How will we survive #MomTok?!
In this episode, we kick off our coverage of Hulu’s Secret Lives of Mormon Wives by discussing storylines from Season 1 and give you our impressions on the new series.
Caitlin: M. Yeah. So Sister Wives was kind of the beginning of all this, like, Mormon trauma.
Sharon: This is like, you’re saying sister wives walked.
Caitlin: Sister wives walked. So housewives could, like, skip. Yeah, so these women could run.
Sharon: Although sister wives was not like, sister Wives is the patriarchy.
Caitlin: Oh, it is. And we only had to deal with one husband, and he was bad enough. And so maybe that’s why this is so bad. It’s like if, they were all married to Cody.
Sharon: Sister wives. Hi, this is Caitlin, and this is Sharon.
Caitlin: And welcome to Real Housewives on Real Housewives, where we unravel housewives story threads and keep the tea flowing.
Sharon: So chic.
Caitlin: Hold onto your righteous indignation.
Sharon: This week, we’re digging into the brand new Hulu series, the secret lives of Mormon wives, season one. And this is our introduction to the series.
Caitlin: Okay, so we’re gonna treat this kind of like a book club episode and just sort of go through questions and talk about what we liked about the series, what we didn’t like about the series. So this is kind of following on the heels of real housewives of Salt Lake City and sister wives before it. It’s our whole, like, Mormon infatuation. So this show follows the lives of mormon moms who have a large TikTok following and our hash girlbosses, which, you know, we love. The show follows how they reconcile their religion and being modern women.
Sharon: Yeah, supposedly.
Caitlin: Allegedly. Okay. The thing that we noticed the most was watching it. It’s a different demographic than the housewives.
Sharon: Very good.
Caitlin: These women. Let’s read their names. It is Taylor, Franke, Demi, Jen, Jessie, Layla, Macy, Mikayla, and Whitney. Those are our main eight wives. Moms. So they are mostly in their twenties and thirties, whereas in housewives, we’re talking about slightly older, more established moms or wives, as you will. also, these women are actually more wives in a lot of ways, except for one.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: So everyone’s married except for Layla.
Sharon: None of them have a career outside of being, like, influencers, correct?
Caitlin: Not really. Except that Jesse has the hair salon.
Sharon: Oh, that’s right. That’s right. Jessie.
Caitlin: She has the one I was kind of. Yeah. And Macy’s starting the.
Sharon: She’s starting the business.
Caitlin: But that’s, like, based off the tic tac, I think. So. You’re right. They all have a mom background. so they’re almost more housewives than the housewives, because even Layla, who’s not married, was married. I mean, they all have been married at one point. Yeah, or multiple times, as the case may be. Okay. We had a problem liking the women early on. Why do you think that was true? Cause initially, it’s like four episodes in.
Caitlin: I said it to you. I said it to my friend JD. I was like, I don’t like any of these women.
Caitlin: And then I kind of changed my mind. And you kind of start to, I don’t know, feel sorry for some of them.
Sharon: Yeah, exactly.
Caitlin: But I don’t like any of them. they’re not like, oh, my God, it’s Lisa Barlow. Like, I don’t feel that way.
Sharon: Yes. And I said when I started watching it, I was like, I really dislike these people.
Caitlin: Yeah.
Sharon: And I didn’t know if it was them. So I was wondering, is it a generational thing?
Caitlin: That’s what I was saying.
Sharon: Is it. Cause we’re 40 and they’re mostly in their twenties? Cause the one I can kinda stand, maybe, is Jessie, and she’s 31.
Caitlin: Yeah, she’s older, so she seems more.
Sharon: Is it just because to us, they’re.
Caitlin: Young, and that’s what I can’t tell. Like, do we just feel like we’re moms and these are, like, silly kids.
Sharon: But they have kids, like, our age. That’s what’s weird.
Caitlin: That is what’s weird.
Sharon: So we would be peers at the school pickup line.
Caitlin: Well, that’s depressing, because, you know, they dress really nicely at school pickup. and you know how we look at school pickup. Why do you think, like, okay. I would label it as a trashier housewives.
Sharon: Yes.
Caitlin: Do you think that’s generational, or do you think they just are? They are trashier.
Sharon: And it’s funny because they’re supposedly religious, right.
Caitlin: And you’d expect more.
Sharon: And so even though they’re more scandalized by, like, the magic Mike stripper stuff than, like, for example, they’ve done that stuff on.
Caitlin: But then Sutton was equally Sutton.
Sharon: Right, but even. Why do they seem trashier?
Caitlin: Right?
Sharon: Realistically, they’re probably not. They might even be less trashy.
Caitlin: I know, and I can’t decide if that’s an age thing. Like, but I think they’re younger.
Sharon: They just.
Caitlin: Because they’re younger. But I think across the board, we would think that.
Sharon: I think they’re just maybe because they’re not as wealthy.
Caitlin: That could be.
Sharon: We see them as more wannabes. Whereas the housewives, I mean, like, Kyle.
Caitlin: Richards, there is an establishedness to the housewives. Like, they lived their lives, and they.
Sharon: Have a story and they’re rich. They are. They’re not, like, trying to be influencers it’s like they were models and stuff.
Caitlin: I know, and I can’t decide also whether it’s the fact that, like, these are all co workers. Like, they all work at the same, you know, like, the same TikTok company.
Sharon: Exactly.
Caitlin: Also, here’s another thing I can’t decide. Is it because it’s TikTok? I think TikTok, is trashier. TikTok is the trashier Instagram. I wait for TikTok stuff to show up on Instagram, like a normal seasonal.
Sharon: Yeah. I refuse to go figure out what Momtalk was because I refused to look at TikTok unless you send something to me, and I know I have to watch it. No.
Caitlin: And I actually went on Instagram to see if I could watch the TikTok stuff, and only some of them post the same things to Instagram, which is upsetting to me as an older person.
Sharon: We just lost. If we did have a younger viewer, which we don’t, we just lost them.
Caitlin: Exactly. Sorry. Younger viewer. Do you think the idea of mom talk is what also makes us look down on it a little bit? Like, it’s not. Initially, I thought maybe it was, like, advice and cooking videos and some of that stuff where you actually, this is gonna sound bad, but get something from it. It’s mostly dancing videos. It’s mostly, like, silly things where they dub over the sound, over the other. I mean, it’s like, little bites and clips of your life, which it might just be the fact that we don’t do that. Yeah. And, like, we don’t really find TikTok matches how our lives work. Like, it is more our kids. Like, when my kids are watching stuff on TikTok, I’m like, come on, it’s TikTok. You know?
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: And then when I’m on Instagram, I’m like, this is grown up material. Instagram is for smart people. But so, like, I don’t know whether it’s just that. It’s like, that idea of, you’re just like, oh, silly high schoolers, and it just feels like they’re not our generation, so they seem silly. Like, were we silly in our twenties? No, but that’s what’s funny to me. I feel like we were good girls in a lot of ways, and we followed the rules better than these women followed the rules.
Sharon: Yes.
Caitlin: And we never would have shown any of my bodily parts on tv, even if I had them surgically done.
Sharon: I think we probably did more. They would probably think we did morally wrong things, but absolutely, I would have considered myself less trashy.
Caitlin: Me too, somehow. And I think that’s interesting. And I can’t quite put my finger on what that is.
Sharon: Maybe we think we’re smarter than them.
Caitlin: okay. I do think. But at the same time, we do not have, like, 2 million followers on TikTok. So there you go. So they’re richer, so they’re rich. They’re smart. They’re more savvy than we are.
Sharon: Most of them, I think. No, I really don’t think a lot of them are very intelligent. Well, Jessie seems smart to me.
Caitlin: I think so.
Sharon: I think some of them are smart.
Caitlin: Jesse’s more normal. Yeah. In a way. Like, she has a business life. She’s, she seems, she’s more grounded. Yeah.
Sharon: God, you know, I really, I’m gonna mull over this. This is gonna drive me nuts. Why do they suck?
Caitlin: I can’t put my finger on it because I feel like we’re not the only people who are. Like, these women aren’t likable.
Sharon: Maybe they’re just not likable.
Caitlin: Maybe they’re just not likable. And maybe they cast them that way and they showed them that way.
Sharon: And, I mean, maybe that shows you the genius of, like, housewives. Why aren’t they so likable? Why do we love certain housewives even when they are morally objectionable or this or that?
Caitlin: Or they’ve done things like goddess Shayna Beador and have a DUI. We’re still like, don’t come for Shayna Beador. Yeah. And maybe that is the genius of it. And also the fact that I feel like on, housewives, you can go from one season hating someone and the next season loving that person. They’re still the same person. So it’s how the show is showing them and how they’ve grown in the show. I mean, maybe it’s like, with more seasons and more growth, you’ll learn to like the women. Like, maybe that’s what we’re used to. Like, we’re used to seeing that, like, evolution, and there’s very little evolution or married.
Sharon: Maybe it’s because we know their job is to be liked. Their job is to be fake.
Caitlin: Yeah.
Sharon: So.
Caitlin: And they even kind of called it, like, we make silly videos. I think they said that at one point.
Sharon: So in some way, we, as just older people are kind of, like, disgusted and jealous that they can get rich doing that.
Caitlin: I am jealous of it. I am.
Sharon: Like, that’s what it comes down to is jealousy. Because if we could do it, we would do it too.
Caitlin: and it’s a different generation because when you think about our kids, like, my kids have both been like, I want to be a youtuber.
Sharon: Yeah, exactly.
Caitlin: And I’m like, that’s not a job.
Sharon: But it is.
Caitlin: It is. But it is a job. And it’s like a handful of people make it. And that handful of people, which.
Sharon: Yeah, why them?
Caitlin: That’s interesting. And it’s interesting to center it around religion like that. Partially it’s because the community, like, I think community in Utah is so much different than community elsewhere because the community is so centered around religion in the church. And that’s not a common thing as much anymore. Like, it’s sort of a medieval thought to be like, we’re centered around the church. The village revolves around the church. Yes. So that’s really old timey. And that’s weird that like, that’s the thing that brings them together first. And maybe that’s confusing too.
Sharon: Yeah. We don’t understand.
Caitlin: Okay, here’s another thing I don’t understand. Why are there no good men on the show?
Sharon: Oh, my gosh, the husbands.
Caitlin: and this may be part of it. We tend to love the husbands on housewives. We love the Jersey husbands.
Sharon: Oh my God, you’re right.
Caitlin: We love like a lot of the Beverly Hills husbands. Like, we love the good husbands, Mauricio and PK.
Sharon: I love them. Oh, you are so right.
Caitlin: I think the husband suck on this show.
Sharon: They are horrible.
Caitlin: And the ones that seemed maybe normal, we didn’t get to see exactly like Michaela in some interviews said, my husband’s actually really funny.
Caitlin: But we saw 2 seconds of him and Macy’s husband didn’t seem terrible. Maybe, but it’s hard to know because the other ones are so bad that you’re like, well, how are these guys gonna be? We just wait and see how bad they are.
Sharon: And that I don’t think it’s just cause they’re young, they’re just douchey and. Gross and dumb and sexist.
Caitlin: And when you look at the divorce rate is huge in this group. And it’s huge probably in housewives too.
Sharon: Okay, well, there’s eight of them and three.
Caitlin: Taylor’s divorced, Demi’s divorced. Jen, Jesse’s divorced, Layla’s divorced, Macy’s not. But her first husband died in a car crash. We’ll get into her episode. Yeah, it’s interesting. I mean, not husband, but first partner. They weren’t married.
Sharon: Oh, so four out of eight, half of them are divorced.
Caitlin: Yeah. Wow. And I don’t know for sure about McKayla and Whitney, but I don’t think so.
Sharon: Huh? I don’t think Whitney.
Caitlin: Yeah. I mean, and a lot of it is they get married so young, right?
Sharon: And, I mean, I’m good for them for getting divorced, but I think it.
Caitlin: Yeah, there’s a bravery level there that I think is interesting, because I would think with the way the church feels about religion, the way their parents probably feel, the community feels, it’s actually shocking to me that there are this many divorces and not just these miserable marriages.
Sharon: Maybe divorce isn’t as frowned upon as.
Caitlin: I don’t know.
Sharon: They say it is.
Caitlin: I kind of wonder.
Sharon: I kind of wonder. Like, it used to be found on prime, but now, really, no one cares anymore.
Caitlin: I know it kind of feels like.
Sharon: Maybe just a few old grandparents care.
Caitlin: But I thought you were stuck on those planets with your ex husband.
Sharon: Oh, you have to stay with your ex husband on the plane.
Caitlin: I thought so. I thought that’s how that works.
Sharon: But then what happens when you marry the new guy?
Caitlin: I guess he goes to the planet. I don’t know. I guess.
Sharon: Share a planet.
Caitlin: I think so. It’s a whole planet.
Sharon: What?
Caitlin: The dark side.
Sharon: Someone new.
Caitlin: And I know that’s what’s confusing to me.
Sharon: This planet isn’t thing enough.
Caitlin: So how religious do we think they actually are?
Sharon: This is really confusing to me. It’s very confusing because, okay, for example, in Salt Lake city, Lisa Barlow, we’re like, hey, she wears more revealing clothing, and she has an alcohol company, and she drinks Thai coke, but she never goes around saying things like, the church is sexist. And she doesn’t, call the church out on things and act like she is mad at the church for how it treats women.
Caitlin: I think a fair amount of women did are not actually in the church. I thought some had left the church.
Sharon: Okay. Cause I got the impression, like, jessie, if you would have told me to pick, I would be like, jesse’s not in the church.
Caitlin: Yeah, I don’t think she has. I feel like I read somewhere that Mikayla wasn’t, but I’m not 100% sure on that.
Sharon: Like, is it demi or demi? Demi. I don’t know. Whatever her name is.
Caitlin: I think she went by Demi.
Sharon: Demi.
Caitlin: But it’s demi Moore, so I’m confused.
Sharon: Yeah, I think it’s Demi. I would have guessed she’s out of the church. So I don’t know. Are they talking about it like, oh, the mormon church? Because they grew up in it, and they’re like, the mormon church doesn’t want women to do this? Or are they saying it while they are actively in it, trying to change it? I don’t understand.
Caitlin: A lot of people will clarify. I grew up Mormon. I’m not Mormon anymore.
Sharon: Ah.
Caitlin: These women weren’t as clear about that. And I think it’s partially because the show title is. I mean, I don’t know that. It’s not like they’re hiding it, but it’s not like they want it. They want that to be the connecting factor.
Caitlin: But it is like when Heather gay said, I want to be Elisa Barlow Mormon, like, most of them are Lisa Barlow Mormons, but actually even more extreme.
Sharon: Yeah. And I guess there’s that whole thing like we learned with Heather where it’s like, you know, where Whitney had to sign that thing, so she’s officially not, you know, like, are you.
Caitlin: Oh, so, yeah, maybe you’re still in.
Sharon: There or you’re still kind of, like, culturally, but you’re. Are you officially.
Caitlin: Because they were saying they can count you as the tax numbers or whatever. Right. Wasn’t that what they were saying something? So, yeah. And cult, I think there’s like a. A culturally mormon kind of idea, too.
Sharon: Because you grew up that way. You’re still gonna talk about it because it is your life to some degree.
Caitlin: Exactly.
Sharon: do you think that the ones that are saying, like, we’re gonna change the Mormon faith and we’re gonna change things, for one, do you think they actually are?
Caitlin: No.
Sharon: No.
Caitlin: I don’t know. I think it’s good to show a more modern church, because I think that church especially gets shown as the really old, original tenets. But maybe that’s true of all churches. That’s kind of. I think that’s kind of a common thread, but I don’t know that they. Okay. If I were to compare them, I would say the real Housewives of Salt Lake City does more, and they’re not all Mormon, but does more to show a modern picture of religion because they also showed different, you know, faiths within it. And they did a good job. They were like, they were the religion housewives, but they weren’t all mormonization. So they kind of showed many sides of Utah, and that was interesting. This is more homogeneous. Like, we printed out all the pictures, and they printed too large on our printer, and Sharon was like, they just all look like the same person. And they do. It’s like they have similar hair, they have similar makeup, styles, everything. So it’s hard to see a big difference when what you’re seeing is kind of the same from each person. It’s like you’re just seeing very tiny levels of the same thing. And so, I don’t know, it’s nice to see the women making the money, but then the husbands were awful to them about it in a lot of senses. So I felt like, how are and the husband, I mean, what they expected from them and when they went to Vegas and they couldn’t do things.
Caitlin: It didn’t feel like a modern relationship.
Sharon: It did not.
Caitlin: And it felt very worse than I would have thought. And that was upsetting. So I don’t think they showed it that way. I think that there is a lot of like versus the patriarchy and new women in the Mormon church. I’m not sure these are the women to show it.
Sharon: See, this is my fear. My fear is that these women come.
Caitlin: On and they say like they’re representing it.
Sharon: Yeah, we’re, we’re taking on the patriarchy and this is the new modern church. And you can be a strong woman and be in it, but you really can’t.
Caitlin: No.
Sharon: And that Chippendale show showed that.
Sharon: So they’re them acting like it.
Caitlin: Yeah.
Sharon: Makeshi seem like women. Oh. Like I can be in this or I can act like I have freedom. I almost feel like that’s worse.
Caitlin: I think it’s worse.
Sharon: It’s like, what do you call it when you’re coating it? Like you’re making it look better than it is?
Caitlin: It’s kind of sugar coating.
Sharon: Yeah, exactly. I feel like it’s almost sugar coating it. Better to be like, look, no, this is how it is. And this sucks. And if you’re in it, you know, this is. You’re not gonna be an independent woman.
Caitlin: It reminds me of the woman on Mauricio show who had, like, the, you know, hash girlbosspillow. And we were like, but she’s a terrible boss. Oh, yeah. She shouldn’t have that pillow. And it’s kind of like this. I’m not sure they should have the pillow either. Like, just say, this is what we’re doing. Like, we’re showing the next generation of Mormons, and we are the next generation of Mormons. And maybe we’re a little more shocking, but to say, like, we’re changing it, especially when we don’t know how many of them are actually in the church.
Sharon: Right.
Caitlin: It’s like, if you’re not in the church or you were kicked out of the church, or you’re separated from the church, then that’s not proving that the church will accept you as you are.
Caitlin: It’s proving the church would like you to get out. Like, with how they’re gay.
Sharon: Good point.
Caitlin: It kind of just shows that, and that doesn’t make it. In a way, it almost sets it back. And that’s kind of not what I expected, and especially not from how they pitched the show. Let’s also talk about how they pitched the show.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: Because constantly, all of the materials and everything that came out before were saying there’s this huge scandal, there’s this soft, swinging scandal. And that’s what they. They made it sound like all these women were in it.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: And then it turns out it’s kind of just Taylor and all the other women are like, not me. Not. I said the flat. I wasn’t there. I went to the party, but I left early. I left before the cops came.
Sharon: I didn’t inhale.
Caitlin: I didn’t inhale. Yeah. I didn’t know what they were doing. Is that what they were doing? Anyway, I’m not saying they were all there because I think a lot of these women didn’t know each other as well as the show is pitching that they knew each other. I’m not sure that they are as close from what I’ve kind of read. Some of the women, actually went through interviews to get in, so I don’t know how of a core group that these women are, but they made it sound like they were all involved, and then it was just Taylor, and it was just the first episode and what is.
Sharon: Okay, so, first of all, and I didn’t want to even google this soft swing, I’m assuming is, like, you made out with other people, but maybe didn’t.
Caitlin: Go all the way. It’s not. It’s not hitting a home run, but.
Sharon: Like, what is that? So that is the mormon version of swinging.
Caitlin: They also made it. No, it’s just soft swinging.
Sharon: It’s like a doing. What is the thing where you sit in a group when you’re a teenager and you spin the bottle?
Caitlin: Yeah, it’s kind of like that. But I think it’s like other stuff. Like, I mean, I think it’s like stuff. We’re trying to be mom friendly.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: I feel like it’s like everything but hitting a home run. Like, you could do all the other.
Sharon: Stuff, but in front of each other.
Caitlin: Yes, because they made it sound like you stood. I don’t know if that’s true. They made it sound like you were standing next to your partner.
Sharon: Which? Your partner or the other. The new partner.
Caitlin: No, like your old. Like, maybe you still stayed near the other person. I don’t know.
Sharon: While you’re with the other.
Caitlin: Okay.
Sharon: I really just want someone to say it.
Caitlin: It does sound like a middle school party that got out of control. It’s like the closet thing or whatever.
Sharon: Seven minutes and heaven.
Caitlin: Exactly.
Sharon: Oh, my God.
Caitlin: And then what we’re learning is that taylor crossed that line. So, like, I think she actually slept with somebody.
Sharon: Yeah, because it sounds like. Well, she said, like, you invited these other people in, and it sounds like she fell in love with one of them.
Caitlin: That’s what I got. Or at least wanted to sleep with one of them. Yeah, that was the vibe.
Sharon: Wait, so they are. Okay, so they’re like those, What do you call it? Those religious people in high school that are, like, super. What’s the word? I’m like, I can’t talk today. But where they think they’re better than everyone else. Oh, because they’re not swingers.
Caitlin: They did everything more, like righteous and more like,
Sharon: Yeah, so we just made out with each other.
Caitlin: It’s like, it doesn’t count if you don’t cross that line. Yeah, like, I’m still technically pure.
Sharon: I want to say something. We’d have to edit it out.
Caitlin: Yeah, you could tell me later. Okay. Okay, guys, that’s for the after show on Patreon. Just kidding. Okay. I think they wanted this to be so shocking, and then they gave us nothing. And they only gave it to us in, like, the first, I don’t know, 20 minutes of the episode. And then we had that first episode, the premiere, which was basically, like, everything bad Taylor did. And then we jump in time.
Sharon: Yeah, that was so bizarre.
Caitlin: Which is also weird.
Sharon: Why did they. Wait, why did they go a whole year?
Caitlin: So what? I. I think that. I wonder if they were trying to film kind of a different show. Like, I wonder if they were trying and wanting to talk about the scandal. And so that’s what it was pitched as to networks. That’s what it was pitched as, all these things. Then it turns out all these women that they got, like, they probably wanted women that were in the scandal, and those women were like, uh-huh. So then they ended up with these others. And I think it was like, this is what we started with, but what we’re ending with has to be a different thing because that’s not.
Sharon: So they had to go more towards the actual mom and wait for Taylor to ever.
Caitlin: I almost wonder if they were gonna drop the show. Like, I wonder if they were like, this isn’t working. Then she got arrested for domestic violence. And I wonder if they were like, well, okay, we do have something here. Like, we have something interesting. And how are the other women? Are they like, how will mom talk survive this? They say that a lot. everything online is like, if you have a bad day, how will mom talk survive this?
Sharon: Can we just talk about mom talk? Okay. Because again, I told you, if you still look at TikTok to see. So my understanding.
Sharon: Is that they are all influencers. They all have their own influencer channels. And then they also do stuff as a group and dance together.
Caitlin: So what’s embarrassing is I went and googled, like, I thought there was an actual account called Momtalk.
Sharon: Yeah, like, I did too.
Caitlin: It’s like everyone has their own individual accounts, and so I feel like it’s just like a loose umbrella category.
Sharon: So they just do stuff together to, like, kind of, like, boost each other. Exactly.
Caitlin: Yes.
Sharon: And they’re all Mormon, which we’re trying.
Caitlin: To do more of. If anyone wants.
Sharon: Yeah, if anyone wants to be, you.
Caitlin: Know, if you want to cross over with us, let us know.
Sharon: Yeah. Yeah. The prosecutors, true crime obsessed. Who else is out there? Case file.
Caitlin: Oh, yeah.
Sharon: Okay. They’re my faves.
Caitlin: So we just need some, like, something really scandalous.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: yeah, I think that basically it’s a loose umbrella term. And I think that what they want is, it’s like one of them is doing really well. So if they cross over with others, but there’s just a lot of dancing, and I think that’s TikTok in general, but the dancing.
Sharon: Oh, my God. So all it is like, are you.
Caitlin: Saying that you don’t want to start a real househouse and real housewives dance TikTok with me?
Sharon: Oh, my God.
Caitlin: You know what our kids would be great at?
Sharon: Oh, my God.
Caitlin: You’ve got it. You know what?
Sharon: So they do the dancing. they do the little hand movements, and they do the duck lips, and then they mouth the words. They gotta mouth the words.
Caitlin: You do.
Sharon: I can’t.
Caitlin: I can’t do the duck clips. So unless I go get some sort of, like, botoxy thing going on, I can’t do it.
Sharon: Like. Yeah, like, and then this whole thing, and then it says, like, pov, you’re a mom who does this. And then it’s like, dance. like, I don’t know.
Caitlin: I know. Cause it’s like, I love things when it relates to something you do. Like, I love all of those, like, memes where it’s like, oh, this is what happens in life. And as a moment.
Sharon: But why is.
Caitlin: And maybe this is the stupid, silly thing because it doesn’t connect. And maybe I just don’t dance enough in my everyday life. Except that I grew up on musicals, and I really thought the world would be more like that. And it’s not. But this isn’t even that. There’s no great songs written. It’s just like somebody learned something and they rickroll it and everybody else rickrolls it, and it’s so hilarious.
Sharon: And they’re not that good at dancers.
Caitlin: No. And I feel like the whole issue with TikTok is you’re just scrolling so quickly through it. It’s like, oh, funny. You’ve moved it, move it, move it.
Sharon: I would rather, you know, Brittany Spears post dancing videos of herself.
Caitlin: This is what I think.
Sharon: I would rather watch Britney Spears, dance.
Caitlin: Those are a little pain because I.
Sharon: Feel like she’s at least, like, a legit, you know?
Caitlin: Right.
Sharon: Whatever.
Caitlin: I mean, she’s got a background.
Sharon: Like, I would rather watch her or, like, a singer. I don’t know.
Caitlin: Yeah. Then, no, because that makes sense. Like that in their wheelhouse, right? Apparently this was in their wheelhouse, too. I just don’t understand why I’d rather.
Sharon: Watch, ray gun from the Olympics dance that TikTok. I can’t find her appearance anywhere. They won’t be scrubbed it from the Internet.
Caitlin: The country of Australia came together for rid of, that.
Sharon: Oh, that’s what Thomas should have did. My husband had these australian clients and.
Caitlin: Should have asked them about it. He said, they’re over it. They don’t want to see it. They’re really exhausted by it. We talked about.
Sharon: Oh, you did?
Caitlin: I wonder if they’re really tired of it. I think they’re a little embarrassed.
Sharon: I wonder if they have access and can send him a clip. Maybe they could in Australia.
Caitlin: I mean, that. I think that’s your best bet.
Sharon: National treasure.
Caitlin: It’ll be on, like, their money eventually.
Sharon: Exactly.
Caitlin: Poor Australia.
Sharon: Oh, God.
Caitlin: But that’s kind of what it’s like, I guess. It’s like the humor of that, at least that’s funny.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: I don’t quite understand why.
Sharon: Well, it’s because they want as many.
Caitlin: Women can get this, make this much of money off of silly dancing and stuff.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: And what propels you to be a celebrity in that? It’s like, I feel like this is why we haven’t blown up yet on instagram? I don’t understand the secret formula for this, and I don’t understand the silly thing that projects you.
Sharon: But again, is it just the other Utah women that are following them?
Caitlin: I assume there’s like 2 million, or.
Sharon: Are they speaking to other women outside of that? Utah?
Caitlin: It’s gotta be outside of it. They said Macy and whitney have 2 million, I mean, 4 million followers between the two of them. In the article, I was reading about how much money they make from intouch magazine.
Sharon: So how many people are in Utah?
Caitlin: I don’t know. More than that.
Sharon: There’s a lot of people, right?
Caitlin: You can’t get all of them.
Sharon: I mean, there’s not a lot, but there’s a lot.
Caitlin: Yeah. Well, there’s Mormons outside of the state.
Sharon: Oh, that’s true. There’s Mormons around the world.
Caitlin: Yeah. Cause where I grew up, when I went to high school, there was a ton.
Sharon: Right here where we lived, there are a ton. So, yeah.
Caitlin: I mean, one thing that I have noticed about the Mormon faith is that they are really good at, like, the idea of the family unit and family fun. And, like, they tend to be really amazing at, like, if you go to school musicals and stuff, they tend to be really amazing at singing and dancing. Like, that is a big thing. Like, so many of the dancing with the stars professionals are Mormon. Like, there is something in their culture that really does promote singing and dancing in a way that we don’t.
Sharon: But this.
Caitlin: No, but this isn’t good. Okay, I’m getting to the point. So. Sorry. Trying to have a serious conversation about Mormon arts with you. Get it together. Okay? Pull it together. No, but this isn’t. My point is there are good mormon dancers and singers. It’s not this on the show.
Sharon: And, this is Joel, Jillian, or Joanne, whatever.
Caitlin: Because I. Yeah, like, like the huffs and stuff. Like, they’re incredible. It’s like that. I would watch on TikTok, but this. I don’t understand. It’s not good. It’s the ray gun. I mean, it’s the ray gun thing. It’s exactly. I mean, that is the best example. I, don’t understand it at all.
Sharon: Well, maybe. Okay, so you know how there’s this whole, like, trad wife thing? Yes. Oh, God, that makes me want to m vomit.
Caitlin: M uh-huh. And this is kind of like trying to make tradwife okay a little bit. But these aren’t trad wives, really. Except for maybe Whitney.
Sharon: Well, but they are. But they’re kind of doing the whole mom, modern mom, which the trad wife is kind of doing. Like, I’m the modern old. I don’t see.
Caitlin: It’s the hipster. Hipsters are ruining it for.
Sharon: They ruined avocado toast.
Caitlin: They did it.
Sharon: I ate avocado toast cheap before it was cool.
Caitlin: And ipas are terrible.
Sharon: Okay.
Caitlin: And then they make so much money off of it, and I guess it’s just based on the sheer volume of followers. So you have that many followers, you’re going to get, you know, contracts to do things like, Whitney was offered $20,000 for the, you know, bedroom toys.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: And I read an introduction.
Sharon: She had a real moral, you know.
Caitlin: so she brought it on tv, on show, and everybody tried it, which she probably made another 25. Exactly.
Sharon: They’re like, hey, if you.
Caitlin: Ooh.
Sharon: And, like, what do you call it? It is empowering. Well, give me a second.
Caitlin: That’s the commercial right there. It didn’t even go on instagram. And then Macy said, the highest they’ve made, and she said, we, assuming it was split amongst the group, was 75,000, like, per, you know, per influency thing.
Sharon: Yeah. I thought it was interesting that some of them were like, we’re the breadwinner. I’m the breadwinner.
Caitlin: There was a big push on that.
Sharon: Yeah. Ah. And I thought that was pretty cool.
Caitlin: I liked that.
Sharon: But it didn’t seem like the men.
Caitlin: The men did not like that.
Sharon: Appreciated that.
Caitlin: No, not Zack.
Sharon: Okay, so I would rather not be the breadwinner because I’m lazy. I know Thomas.
Caitlin: She has diabetes, so she can’t have too many carbs.
Sharon: Exactly. And then I get hangry. Thomas would rather, like, if I could be the breadwinner. Thomas would love that.
Caitlin: Oh, David would.
Sharon: And he always says that. He’s always like, hey, can you go make a bunch of money? My brother stay home? Yeah.
Caitlin: You guys, he’s really waiting m for the podcast to take off.
Sharon: He is.
Caitlin: He’s very sad about it.
Sharon: So, like, I guess I can’t relate to, those husbands.
Caitlin: No, I can’t relate.
Sharon: Thomas would be like, sweet.
Caitlin: David would, too. And my brother Grady’s always been like, I think I could have been a stay at home dad. Like, so.
Sharon: Oh, Thomas couldn’t be a stay home.
Caitlin: Dad, but he would like to stay at home. Yeah.
Sharon: You m wouldn’t actually watch the kids.
Caitlin: Well, to be fair, I’m not sure I love.
Sharon: I don’t either, so there’s a reason I.
Caitlin: It’s a hard work.
Sharon: 14 hours a week. Yeah.
Caitlin: I mean, maybe that’s why they’re dancing. They’re just so exhausted and tired. This is what happens. If that’s how they pitched it, I could understand, but the seriousness of it, I don’t understand. And I wish rather than just so. They showed a lot of the mom talk dances as, like, little. What do you call those little, like, connectors of segments, like little segues. Oh, look at us using big words. But they used it there, and you couldn’t really hear it. You just sort of saw little images.
Sharon: Yeah.
Caitlin: I wish they’d kind of shown them making more content besides just, oh, let’s learn to dance. how did the content go about being made? I mean, I know it’s about the relationships, but in a way, it felt like they were forcing the drama too much. Yeah, let’s go tell the other person what the person said about us. at least in housewives, the producers try to do that kind of behind the scenes, and it’s more, like, organic and how it comes up. This felt more fun forced, which I didn’t like.
Sharon: And by the end of the series, I was starting to get bored.
Caitlin: I was like, okay, show us what the women do.
Sharon: Right.
Caitlin: This is what causes they’re involved in. This is the job they do. This is their hobbies that they have. We didn’t get to see a lot of that.
Sharon: And also because the housewives, we didn’t see, we saw some dynamic with the husbands, but a lot of them, we didn’t see anything about their own life.
Caitlin: No.
Sharon: Like, for example, like a Michaela.
Caitlin: Poor Michaela got no time, and she has some sort of disease that she doesn’t know about.
Sharon: I mean, all we saw was her relationship. We never got to see anything about Michaela.
Caitlin: Not at all. They just wrote her off. She was a friend of.
Sharon: Yeah, exactly. So, like, some women got. We got to see them and someone we didn’t.
Caitlin: Yeah. And it felt like. And I know that’s true on the. On housewives, too, but the events, it still circumflex circles around events, and they tried to do that here, but it’s a circled more around who can fight with who. And then that person gets more airtime. And I know housewives does that some, but it’s less obvious. And they still kind of try. It’s just sometimes when someone’s story doesn’t pick up, but then they kind of move them to a friend of. They don’t force it. And this felt so forced on some of the others. You’d be like, why is that person here who invited her.
Sharon: Exactly.
Caitlin: Like, what does she have to do with this? And that was confusing.
Sharon: Oh. So the biggest thing, what’s fascinating about this, they are mom talk. The biggest thing is they’re all, moms. Some of them. I was going, wait, is she a mom? Is she a mom? I was like, oh, you never saw them being moms?
Caitlin: No.
Sharon: And I don’t know if it’s cause their kids were so little and they didn’t want their kids on the show.
Caitlin: There was somewhere there was blurring of.
Sharon: Faces, but you really didn’t see them being moms.
Caitlin: You didn’t.
Sharon: All you did was saw them being like, yeah.
Caitlin: And I get wanting to protect the kids and I appreciate that, but then.
Sharon: At the same time, it didn’t make.
Caitlin: Sense with the show, right?
Sharon: Cause I didn’t see them as moms, I didn’t relate to them as moms.
Caitlin: And it felt like they just all had nannies or something because they were all over at the Momtalk house or whatever. And then they were all over with each other and they were at the salon. Like, I don’t have this much free time.
Sharon: Right.
Caitlin: M. And they are little kids, not just like, oh, my kids in middle school, these were little kids.
Sharon: Related was Taylor when she was about to have the baby, they were talking about like, oh, you’re gonna be so tired. And that part I was like, oh.
Caitlin: Yeah, we’re talking about moms, you know.
Sharon: And the rest, I was like, and.
Caitlin: Maybe that’s what I don’t get about moms.
Sharon: M nothing to do with moms. I don’t know.
Caitlin: Cause like I’m saying I’m not seeing a casserole recipe. Maybe I don’t understand.
Sharon: I love cats.
Caitlin: I do too. That’s a TikTok I would watch. I probably have actually, that’s probably like the only thing I’ve watched.
Sharon: All right, so what we’re going to do next is we’re going to go through the people with the verses, the.
Caitlin: Usual format because like we, like mom talks about sticking to our brains.
Sharon: Exactly.
Caitlin: All right, so follow us for the different episodes of the women. We’re going to do the main core four and then maybe kind of group the lesser, the lesser moms.
Sharon: The friend moms.
Caitlin: Yeah. The friend of talks into their own little category. So we’ll have a few episodes on that, but it’ll be really exciting because this is a fun, it feels like housewives, but it’s not. So remember, mom Talk brings the drama.
Sharon: But we bring the receipts.
Caitlin: Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please hit the subscribe button, and if you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with others or leave a rating and review. Also visit us on Instagram and threads both at RH on RH for fun pictures and polls, or email us at rh on rhpodcastmail.com. thanks again, and remember to stay out of the shade.