Over the past year or so, there has been a growing trend of certain women going viral on social media. She’s clearly visible – she’s everywhere on your social feeds.
She is normally attractive, thin and fair-skinned. She has long hair, delicate feminine features, and barely any make-up. She often wears white or pink clothes. She acts like a doll.
She creates TikTok and Instagram reels that glorify “traditional” (i.e. patriarchal) norms of existence. She openly submits to her husband and proudly takes care of her household. She loves doing housework and baking bread. She loves sharing cooking tips as she is very good at cooking and preparing meals. She spends all day in the kitchen and in the garden, where she grows her own tomatoes. She has chickens and is a salt-of-the-earth woman. She is dedicated to her idyllic way of life and makes everything from scratch. Because that gives her a sense of power and control.
Her white babies run around at her feet in denim overalls, their blonde hair glinting in the sun. Her husband is tall, white, and looks like a surfer. In her world, sturdy = healthy, sound = good. Her image is a moral stance. And needless to say, she is adamantly against feminism.
She is a Tradwife. She is an online female persona that has recently been revived by influencers. These women create beautiful and beautiful content that glorifies the homely atmosphere. Hello 1950s! But the 1950s without the real ugliness (i.e., rape within marriage was still totally okay then).
Being traditionally beautiful gives her the means to promote these lifestyles. She’s basically taken Instagram’s biggest currency (hot privilege) and run with it.
Adhering to strict gender roles gives her great pleasure. She likes to give her advice on marriage, such as “Don’t go to the gym without your husband” and “Be obedient and let your husband lead the family.”
One journalist called it “.”little house on the prairie “Fantasy” – A work that utilizes “hyper-gender essentialist performance.” These women are no fools. They monetize their posts by accepting sponsorships and using the platform to sell homemade products. They support the idea that her husband is Pan.winner (Capitalist Labor) While the wife is bread,Maker (unpaid labor), but it hides the fact that they are participating in the capitalist market by producing content.
The tradwife trend is not entirely new. In 2017, Anne Helen Petersen wrote about female celebrities who are “embracing a ‘new domesticity’ defined by consumption, motherhood, and things like 21st-century gentlemen.”she in her book Too fat, too naughty, too noisy, Petersen identified these women as Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Alba, Blake Lively and Gwyneth Paltrow.
The latest tradwife trend is similar to cottagecore, an aesthetic and design style popular in the 20s of the 2000s that embraces the rural ideals of an old British vintage lifestyle. (It still exists, and some celebrities were still giving off that vibe in 2023).
Like cottagecore, tradwife is also firmly tied to far-right ideology. Ignoring the violent history of settler colonialism and focusing on the “dreamlike escapism” in which women are rewarded for their physical beauty and submission to patriarchal hierarchies. I prefer
Popular trad wives include 26-year-old American Estee Williams, Canadian YouTuber Gwen Swinnerton, and Australian influencers Jasmine Dinis and Abigail Ross.
Many of these women started out as influencers and models years ago, posting Instagram-perfect posts of themselves before jumping on the tradwife trend. In the case of Abigail Ross, the anti-abortion conservative commentator is actually Ben Shapiro’s sister. Ben Shapiro is a far-right shock jock who recently featured in a rap song to praise anti-woke politics.
Estee Williams, one of the most popular tradwives these days, regularly speaks to the media about her lifestyle choices. Last year, she told Piers Morgan that she values her family more than herself.
“We see narcissism being promoted everywhere. Women are leaving marriages much more easily than men because they think there’s something better for them,” she said. Told. “Marriage is a bond, a sacred bond, and we must protect it at all costs. I think part of that is putting your partner’s needs before your own every day.”
Williams’ videos include “Tips for Attracting Masculine Provider Men,” “How to Make Housework Fun,” “What I Practice in My Marriage,” and “Dressing Up for My Husband” .
Is this all harmless fun? Or is it dangerous anti-feminist rhetoric that can be used to further nefarious political ends?
As some experts have already pointed out, tradie wives often use the language of men’s rights activists to promote harmful patriarchal conditions imposed on different genders.
Dr Julia Ebner, an Oxford University researcher and author specializing in radicalization and extremism, says tradwives “want to return to traditional power roles and exaggerated notions of masculinity and femininity”. Thinking and thinking.
Dr Ebner’s 2020 study on tradwives found that up to 30,000 women in the UK described themselves as tradwives, and found that “a woman’s most valuable value to men is her sexual value; It has been revealed that she openly makes misogynistic statements such as, “You are most valuable when you are in a state of purity.” ”
Ebner said tradwives are part of a much larger online community of misogynists, all of whom share a hostility toward feminism, liberalism, and modern gender roles. What’s the appeal?
“Confusion over changing concepts of masculinity and femininity is pushing men and women into a fundamental identity crisis,” Dr. Ebner suggests. “…the idea of returning to traditional gender roles is appealing not only to women but also to men. Was everything easier back then? Is the role and behavior of both parties clearly defined?”
Far-right influencers on social media believe so. They sell the idea that specific gender roles are the way to go. Never mind that many of them are fueled by alt-right, Christian fundamentalist, and white supremacist ideologies. If it looks pretty, we want it.
Should I worry? Is it a threat to feminism, especially at a time when abortion and reproductive rights are being taken away around the world?
salon Journalist Amanda Marcotte believes this “toxic fantasy” of prostitutes “preys on men, especially young men, by selling their foolish fantasies as reality.”
“[tradwife content] “Female submission is a natural desire of women, and one that is being taken away from women by evil feminist forces,” she wrote. “[It] It’s definitely appealing to men who want to hear women ramble about how bad feminism is. ”
Psychologist Mark Travers agrees that “the proliferation of trade wife content and its support poses a serious threat to feminism and gender equality, given its worrying roots in the alt-right.” He cites “extensive psychological research” that has revealed the dangers of this.
“The problematic nature of trade wife identity extends beyond gender roles, sometimes coinciding with overt white supremacist content and hashtags, and indicating allegiance to hate groups,” Travers explained. forbes.
According to academics Christy Campion and Kiriroi M. Ingram, far-right tradwife groups in Australia are active on sites such as X, Tik Tok, Instagram and YouTube. But is that something we should worry about?
One columnist said, the cut We believe that Tradie Wife’s content is simply “highly staged.”
“This is complete fiction… There is nothing violent or disturbing about the story.” [of pretending that it was the 1950s] And then we create contemporary fiction based on that,” Kathryn Jether-Morton said.
