I totally agree that these two save-a-species-with-a-single-donation-wealthy people will be just fine. Finer than fine and much better off than almost every other breathing creature on this planet.Let’s not feel too sorry for Gisele. As I understand it, she didn’t retire because Tom asked her to, she retired because she wanted to. These days she is still being asked to model and SHE turns them down. She didn’t “give up” anything, she quit. Her decision.
They have always had a staff of household employees and nannies who take care of everything for them so she’s not working at home. Tom was around six months of the year and they traveled extensively with the kids during that time. I’ve seen the pap vacation photos in exotic locales.
She never needed Tom to support her, she has more money than he does. Gisele’s net worth is $400 million. Tom is only worth $250 million. Divorced or together, these two pretty multi millionaires will be just fine.
But the arguments that Giselle wanted to retire (presumably to prioritise a stable and caring home life for her family) and is therefore wrong to now be unhappy in her marriage is specious in my view.
For a start to say she chose and so therefore can never again have agency in her life just shows how much agency a woman loses by choosing family in the first place.
Why is home making - such necessary work and widely approved as a social good let’s be honest - so disempowering that people cannot say bravo such was your love that you gave up everything at the height of your powers for love of family and your man. Now we say she is ungrateful, she is capricious etc etc
Her choice to give up work was no doubt lauded and applauded by her extended family as the unselfish thing, the right thing to do for her husband and her kids. She did it for many years and then she wanted a change. I love the guy there’s a lot to admire but Tom didn’t make the same demonstrated commitment and sacrifice for love. He went from strength to strength in his career after marriage. He was allowed to focus on his personal growth and accumulate power (agency) and prestige while he did so. He continues to pursue his personal career interests while others manage the details of his life and home.
It seems so ungrateful to throw it all back in her face now. What more can people expect of a woman? In any other line of life’s work people would observe the years of demonstrated effort and say thank you, not condemn her for not carrying on with more of the same.
So much of women’s home making really is in the moment and thankless, like a castle of sand! Society reaps the benefits of womens home making while telling women to be grateful.
No wonder so many of us find it hard to get a man to take out a garbage can or ‘mind’ his own kids. (Or in Giselle’s case manage the help and be a reassuring constant for children in a high profile family).
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