GOREN BRIDGE No deception needed

East-West vulnerable, South deals

It was while deep in the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories about the disappearance of Kate Middleton from public life that I came upon the phenomenon of “tradwives”, a TikTok and Instagram trend racking up millions of views, of young women who play and promote very traditional gender roles. Their job is to cook, clean, and raise children, and pointedly play a subservient role to men.

Their husbands, whose household role is only to be the financial provider, have to approve of the money they are spending, even if it is for the house and not for themselves. The core aesthetic of tradwife fashion is frills and dresses, perfectly brushed hair and a fully madeup face. One video showed a tradwife waking up at 5 a.m. to apply makeup so that her husband would never see her plain face.

Middleton, of whom there isn’t a single photograph in which you can, quite literally, find a hair out of place, is a brand ambassador of sorts for tradwives, she is their icon. It is unclear how much cooking and baking the Princess of Wales is engaging in, but it does not matter because we are bang in the middle of the era of the image, and her image is that of a person who has happily and contentedly taken the role of being by her husband’s side.

Middleton’s ethos ever since she got engaged to a future king has been one of appropriate perfection — her dress is just right, her hair is always spectacular, she has a wide smile when necessary and

West cashed two high hearts before shifting to the queen of clubs. South’s first thought was to win in dummy and lead a low diamond. Should the ace and king of diamonds be split between the two defenders, as was likely, East would be under some pressure, especially if East held the king of diamonds. East would have to rise with his honor on the first round of the suit or be subjected to a ruffing finesse later. East, of course, could defeat the contract by rising with his honor.

South saw he didn’t need to put East to the test. He could make his contract through normal play if the diamonds and spades split normally. He won the opening club lead in hand with the ace and led the 10 of diamonds to East’s king. South won the club return with dummy’s king and ruffed a diamond with the ace of spades. South led the eight of spades to