Alright we admit it! Sometimes we girls here at the organization are a bit daft. For example, two of us were sooo embarrassed just the other night when we were told that our favorite tv character- Cheryl David – played by Cheryl Hines, is not the same person as Christine Baranski.

Cheryl Hines and daughter Catherine

It made sense. Because Cheryl Hines as Cheryl David in Curb Your Enthusiasm is always the soft, acquiescent and agreeable homemaker wife to incorrigible Larry David. Many may regard Bree Van de Kamp in Desperate Housewives as the ultimate Stepford Wife, but to us, she’s really a caricature of a housewife that was imagined in the mind of the show’s homosexual creator Marc Cherry.

Chery Hines may not appreciate us calling her character a Stepford Wife, but we say it with the deepest sense of praise. Just watch the way she demonstrates brilliant restraint during disagreements with her husband. (Look at the Baby Shower scene of “The Surrogate” episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, after Larry gives a stuff animal to the surrogate mother. As horrified as Cheryl was, she just took a deep breath and held her tongue, refraining from making a scene, contradicting, and embarrassing her impossible husband in front of everyone.

To us, all the niceties and outward trappings of the Stepford Wife – as displayed by Bree Van de Kamp – is nice, but you have to be able to back it up with substance. Cheryl David, is that cheery and agreeable homemaking wife (yes she does leave Larry in one season) who speaks volumes by keeping quiet when she could have easily exploded at her husband. Modern women think nothing of telling their men off on whim. It’s a fascinating breath of fresh air to all of us to see someone who “gives way” to her husband with respect and compassion, and does it with grace.

Christine Baranski

Don’t even ask us how we could have gotten Christine Baranski mixed up with Cheryl Hines. Christine Baranski portrays roles about powerful modern New York women who calls the shots. And that really frightens us.

We’re so happy and relieved to find out they are not the same person.

We sometimes get asked whether our website is a joke. It isn’t. That reply is usually met with an declaration. “Well nobody in their right mind would have the same values as you gals!” Finally, we have come across a book that expounds on many of the “good things” we teach.

Please remember we never tell our men how to behave. We are merely share information with other wives, and try to mentor other less experienced women in our Stepford ways. Scott T. Brown, an elder at Hope Baptist Church in North Carolina has penned a short 85 page booklet that expands on the 12 pillars (“teachings”) of Biblical vision of Womanhood.

What are the 12 pillars? They include a call to celebrate the beauty and joys of woman as the image bearer of gentle and quiet spirits, kind meek hearts that follow the lead of the husband as ordained by the scripture. Women nurture their inner radiance and beauty as a quality that will age well with time. Whether our daughters are naturally gifted or they have acquired a natural passion towards being corporate executives, lawyers, politicians or professionals, they should be taught to renounce all these callings, and instead, answer only to their biblical fulfillment: stay at home, be a submissive and trustful helpmeet to her husband, and multiply greatly. Be a fruitful bearer of the godly seed. What we love about this book is that it speaks in the plain language that we can understand: “make lots of babies” to fill up the churches.

Pillar 2, warns against blurring androgyny lines. Something we closely adhere to when we steer clear of the “women” online who approach us about our organization.

Other pillars include the importance of being a domestic entrepreneur, a teacher of the next generation, a keeper of the home, and a member of the church. The book closes with a short word to fathers on the misleading term “liberation,” and a closing epilogue from the author’s wife.

The writing is short and clear. Unlike Christian books that quote the bible within the page, this book gives you the chapter-verse numbers that you can look up in your own bible. Besides, all us Stepford ladies have already committed these lines to memory. We know them by our hearts! While it is written primarily for daughters and young teen girls, we like the fact that the book is easy to read and comprehend. (I always leave the difficult reading to my sister Carolyn.) Besides, who has the time to read a tome?

We’re just glad we have some back up and support from Mr. Brown’s excellent book. Click on the following link to bring you to The National Center for Family-Integrated Church’s bookstore.

The latest Journal of Child Development reports that childhood obesity and a child’s Body Mass Index rose if his or her mother was a working mother.  Over the years there have been endless studies correlating dismal numbers of unhealthy, unhappy, underperforming, academically failing children to the absence of parenting in the home. Needless to say, knee-jerk reactions and immediate attacks from single working moms are mounted, once again, against us Stay-At-Home moms.  The truth is, you’ll have a greater influence on your child if you are around them throughout the day, as oppose to dropping them off at the day care center.  In my generation, before day cares were all the rage, these kids were merely "latch key kids."  (definition: A latchkey kid or latchkey child is a child who returns from school to an empty home because his or her parent or parents are away at work.)

It’s difficult to find inspiration and encouragement to be a stay-at-home mother, especially in the present economy when everyone needs to pitch in.  Mainstream media is oftentimes hostile to the concept of biblical womanhood – a life that puts husband, family, and home first.  For us, the needs of our family is the realization of the self.  Compare this to the popular notion of self-realization as one having to go out into the world to beat a man at his own game, in a man’s world. We believe that looking after our husband’s happiness and comfort, raising our children properly, and maintaining a home is realizing what John Knox calls "woman in her greatest perfection."

That said, mothers who cook at home are up against hidden dangers in fresh produce that didn’t exist 30 years ago. Hormone grafting, fish DNA grafting (for larger sized fruits and vegetables), artifical preservatives, waxed fruits, pesticides, anti-fungal fertilizers, anti-dusting agents, etc. The list goes on. These are components introduced to extend shelf-life, create more pest-resistance crops, and more attractive looking produce. 

Don’t fall for it.

If you can’t afford organic, the next best thing is to buy locally from your farmer’s market. Even though there’s no guarantee that the farmer doesn’t use genetically manufactured pesticides (you can always befriend him and ask), it’s still many unknown factors taken out of the equation. The First Lady Michelle Obama has recently gotten Walmart to commit to offering healthier foods in their stores, but what they define as “healthy” is less sodium, lower sugar content, and less or no trans fats. There is still a hidden danger in many store-bought foods. That hidden danger is called GMO. What is GMO (Genetically Manufactured Organism)? It’s ready-to-eat, packaged, processed foods. Essentially if it comes packed in a package and you can eat it immediately, it’s a GMO. Frozen dinners, pre-cooked foods, corn-based processed foods are all GMO’s

To look at a list of NON-GMO foods, click on the banner below to go to an organization that lists Non-GMO foods. Don’t forget to download the list for free, and please donate to the institute of responsible technology, if you are able.

Happy cooking and homemaking!

Above is a rundown of what we have come to view as the Betty Crocker figure in our respective times. Now it may initially appear to be a joke, but if you think about it, many things we use to do are no longer done. Just about the only events people dress up for today is Church, Marriage, and Funerals. (In that order). But we still remember the days when our moms dressed up to go shopping, to go on airplane flights, to just any form of travel.

These days, the default is to let it all hang out, “do your thing.” And we think that’s a mistake. Take a look at the 9 Betty’s above? You can pick the odd one out even without reading spectacles!

The advice given in this book is based on Ephesians 5:22-33, Titus 2 – 3, Timothy 2:10-2:12, Colossians 3:18, Proverbs 31 and a few more. In a nutshell, be happy, be delighted, enjoy your food, enjoy loving your husband, cherish your kids, have pride in running your home, be modest in your dress and adornment, take care of yourself, take care of your physical attributes, be pure, don’t fool around, be attractive, be always available emotionally and sexually to your husband, compliment your husband, create the mood, be kind to your children, be kind to your husband, don’t question him and if you do, let him make the final decision, just trust god. And of course, be submissive, obedient, meek, gentle, and a quiet helpmeet to your husband.

We ladies at the organization see absolutely nothing wrong with any of this. We feel it is the natural order of things, and the natural position of the wife. It’s worked for hundreds of years in cultures all around the world. Feminism – the kind that encouraged women to abandon homemaking and go compete with men outside the home – ran out of steam in less than 25 years. It’s not trendy to be a homemaker, let alone a religious one. But trends come and go, sound marriages last a lifetime.

The author saves the dynamite for the last chapter. Shrill naysayers will undoubtedly scream murder when a woman is instructed to be submissive to her husband. But Mahaney states very specifically on pg 137 that the Book of Genesis, at the very beginning of the Bible states that both male and female are created in the image of god, and therefore equal. It isn’t about inferiority or being in a demeaning position. Submission, in this context, echos the church’s submission to Christ, and Christ’s sacrificial love. The chapter “The Beauty of Submission” goes on to say that at no point, was there a call for women to submit to any and every man, only wife to husband. Also, she does advise that when husbands makechoices that are detrimental to the family “requesting assistance in such circumstances is helping the husband.” I have seen reviewers say that the author recommends praying for all situations. That’s simply inaccurate.

Even if you are not religious, there are many chapters of sound advice. If you are familiar with advice books from the 1900s, you will see many familiar ideas here. As an added bonus, look especially for the passages quoting a number of husbands on how they are made to feel cherished by their wives, as well as a section on children talking about the tenderness of their moms.

The book is separated into three sections. The Main Body by Carolyn Mahaney (158 pages), A Study Guide and Questions section corresponding to each chapter (22 pages), and a short appendix with footnotes and bibliography that points to further reading.

“With the high divorce rates of today, is a happy, lifetime marriage a realistically attainable goal?” This is the opening lines of a beautiful passage in Phyllis Schlafly’s 1977 book The Power of the Positive Woman (ISBN-13: 978-0870003738) entitled “The Price of A Happy Marriage.” Here is a book written by a sweetheart of the silent majority, arguing against the Equal Rights Amendment on the legal implications of the changes demanded by the radical feminists. Since Phyllis was and still is heavily involve in legal issues (she has a doctorate degree in law) much of the book cites historical bills, amendments, legal issues, and legal cases, there are passages on what it means to be a Positive Woman, whether one be a young, middle aged, and elderly positive woman.

The Price of A Happy Marriage is a 6 page subsection that reads like a portable, condensed version of all the great marriage books written between the late 50s and early 70s. Because this book is out of print and difficult to obtain, we are going to share a few of our favorite lines from the Happy Marriage with you. The following lines are some of sensible advice on promoting the traditional marriage as we here at the organization revere:

The Positive Woman knows that there are two main pillars of a happy marriage and that she has the capability to build both. The first is that a wife must appreciate and admire her husband. Whereas a woman’s chief emotional need is active (i.e., to love), a man’s prime emotional need is passive (i.e., to be appreciated or admired).

The Positive Woman recognizes this fundamental difference and builds her male/female relationship accordingly. She knows that this does not in any sense make her inferior, but that it is one key to personal fulfillment for both herself and her husband.

The answer is always very simple: She knows how to make him feel like a man—and to remember always that she is a woman.

A satisfying and rewarding relationship between a man and a woman can last through the years only if she is willing to give him the appreciation and the admiration his manhood craves. There are a thousand ways a woman can devise—public and private, obvious and subtle, physical and intellectual. It makes little difference how—so long as it is personal, pervasive, perennial, and genuine.

It is true (and properly so) that the husband is naturally possessive about his wife’s sexual favors, but he is seldom possessive of his wife’s mind, time, or talents….so long as he knows that he is Number One in her life, and that she needs him.

She acquired the key to her power when she erected that first pillar —admiration and appreciation of her husband as a man, as provider and protector, as the father of her children, and, yes, even as head of the household.

No other quality can do so much to ensure a happy marriage as a happy disposition.

One of the mistaken pieces of advice often given young people is “be yourself.” Maybe you are a hard-to-get-along-with person with an irritable disposition who spends the evening reciting and reliving the troubles of the day and blaming them on others. Don’t be yourself.- Be the person you would like to be—a cheerful person who sheds a little sunshine into an otherwise gloomy day, who sees the silver lining in every cloud, who keeps a sense of humor in the face of every reverse. A cheerful disposition will keep a happy marriage decades longer than a pretty face.

By the way, we stumbled upon a quotation from Comedy Central’s Ugly Americans which reminded us very much of the final Schlafly excerpt above: Here it is:

“They say people don’t change, that we are dominated by our genetic code. But you can’t hide from your faults forever. It’s probably best to just try to be the best versions of ourselves we can and not to dwell on the versions of ourselves we’d like to forget .” -Ugly Americans, Better Off Undead

Marsha’s Drake’s The Submissive Wife is a short novel that expounds on the biblical teachings of Titus and Ephesians, primarily those involving a wife’s biblical submission to her husband. The novel is written in an easy to read format, documenting the days of one Martha Christian, a housewife / mother (of three boys), whose liberation from the home is awakened one day when she is called to duty as a smock lady at the local hospital.

After suffering an accident that puts her in a cast, things begin to go downhill, as Martha repeatedly defies her husband’s wishes for her to stay at home. To cure herself from this need for “self-expression,” she tries a number of remedies, anywhere from shopping herself out of a rut, to taking different jobs. Don’t let the title of the book fool you. It may be 170 pages, but it is 169 pages of a woman being everything but a submissive wife. One wonders many times along the way whether it is possible to be so at odds with the joys of homemaking. Martha continually quotes the scripture- even at one point to a teenage girl who has an aggressive career-oriented mother who is separating from the husband – but she herself then neglects following her biblical advice and goes back to rebelling. In that sense, it seems a little contrived.

Honestly, we girls at the Stepford Organization would have caved in at Chapter 1 and “quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness” and obedience to our husbands’ wishes.

Needless to say, the moment finally arrives, but with a unique twist. It’s got a bit of everything: humor, emergencies, cuteness, a smattering of intellectual quotes, cheating, flirting bosses, break-ins, shoplifting, juvenile delinquency, all in a familial setting. So if you tend to wince at some of these situations, you may want to proceed with care. Pay attention to her boss outside if the domestic sphere – Drundle – who seems to be a dominating male figure which comes into competition with her husband’s.

Sci-Fi author Lester del Rey

My sister Carolyn’s in the midst of writing a review and mini-analyses of all the Stepford movies/tv movies/remake. In her travels and research, she’s come across an interesting tidbit. Long long before Ira Levin’s original novella The Stepford Wives in 1972, science fiction writer Lester del Rey wrote a short story about a robotic wife entitled Helen O’ Loy. The story was published in 1938.

The story is about two scientist who builds a wife that cooks and cleans. It turns out she’s very good at what she does, but since it was in the early stages of development, she was smothering the man she was with. But as things progressed, Helen realizes how much she wants to be a wife and a human (in that order). The men try to pull the plug, but at the last moment, one decides he couldn’t do it, and ends up marrying her. The men age with time, but Helen doesn’t. After he husband dies, she requests the surviving friend to give her an artificial death by way of acid (yikes).

You can read the entire story here online at google books: Lester del Rey’s Helen O’ Loy

Here is our e-book review for Alicia Colon’s Cindy McCain: Elegance, Good Will and Hope for a New America by Alicia Colon The book is only in ebook format (click on the photos to go to amazon’s product page)and will not be published as an actual book. It was written during the 2008 presidential campaign. Even though Cindy McCain is often seen or labeled a Stepford Wife, this is a quick and insightful read into how Mrs. McCain is in fact, not a Stepford Wife. Not that we have anything against the label. We adored all the qualities embedded in the entirely unnecessary vitriolic hurled at her in the name of "liberal open-mindedness."

 Cindy McCain is a Stepford Wife. The only opinions she has are the ones John gives her. She only says what John tells her to say. Cindy McCain doesn’t have an original throught at all in her mind. She is an absolute milquetoast. She only does what John tells her to do.

Here is a great line from the book that got us ladies chatting an entire afternoon!

"[Cindy] told me many times that she wanted to be the perfect wife and mother, and she wanted to be everything that John McCain wanted her to be," said longtime friend Betsey Bayless. "And she pretty much was the perfect wife and mother, but, youknow, she had to come to the realization that everything isn’t perfect."

I read somewhere that this book was pending print publication IF John McCain had won the presidency in 2008. So don’t hold your breath for the physical book being out soon. Also, note there are NO images on this e-book. You will have to supplement your reading with Image Googling and Youtubing "Cindy McCain" (add the search word ‘HALO’ and enjoy!)

Ah where to begin? Needless to say, we at the Stepford Wives Organization were charmed when we heard about a public figure being continually compared to our way of life. We understand it’s meant in a derisive way, but we take no offense. We understand it’s not for everyone. Still, we adore Cindy McCain, her meticulous presentation, her gracious ways, her great humanitarian track record, her "family first" philosophy, and her "stand by your man" duties as the perfect wife. Many of these qualities are hallmarks of iconic heiresses from the past.

So why was there such vitriolic savagery online and in the media towards Mrs. John McCain? I think there’s the ever-present class system and prejudices at work. In the States – though many want to believe its a country where all are created equal and should be treated as such – affluence continues to arouse an invidious jealousy among the unwashed masses. Combine this with arrogant libs with no formal training in good manners and a population eager to flaunt their broadmindedness by supporting the other candidate, one could understand (though not forgive) the uncharitable words that were flung at Cindy McCain during the election of 2008.

Alicia Colon’s book addressed this very topic. She even quotes invectives hurled at our heroine from online comment boards and media articles. But Cindy McCain is so much more. Opting for a low-keyed presence, performing and working with charitable organizations (Operation Smile, HALO (landmine removal), and CARE) and founded AVMT (American Voluntary Medical Team). Mrs. McCain is not one of those donors who writes a check and calls it the day. Without media coverage, as early as twenty years ago, she was already traveling to war-torn third world countries to work with the less fortunate. Colon writes that McCain wants to make sure the money goes to the right people, an increasing problem (read Linda Polman’s Crisis Caravan) for people who know and are serious about humanitarian aid. We all mourned the passing of Princess Di, but here is a person (one of America’s own) who is using her riches and visibility to do meaningful global acts of humanity and what did she get from the general public? It was downright disgraceful!

Her generosity was present early on in her life. Attaining a masters in Special Ed., Cindy Hensley returned to Arizona to teach children with Down Syndrome at impoverished Avondale. When she inherited her father’s beer distribution business, she chose to carry on the tradition of taking care of their long time clients. At the same time she began her international humanitarian work when she discovered the atrocious conditions in a Micronesia Hospital E.R. after a diving accident. One realizes how admirable this is when you compare it to the other American "heiresses" of present day who are more concerned with partying and releasing sex tapes of themselves.

Colon could have done a more thorough job. This book has a very "rushed" feel to it, focusing a bit too much on John McCain at many points in the book, as if it were supplementary reading for undecided voters during 2008. Colon sometimes goes on the offensive against liberal attacks, which is off-topic. To be fair, Mrs. McCain is ill-at-ease to be in the public limelight, so her sense of privacy is admirable and given due respect. The author covers all the major scandals that hit Mrs. McCain (the possible romantic fling with John while he was still technically married to Carol McCain, her addiction to Vicodin (to tame back pains) that led to pocketed prescription from AVMT, and the mysterious sister from Jim Hensley’s previous marriage). The others, involving her adopted daughter Bridget, though mentioned, and serves as an example of the vicious gossip the McCains had to endure, should not be given the dignity of acknowledgment here.

Now with the election over, and the mean-spirited anti-McCain savages back in their caves, we can slowly admire the work of a quiet humanitarian and a genuine philanthropist.

Our growing list can be found here: Stepford FAQ

7. “Does the Stepford Organization Support Mail Order Brides?”

No. Absolutely not. We have asked the webmaster to be diligent in blocking all Mail Order Bride banners on our site. The moment we catch one, we ask him to ban the banner!

To date, we have not heard a single success story pertaining to mail order brides. They are usually Russian or Asian women who come here pretending to be passive and docile. But time and again, they always turn out to be intensively ambitious individuals with the set agenda of immigration. We have heard stories (from relatives) of initially submissive mail order wives turning into hyper-materialistic, label-conscious women, a super-deluxe grotesque caricature of the self-centered Western woman.

We even know of an in-law with an imported wife whose former husband had been driven to drink, only to meet with a mysterious and fatal road accident. Armed with his entire inheritance, this naturalized widow has since hooked up with the in-law, alienated him from his entire family and he, in turn, has developed a dangerous drinking problem.

So No no no! Stay away from mail order brides! They’re not all they are cracked up to be. If you are looking for the genuine article, always look locally. Stepford is a homegrown product. The only way you can find a genuinely acquiescent and obedient wife is to find someone who has no ulterior motive. No hidden agenda to gain citizenship or monetary assets. When you come across the genuine U.S. made, homegrown Stepford wife, you know she’ll stay with you for good, and abide by your wishes because she enjoys doing so and wants to, not because she needs to. A considerable distinction.