Enjoying the show? Support our mission and help keep the content coming by buying us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/deepdivepodcastWelcome to the heart of Utah's multibillion-dollar mommy influencer culture, where highly curated faith-based content violently clashes with explosive reality TV drama. We unpack the MomTok scandal that launched Hulu's massive hit The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, examining the institutional pressures, hypocrisy, and chaos fueling this unique ecosystem.
The series' foundation is the cultural earthquake caused by the Utah soft swinging scandal of 2022:
The Catalyst: Influencer Taylor Frankie Paul (the most famous of the eight wives) publicly disclosed her divorce from her husband, Tate Paul, revealing the marriage had involved soft swinging.
The Loophole: Taylor initially defined soft swinging as "romantic intimacy with other partners without going all the way." This vague, fluid definition was instantly and furiously debated by former best friend Miranda McWhorter, who tried to sanitize her involvement.
The Truth Exposed: Taylor eventually escalated the truth, giving explicit details that confirmed the behavior was far more severe. She stated they were worried about getting pregnant by the wrong guy, confirming that partner swapping was absolutely on the table and that the line they drew ("all the way") covered a massive amount of exhibitionism and sexual intimacy.
Catastrophic Fallout: The emotional fallout was deep and the result conclusive: every single couple involved in the swinging activities is now divorced, proving the unsustainability of a structure built on sexual loopholes and emotional detachment.
The women's chaotic rebellion is seen as a direct consequence of the highly controlling, patriarchal environment of Mormon culture in Utah:
The Jack Mormon Label: The show's central tension is captured by the informal, sometimes derogatory, label "Jack Mormon" (adhering to the faith, but not strictly following all the rules). These women are financially dependent on the monetized perfection of the "professional trad wife" persona, forcing them to uphold an image of devout religious life while engaging in rebellious behavior that defies doctrine.
The Husband's Hypocrisy: Jen Affleck's husband, Zach, threatened divorce if she participated in events he considered "fun and innocent." Yet, he was simultaneously engaged in pathological gambling, squandering an estimated $300,000 of Jen's medical school tuition. His hypocrisy—admonishing her for a doctrinal transgression while destroying the capital she earned—ignited audience outrage over the deep structural imbalance where women labor, but men keep ideological and financial control. He later forced Jen to move out of state to isolate her from her support system.
The Purity Culture Loophole: The immense psychological pressure to maintain purity leads to a culture of explicit, sometimes absurd loopholes, designed to satisfy desire while maintaining the letter of the law. This is seen in the obsession with dirty sodas (circumventing the ban on "hot drinks") and the widely discussed myth of "soaking" (insertion without movement to technically circumvent the rule against premarital sex).
The chaotic behavior is symptomatic of a delayed rebellion among women who married young within a restrictive culture and never developed a full identity outside of high-control religious life:
The RSV Scandal: Whitney Leavitt became a viral lightning rod after filming and performing a TikTok dance next to her baby who was intubated in a hospital bed after contracting RSV. Viewers widely criticized the display as a narcissistic act of self-soothing, showing how the influencer persona can override genuine emotional response.