Photo: @therealrealbradlea - TikTok
He said his wife a magic purse where money appears, so they're even.
By NyRee Ausler — Written on May 16, 2023
A man named Brad Lea received a ton of backlash in August 2022 when he uploaded a video to TikTok called, “Perks of a Housewife.”
In that short clip, he said, “I think whoever is making the big dough should continue to make the big dough. The person at home takes care of that sh-t. I got like a magical floor. If I literally take off my shirt and throw it on the floor, it ends up hung up again in the closet. It’s the craziest sh-t you’ve ever seen.”
Brad Lea was called out for not supporting his wife after joking about her housework.
The entrepreneur and businessman went on to talk about how his laundry gets “magically” washed and folded as well but his commentary did not sit well with some viewers. The first commenter said, “You don’t have a magical floor. You have someone at home who may not be making the money but deserves to be spoken about & spoken to like a human.”
Other people bristled at his perceived dismissiveness of the work his wife puts in with comments like, “Oh… hell nah. He said ‘magic floor’ knowing [his wife is responsible] but does it anyway. The disrespect. And one woman suggested that his behavior might push his wife to her breaking point.
The backlash caused him to come back and explain. In a related video, he told viewers that his wife actually has a maid and doesn’t do all of the cleaning herself. He also justified his words by saying, “She gets whatever she wants” and that his wife has no limit to how much of his money she can spend. Lea said that if a woman can outspend her man’s income, he is not making enough.
But Lea wasn’t done yet and in April 2023 uploaded a quick video saying in response to people’s anger about his “magic floor” comments, “I have a magic floor. She has a magic purse. Every time she empties it of money, more appears. I got a magic floor; she has a magic purse. We’re happy. Leave us alone.”
This time people stood behind him. Some even thought the vitriol came from a place of jealousy. They said things like, “People just mad because they wish they had that” and “If he treated me like a queen, I'll treat him like a king.”
The thing about opinions is that everybody gets to have one. There are ‘different strokes for different folks’ and what might work in one relationship may not work in another. Traditional gender roles like that between Lea and his wife are becoming less common and that is by design. But just because you believe that a certain type of work is demeaning or unfair for women doesn’t mean everyone else does. If he and his wife are happy with the arrangement, who are we to judge?
NyRee Ausler is a writer from Seattle, Washington. She covers lifestyle, relationship, and human-interest stories that readers can relate to and that bring social issues to the forefront for discussion.