hoax my evil doctor orchestrated to trick me into thinking the fetus was alive.
It is not enough to not be a feminist—you, men and women both, must become anti-feminists. I think of feminism, in its simplest form, as the opposite of femininity. Feminism convinces you that women are weak, only the State can dispense and defend a woman’s rights. Femininity is the deep confidence that you were born with innate power and don’t need to rely on a faceless bureaucracy to grant you permission to wield it. Feminism teaches you men are bad—they are your sworn opponents, competitors, and oppressors. Femininity reveals the truth: men are vital protectors, providers, husbands, and fathers. Anti-feminism does not mean men should suddenly revel in misogyny and start slapping their wives around. I’m pretty sure it’s the staunch feminist men who are taking full advantage of sex-positive hussies looking to increase their body counts. Anti-feminism requires everyone to stop pretending women are the same as men. Anti-feminism requires women to stop sneering at men for being less like women. … For a woman to be able to express her innate femininity, she needs some men around who are comfortable expressing their masculinity. When both femininity and masculinity are suppressed in favor of gender-neutral mush, both sexes suffer in the extreme.
There is a good reason the Left embraces ugliness, which manifests in young, pretty women as physical defacement: tattoos, piercing, brutalist clothing choices, and humiliating behavior.
Hooking up with anyone who’ll have you is good for your ego, and it makes you temporarily happy. Plus, your antidepressants can pick up the broken pieces of your psyche after you’re ghosted. “Hook-up culture is a terrible deal for women and yet has been presented by liberal feminism as a form of liberation,” [Louise] Perry notes. “A truly feminist project would demand that, in the straight dating world, it should be men, not women, who adjust their sexual appetites.”
And just like all dopamine hits, the high from a brief encounter quickly fades. The next day, you are left with—what exactly? A slightly shameful memory, embarrassing bragging rights, and someone you hope either calls you immediately (he won’t) or forgets you immediately (he will). Meanwhile, each roundtrip takes its toll on your fuselage and your well-being. Years spent living like an unpaid escort are not healthy or beneficial to your fading youth. What young woman fantasizes about being used like a rented mule for a couple decades? (205)
The damage pornography causes to the developing brain is by now well documented. It is highly addictive and deformative. It can incite people to seek out ever-more extreme videos as they chase an eye-meth high. Even worse, many of the young females in the videos are trafficked or enslaved in other ways to drugs and a vicious lifestyle that grinds their souls into dust. Suicide rates and drug addictions among porn performers are real boner-killers. There are a hundred reasons to avoid this mind poison, but because it has been normalized as “just another form of content,” few resist the urge. Sitting inside masturbating to broken, underage, bipolar child-abuse survivors humiliating each other for money is a terrible way to spend your days, especially if you are a young person. Focus your energy elsewhere: on improving your life, your health, your real relationships—and on saving your soul from demonic possession. There is nothing cool or fun about pornography.
It’s one thing to make a mistake or two. It’s another to make this your actual lifestyle, for years—for decades even. It turns out that all their language around empowerment and confidence and equality is pure horse manure. Feminists and their male allies have turned several generations of young women into nothing more than budget sex slaves. Women’s studies professors are the real sex traffickers.
People fear and hate the concept of chastity. Mention it in public, and you are accused of being a backwards medieval peasant. Someone who wants to put women back in chains, or worse, back in the kitchen. Maybe the furious reaction to chastity is triggered because committing to it would mean missing out on promising Tinder dates.
CONTINUED IN COMMENTS
May 7, 2024
*There’s extended commentary and citations in the highlights*
I don’t think I’ve ever read any book more steeped in 4chan lingo and conspiracy theories.
I obviously came in expecting conservative values and right-wing talking points, but I was left completely baffled by the level of fantastical hypotheticals and the sense of entitlement to other people’s lives.
Several times, I had to stop and google terms vague and unfamiliar to me, only for the rabbit hole to lead to layers of fantasy nonsense (New World Order, ‘I will not eat bugs’, ‘The Longhouse’, etc).
None of the ‘Evil minorities are taking over the world and forcing your children to be super soldiers in the Woke Wars’ is grounded in reality, nor is it relevant to childrearing and homemaking. The only people who would see all these terms and genuinely believe them to be true wouldn’t need a book that just reaffirms what they read in their facebook groups, and anyone *outside* these hyper-niche circles are going to be completely lost.
A glaring flaw in the author’s argument is *why* people are choosing not to be parents. She almost gets it: she acknowledges once or twice that the largest issue is that of income and economics, and that if you can’t afford rent/healthcare/food/child care, why would you *want* a kid in the mix? But she doesn’t call out against the unfair systems under capitalism, no, because this too is somehow Feminism’s fault. Yup. Feminists (like seemingly all women in the author’s mind) are shrill, evil, conniving, hyper-sexual yet asexual bats that have done no good and ruined anything. Sure. Ignoring that many feminists themselves are mothers and wives but sure, yeah, evil feminists control the flow of economy directly from their phones.
There’s also the insistent *need* from the author to constantly put down any and all minorities. Every paragraph is punctuated with a tired quip about pronouns or protesting, whether or not it’s relevant to what she was saying.
Towards the end of the book, there’s a ‘Aw I don’t hate you, I only pity you, I will pray for you <3’, which is so backhanded when you take into account that for over 300 pages, she’s been calling anyone who isn’t a WASP every horrific thing in the book excluding slurs. Victims of assault, struggling mothers, people who’ve suffered negative side effects from medications, and those working from paycheck-to-paycheck aren’t safe from the childish and cruel ‘jokes’ and mockery.
I think the most egregious offense is a tie between blaming women for the assaults/rape they may have suffered, mocking people for physical traits they were born with, and gloating that if one of her kids came out as lgbt that she would shove them back into the closet door and promptly lock it.
Truly, I haven’t read a book so viscerally mean-spirited and cruel. The author’s ability to put everyone and anyone else down as a means to elevate her own beliefs and ideologies is abhorrent, and it’s laughable for her to claim her religious path somehow makes all of this ‘righteous’.
The way she talks about having children as ‘maxxing’, holding Elon Musk of all people as a good example for what men should achieve in terms of progenies, and treating having a dozen kids as something everyone and anyone should strive for tells me all I need to know: Kids aren’t individuals, they are a currency to the author, and she wants you to get rich quick.
Completely bizarre and baffling book. The only positive outline of reading this is knowing how fringe this is, and how few people will care to read it AND take it to heart.
I don’t think I’ve ever read any book more steeped in 4chan lingo and conspiracy theories.
I obviously came in expecting conservative values and right-wing talking points, but I was left completely baffled by the level of fantastical hypotheticals and the sense of entitlement to other people’s lives.
Several times, I had to stop and google terms vague and unfamiliar to me, only for the rabbit hole to lead to layers of fantasy nonsense (New World Order, ‘I will not eat bugs’, ‘The Longhouse’, etc).
None of the ‘Evil minorities are taking over the world and forcing your children to be super soldiers in the Woke Wars’ is grounded in reality, nor is it relevant to childrearing and homemaking. The only people who would see all these terms and genuinely believe them to be true wouldn’t need a book that just reaffirms what they read in their facebook groups, and anyone *outside* these hyper-niche circles are going to be completely lost.
A glaring flaw in the author’s argument is *why* people are choosing not to be parents. She almost gets it: she acknowledges once or twice that the largest issue is that of income and economics, and that if you can’t afford rent/healthcare/food/child care, why would you *want* a kid in the mix? But she doesn’t call out against the unfair systems under capitalism, no, because this too is somehow Feminism’s fault. Yup. Feminists (like seemingly all women in the author’s mind) are shrill, evil, conniving, hyper-sexual yet asexual bats that have done no good and ruined anything. Sure. Ignoring that many feminists themselves are mothers and wives but sure, yeah, evil feminists control the flow of economy directly from their phones.
There’s also the insistent *need* from the author to constantly put down any and all minorities. Every paragraph is punctuated with a tired quip about pronouns or protesting, whether or not it’s relevant to what she was saying.
Towards the end of the book, there’s a ‘Aw I don’t hate you, I only pity you, I will pray for you <3’, which is so backhanded when you take into account that for over 300 pages, she’s been calling anyone who isn’t a WASP every horrific thing in the book excluding slurs. Victims of assault, struggling mothers, people who’ve suffered negative side effects from medications, and those working from paycheck-to-paycheck aren’t safe from the childish and cruel ‘jokes’ and mockery.
I think the most egregious offense is a tie between blaming women for the assaults/rape they may have suffered, mocking people for physical traits they were born with, and gloating that if one of her kids came out as lgbt that she would shove them back into the closet door and promptly lock it.
Truly, I haven’t read a book so viscerally mean-spirited and cruel. The author’s ability to put everyone and anyone else down as a means to elevate her own beliefs and ideologies is abhorrent, and it’s laughable for her to claim her religious path somehow makes all of this ‘righteous’.
The way she talks about having children as ‘maxxing’, holding Elon Musk of all people as a good example for what men should achieve in terms of progenies, and treating having a dozen kids as something everyone and anyone should strive for tells me all I need to know: Kids aren’t individuals, they are a currency to the author, and she wants you to get rich quick.
Completely bizarre and baffling book. The only positive outline of reading this is knowing how fringe this is, and how few people will care to read it AND take it to heart.
January 2, 2026
Peachy Keenan is absolutely hilarious and spot on; I wish there were more books that deal with “hot topics” from a no-nonsense yet enjoyable-to-read perspective.
While I didn’t agree with 100% of everything she said as a Catholic, I did appreciate that she took not only a biblical perspective but also a simply logical one. She covers topics like abortion, feminism, transgenderism, and many more by exposing the lies that society has fed us about them. While it does focus more on women and how society is harming our God-given femininity, I think this is a book men would also greatly benefit from reading.
The author doesn’t promote her readers to go against culture by raising chickens, homesteading, or throwing away their phones (although I say go for it). Instead, she offers practical advice and wisdom to the everyday gal who wants to reject the lies that fulfillment is found in putting aside our feminine nature.
“The solution to this existential crisis is right in front of you. In fact, it IS you. The cure to the American cultural malaise is not what you think-I'm not asking you to take up survivalism or homesteading. Not that there's anything wrong with that! I'm not asking you to loom your own fabric or spin your own wool. We have people to do that for us these days! Instead, all you must do is remain authentically female, as in, the timeless ways of being female: as a daughter, mother, and wife. To "lean in" to the very essence of your being by making sea changes in your mindset and approach to life. To become a little bit more "domestic, as females have been since the very dawn of time.”
While I didn’t agree with 100% of everything she said as a Catholic, I did appreciate that she took not only a biblical perspective but also a simply logical one. She covers topics like abortion, feminism, transgenderism, and many more by exposing the lies that society has fed us about them. While it does focus more on women and how society is harming our God-given femininity, I think this is a book men would also greatly benefit from reading.
The author doesn’t promote her readers to go against culture by raising chickens, homesteading, or throwing away their phones (although I say go for it). Instead, she offers practical advice and wisdom to the everyday gal who wants to reject the lies that fulfillment is found in putting aside our feminine nature.
“The solution to this existential crisis is right in front of you. In fact, it IS you. The cure to the American cultural malaise is not what you think-I'm not asking you to take up survivalism or homesteading. Not that there's anything wrong with that! I'm not asking you to loom your own fabric or spin your own wool. We have people to do that for us these days! Instead, all you must do is remain authentically female, as in, the timeless ways of being female: as a daughter, mother, and wife. To "lean in" to the very essence of your being by making sea changes in your mindset and approach to life. To become a little bit more "domestic, as females have been since the very dawn of time.”
June 17, 2023
People that want to be aggrieved about this book will be, but I don’t see any reason to get up-in-arms about an argument for a traditional lifestyle, especially from someone who didn’t always have one. There are basically ONLY arguments for an alternative one! She is up front about being a newly converted Catholic- she is also up front about the fact that she supports women not being abused, disenfranchised from meaningful work when they want it, and even the fact that some people are not suited to be parents. The fact is that many of us are not raised to value or prioritize family - then spend our lives “not sure” and “not ready” - and then we are scrambling at age 40. You want to talk about abuse? I will show you people I know submitting their bodies to doctors for a chance at pregnancy. It’s brutal. This book, and books like it, are the wake up that our cultural moment needs. Feminism wants to blame patriarchy for everything it doesn’t like, but sometimes, it’s just called “life.” My experience with feminism is that it has put my womanhood in a very small box and i’m happy to be out of it.
August 11, 2023
Seems written more to incite political and social opinions through one-sided depictions rather than offer substantial wisdom with nuance. However, underneath Keenan’s unkind (though tongue-in-cheek) stereotypes, there’s truth about cultivating virtue and investing in family, however countercultural.
February 14, 2025
I really, really wanted to like this book. I picked it up after reading Katy Faust’s latest book and loving the chapter Peachy Keenan wrote on daycare. I was so excited to read it but was rather disappointed.
She writes like a female version of Matt Walsh which was very entertaining and hilarious at times. You could pretty much see the sarcasm dripping off the pages. Her writing style is the reason I kept on reading.
That aside, I just kept wishing that she would go deeper and that there was going to be more research, more footnotes, more thought and reason other than the usual conservative mantra of “well this is clearly common sense, and you should do it, the libs are taking over, RAAAAAAAR!”
She writes like a female version of Matt Walsh which was very entertaining and hilarious at times. You could pretty much see the sarcasm dripping off the pages. Her writing style is the reason I kept on reading.
That aside, I just kept wishing that she would go deeper and that there was going to be more research, more footnotes, more thought and reason other than the usual conservative mantra of “well this is clearly common sense, and you should do it, the libs are taking over, RAAAAAAAR!”
June 22, 2023
My book 📕 recommendation for this month ., I found "Domestic Extremist" to be an absolute delight! The book's format, which outlines what the thieves stole and how to recover the items in a funny way , had me in stitches. I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the clever humor woven throughout the pages but getting the point across. Even better, the book left me feeling inspired and contented. Overall, it was a truly enjoyable read that I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a good laugh and great read and a book that makes you think 🤔
June 13, 2023
Had some hopes for this book, but it is not much more than a screed drawn from the Fox News chyron. Too bad, because the thesis could have been executed well.
July 12, 2025
Keenan is a social conservative, through and through (though raised as a progressive atheist.) She's Catholic, and while most everything in her book squares with the Bible, her arguments are not necessarily theological ones.
Keenan is smart and sarcastic and has striven to make a common sense book about what to do about the crazy cultural moment we're living in. Yes, the book is redundant, and yes, it goes on longer than necessary, but it's still worth a read. We need more voices in our culture telling women it's okay (and good for society) to stay home with their kids, to marry one and only man and remain faithful, to raise kids in church, that girls are girls and boys are boys, and that parents (not the state) are the primary educators of their children.
While this is a good read, I'd recommend Allie Beth Stuckey's "Toxic Empathy" for the same content but from a robustly Christian worldview.
Keenan is smart and sarcastic and has striven to make a common sense book about what to do about the crazy cultural moment we're living in. Yes, the book is redundant, and yes, it goes on longer than necessary, but it's still worth a read. We need more voices in our culture telling women it's okay (and good for society) to stay home with their kids, to marry one and only man and remain faithful, to raise kids in church, that girls are girls and boys are boys, and that parents (not the state) are the primary educators of their children.
While this is a good read, I'd recommend Allie Beth Stuckey's "Toxic Empathy" for the same content but from a robustly Christian worldview.
December 14, 2025
A deeply inspiring read! My passion for the family and traditional values have increased since reading this book. However, although the progressive pendulum has definitely swung too far, I fear this book may swing too far the opposite way in response--not in values but in emotional language. Definitely satirical, but I question whether or not that's always the best. Grabs your attention and is perfectly written for her particular audience. Overall, I do recommend this book
July 30, 2025
This book is a startling look at some shocking fruits of feminism and gave me a lot to think about.
Written with a lot of verve and sass, and some crass language thrown in.
Written with a lot of verve and sass, and some crass language thrown in.
July 31, 2023
This book bordered on a two star. While I agree with most of the premises in the book, I do think that Peachy Keenan went a little too deep in some rabbit holes. However, more and more each day as these things come to light the conspiracy theorists are the ones that are right. My wife is definitely a domestic extremist. We have four kids, she is a stay at home mom, and we decided a bit ago that we would start homeschooling. We are also talking/praying about having another kid.
One thing that I realized in this book is that life is going to be a waiting game. If those of us who believe in having big families with conservative values continue on then eventually the liberals who believe men can get pregnant and are transitioning kids will all die out because none of them are having kids.
One thing that I realized in this book is that life is going to be a waiting game. If those of us who believe in having big families with conservative values continue on then eventually the liberals who believe men can get pregnant and are transitioning kids will all die out because none of them are having kids.
June 9, 2023
Must read, hilarious book about the good life!
This book was an absolute delight to read. It got me laughing loudly in several parts, mostly by exposing the ridiculous times we are living. As someone who escaped feminism and “girl boss culture” by the skin on my teeth, I can relate. The ultimate message is this, being domestic is good, being religious is great, building a happy marriage is bliss and topping it of with babies is a delight. One should do these things because they are the way to happiness. Buy the book, read it and join the domestic movement.
This book was an absolute delight to read. It got me laughing loudly in several parts, mostly by exposing the ridiculous times we are living. As someone who escaped feminism and “girl boss culture” by the skin on my teeth, I can relate. The ultimate message is this, being domestic is good, being religious is great, building a happy marriage is bliss and topping it of with babies is a delight. One should do these things because they are the way to happiness. Buy the book, read it and join the domestic movement.
September 27, 2023
I'm very open to other view points presented well, which is what I thought I would encounter in this book. However, What I actually read was a lot of name calling and stereotypical insults in place of real arguments.
April 19, 2025
I really wanted this book to be a nuanced right wing’s perspective on womanhood, delaying motherhood, balancing career and family, but it was so mean and deranged that all points to discuss real solutions to improving the state of motherhood or working moms was overshadowed by “the elites want to castrate your husband,” “public schools are Marxist brainwashing institutions,” and “feminists are just ugly women.” it seemed to satirize itself. I hope there are some innovative thinkers out there contemplating the valuing of traditional women’s roles such that childcare and domesticity can be genuinely respected, but this book was not it. The author is more invested in patting herself on the back for writing the most creative insults she can muster than improving anything. She HATES trans people and disparages them at every possible moment. 0 stars.
She peppers insults and jokes about trans people through the entire book. A paragraph will have nothing to do with gender and she’ll throw in “but Timmy became Tammy, and now it’s too late” or “safe from something Trauma inducing like a Harry Styles concert or a drag queen show.”
There was almost no practical advice in this book beyond “you should get married, have lots of kids, and stay home.” Very few studies, no anecdotes from any other mother than herself and her mother in law, no real advice. In a 300+ page book, there is time to give real advice and share real thoughts, but there was none, because this author has no advice and wanted to wallow in the joy of bullying others.
For all her talk on femininity and being “normal,” natural, and desirable, her writing is most like the women she hates—explicit, attention-whorish, self-centered, and unkind. She frequently describes women as fleshlights and rented mules, purportedly to discredit sex outside of marriage. As it drags on and on it becomes clear that she just doesn’t have anything better to drive her point home than to say the most jarring thing she can think of, lean into another hyperbole, and make a joke about non binary people.
She peppers insults and jokes about trans people through the entire book. A paragraph will have nothing to do with gender and she’ll throw in “but Timmy became Tammy, and now it’s too late” or “safe from something Trauma inducing like a Harry Styles concert or a drag queen show.”
There was almost no practical advice in this book beyond “you should get married, have lots of kids, and stay home.” Very few studies, no anecdotes from any other mother than herself and her mother in law, no real advice. In a 300+ page book, there is time to give real advice and share real thoughts, but there was none, because this author has no advice and wanted to wallow in the joy of bullying others.
For all her talk on femininity and being “normal,” natural, and desirable, her writing is most like the women she hates—explicit, attention-whorish, self-centered, and unkind. She frequently describes women as fleshlights and rented mules, purportedly to discredit sex outside of marriage. As it drags on and on it becomes clear that she just doesn’t have anything better to drive her point home than to say the most jarring thing she can think of, lean into another hyperbole, and make a joke about non binary people.
July 21, 2024
A witty and engaging read!
I really enjoyed this book, overall it felt like a culture commentary (so if you’re looking for research details or stats, this isn’t that type of book). I found myself laughing at said commentary many times. If you’re already a ‘domestic extremist’, then most of this won’t be anything shocking or new to you. That being said, I still had some moments where I felt I was being lead to contemplate something in a new way. I wish this had been written 5 years ago right when I first got married, I think “budding domestic extremists” or those at least curious about said life style, would benefit the most from it. But even then, it still was enjoyable and thought provoking. Rare to find these type of topics funny, but her writing got me there.
I really enjoyed this book, overall it felt like a culture commentary (so if you’re looking for research details or stats, this isn’t that type of book). I found myself laughing at said commentary many times. If you’re already a ‘domestic extremist’, then most of this won’t be anything shocking or new to you. That being said, I still had some moments where I felt I was being lead to contemplate something in a new way. I wish this had been written 5 years ago right when I first got married, I think “budding domestic extremists” or those at least curious about said life style, would benefit the most from it. But even then, it still was enjoyable and thought provoking. Rare to find these type of topics funny, but her writing got me there.
Read
December 31, 2024I really don’t know how to rate this book, because I agree with nearly everything in it, but I would almost certainly never say it with the venom/crudeness with which Peachy communicates it. It’s the type of book that can only be written under a pseudonym. I also don’t know who this book is targeted toward because it’s incredibly unlikely to win over anyone on the other side of the aisle and more likely only further entrench people wherever they are.
So, I’m very much pro Domestic Extremism, and there are some moments of laugh out loud hilarious wit, but I wish this book was written to actually win people over instead of just scoring cheap shots with vulgarity, because truth is on her side.
So, I’m very much pro Domestic Extremism, and there are some moments of laugh out loud hilarious wit, but I wish this book was written to actually win people over instead of just scoring cheap shots with vulgarity, because truth is on her side.
June 8, 2025
While this book wasn’t revolutionary in presenting any new thoughts for me, because let’s be honest, I was already a domestic extremist (scored high on that quiz at the beginning of the book…lol), I found this book encouraging knowing I’m not alone in my values and my why behind how I choose to live and how I want to raise my future family. The authors wiring style was whitty and sarcastic and I found myself quickly reading through the book with ease and enjoyment. Would definitley recommend to anyone who already feels seen my the title or who is wanting encouragement when it comes to raising kids counter culturally. (Also I’m obsessed with the cover art)
February 20, 2024
Punchy with accurate cultural observations. Could use more gospel though. Cultural changes are impotent and impossible without Christ’s lordship in our lives. Living out our domestic/feminine callings needs to flow from love/devotion to God and his Word. All womanly and manly vocations that start there are fulfilling and world changing. Domestic Extremist points out lies well but her solutions need more gospel strength.
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