Tradwife

Wife fulfilling traditional gender role

A tradwife (a neologism for traditional wife or traditional housewife) is a woman who believes in and practices traditional gender roles and marriages. Some may choose to take a homemaking role within their marriage, and others leave their careers to focus on meeting their family's needs in the home.

The traditional housewife aesthetic has since spread throughout the Internet in part through social media featuring women extolling the virtues of behaving as the ideal woman.

Tradwife aesthetic

The tradwife subculture is based on advocating for traditional values, and, in particular, a 'traditional' view of wives as mothers and homemakers.

Tradwives are diverse demographically, and may have a variety of cultural inspirations. Influences on trend range from 1950s-era American culture, Christian religious values, conservative politics, choice feminism, and neopaganism.

The aesthetic tends to be soft, gauzy, or otherwise feminine.

One key aspect of appearing to be a tradwife is reclaiming – or at least appearing to reclaim – some leisure time, as women, and especially mothers, who earn an income often have a double burden.

Consumer choices

The tradwife aesthetic tends to glamorize a retro aesthetic from white suburbia in the 1950s. She may wear a dress, an apron, and high heels. Her house may be decorated in trendy pastel colors. The tradwife aesthetic has a significant influence on home decorating.

Others may prefer a back to nature appearance.

Practices

Finances

Some women who identify as tradwives prefer a division of labor wherein their husband manages family finances more broadly while they focus on managing food and household consumables. A high-profile example of this is Canadian Cynthia Loewen, a former Miss Earth Canada, who abandoned plans to pursue a medical degree in order to be a full-time housewife. She stated that she finds fulfillment from the arrangement of her husband as the breadwinner and her in charge of the home, and that she is "more happy as a result".

However, many of the tradwife internet celebrities earn an income outside the home, in addition to running their influencer businesses on social media. For example, Hannah Neeleman runs food-related businesses with her husband, and Nara Smith is a professional model.

Demographics

Racial balance

Commentators have noted that "there is more class than racial diversity in tradwifery, though the content is not as white as one might assume".

Among men seeking traditional wives, East Asian and Southeast Asian women are considered the ideal, as they are perceived to have more feminine qualities and submissive attitudes than Western women. There is a shared cultural notion among White American men that Asian women make better wives, because they are perceived as being more feminine, submissive, and exotic-looking.

A growing number of Black women are embracing the concept of traditional marriage, not explicitly using the tradwife neologism, but instead framing their identity within a "submissive" or "Biblical" marriage. These Black women claim that "traditional marriage is the key to liberation from being overworked, economic insecurity, and the stress of trying to survive in a world hostile to our survival and existence". This perspective has been criticized as lacking awareness of broader structural and social issues in American-style capitalism.

Political orientation

Critics often stipulate that tradwives embody what has been described as "toxic femininity", or internalized sexism. Critics claim this is a tactic used by male alt-right adherents to recruit more women to far-right causes.

Despite the link to extreme right-wing ideologies, not all tradwives endorse extreme ideas and ideology is not an integral part of the subculture. Prominent British tradwife influencer Alena Pettitt posted on social media in 2020 that she was "dumbfounded" by the media's "smear campaign" against tradwives, arguing they were all being unfairly linked to extremism.

Charles Sturt University academic Kristy Campion, who studies extremism, has researched tradwives and says that people should avoid "denouncing all tradwives as far-right extremists, holding them accountable for views they may not hold and demonising what is, for many women, an extremely personal choice".

Seyward Darby discussed the tradwife aesthetic in her 2020 book, Sisters in Hate: American Women and White Extremism, and shared interviews with women who call themselves traditional. She found that some women in the movement espoused tenets of the American political far right, including white supremacy, antisemitism, populism, and other ultraconservative beliefs. Other researchers have identified a wide range of political views among tradwives which, while primarily conservative, range from the moderate to the extreme.

Relationship with feminism

The tradwife culture has a complicated relationship with feminism, being at times criticized or supported by feminists. Some who follow the tradwife aesthetic suggest that it is a rejection of feminism in favor of a return to simpler times and family systems.

Social media

The tradwife movement is a social media-based subculture. Multiple platforms, notably TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, are used to commodify and spread the conservative ideologies underpinning the movement. Platforms such as Reddit and 4chan are also used to promote traditional heterosexual relationships. Influencer marketing strategies, the showcasing of private lives, and contemporary social media use promote the commercialisation of traditional heteronormativity and gendered relationships.

According to algorithmic research conducted by Media Matters, the tradwife audience is likely also viewing conspiracy theory videos, as recommendations for conspiracy videos increase concordant with tradwife viewership.

The rising success of contemporary tradwives is driven by clever and active use of social media and persistent positioning as online influencers. Videos such as 'a day in my life' showcasing activities such as cooking from scratch, cleaning, caring for children, packing the lunches of their working husbands advocate for gender roles wherein the man holds social and political power, and women for the most part are confined to the home as a wife and mother.

References

Malvern, Jack (January 25, 2020). "'Tradwife' is there to serve". The Times. Archived from the original on March 13, 2022. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
^ Rob Brown (January 17, 2020). "'Submitting to my husband like it's 1959': Why I became a #TradWife". BBC News. Archived from the original on January 17, 2020. Retrieved January 17, 2020. ... growing movement of women who promote ultra-traditional gender roles ... images of cooked dinners and freshly-baked cakes with captions ... A woman's place is in the home ... Trying to be a man is a waste of a woman ... particularly controversial because of its associations with the far right....
Norris, Sian (May 31, 2023). "Frilly dresses and white supremacy: welcome to the weird, frightening world of 'trad wives'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on May 31, 2023. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
Leidig, Eviane (September 19, 2023). The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization. Columbia University Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-231-55830-3.
^ Annie Kelly (June 1, 2018). "OPINION: The Housewives of White Supremacy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 22, 2020. Retrieved January 17, 2020. ...Enter the tradwives. Over the past few years, dozens of YouTube and social media accounts have sprung up showcasing soft-spoken young white women who extol the virtues of staying at home, submitting to male leadership and bearing lots of children — being "traditional wives." ...
^ Wang, Amy X. (August 20, 2024). "Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Tradwife?". The New York Times. Why women who dress up as 1950s homemakers are driving the internet insane.
^ "'A soft face for saying extreme things': The dangerous elements in the tradwife subculture". ABC News. August 21, 2021. Archived from the original on August 30, 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
"Trend tradwife: 10 rzeczy, które warto wiedzieć". PrzyKawusi (in Polish). Poland: PrzyKawusi. August 14, 2024. Retrieved August 14, 2024.
^ Hu, Zoe (January 2023). "The Agoraphobic Fantasy of Tradlife". Dissent. 70 (1): 54–59. doi:10.1353/dss.2023.0030. ISSN 1946-0910.
^ Sykes, Sophia (July 7, 2023). "Tradwives: The Housewives Commodifying Right-Wing Ideology". GNET. Archived from the original on August 20, 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
Hesse, Monica (April 10, 2024). "Tradwives, stay-at-home girlfriends and 'a thing called ease'". The Washington Post.
^ Squires, Wendy (February 21, 2020). "Is it any wonder the 'tradwife' lifestyle is so alluring?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on August 30, 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
Simcha Fisher (December 3, 2019). "The types of women who veil at Mass". America magazine. Archived from the original on December 30, 2019. Retrieved January 17, 2020. ...Then came the tradwives, who veil with a vengeance. These young Catholic women are highly active on social media, and they gleefully tout their physical beauty as a poke in the eye of feminism. ... a woman's job to please her man with a fit body, on point makeup and lustrous hair that gleams as brightly as the lacy veil that covers it....
AMY HUNT (January 24, 2020). "What is a 'tradwife' – and why is the idea proving so controversial? You may have heard of the terms housewife, stay-at-home mum, or the like. But why are 'tradwives' getting everyone talking?". Woman and Home magazine. Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 13, 2022. ...A 'tradwife' (short for traditional wife) is a 21st century woman who has decided to embrace super traditional, conventional gender roles, by 'submitting' to their husband and not working, staying at home to do the typical household chores, and care for the children.... considering it actually has origins in far-right circles, predominantly in the US....
"'Tradwife' woman claims wives should submit to their husband and spend days cooking and cleaning: A mum has revealed that she left her high flying job to join the 'Tradwife' movement". Heart 96-107. January 22, 2020. Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 13, 2022. ...She added that she felt alienated growing up in the 90s, where attitudes to male and female roles were becoming more liberal, saying: "The culture at the time was anything but what I enjoyed and it definitely made me feel like an outsider. "It was all kind of, let's fight the boys and go out and be independent and break glass ceilings. But I just felt like I was born to be a mother and a wife. "What I really related to where the old shows of the 1950s and 60s."...
^ Cliff, Martha (June 9, 2021). "Canadian woman quits medical career to become a 'Tradwife': This Canadian woman spends all day at home cleaning and lets her husband 'lead' – insisting she is more happy as a result". news.com.au. Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 13, 2022. ....A woman who trained to be a doctor has revealed why she chucked it all in to become a homemaker. Former Miss Canada, Cynthia Loewen, had been set for a high-flying career in medicine but just a few years ago she decided to leave it all behind....
Chan, Yuk Wah; Fung, Heidi; Szymańska-Matusiewicz, Grażyna (September 4, 2015). The Age of Asian Migration: Continuity, Diversity, and Susceptibility Volume 2. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-4438-8193-7. A large number of Asian women from poorer countries are imported either as domestic helpers or wives because of their supposed feminine qualities and submissive (Asian) femininity. A general perception of Asian brides is their docility and ability to take care of the young and the old in the family. Such feminine qualities are believed to have been lost among Western women as well as "liberated" Asian middle-class women. Thus, Asian women from less-developed places are taken and "promoted" as ideal marriage choices and docile bodies, who are more qualified carers since they have retained traditional femininity.
Braithwaite, Ann; Orr, Catherine M. (August 11, 2016). Everyday Women's and Gender Studies: Introductory Concepts. Routledge. pp. 378–379. ISBN 978-1-317-28530-4. His comment demonstrates the culturally shared notion that Asian women possess the qualities of good wives and also, therefore, reinforce men's sense of masculinity.
^ Burton, Nylah. "Black "Tradwives" Think Marriage Is The Key To Liberation & Economic Survival". www.refinery29.com. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved October 11, 2023.
Freeman, Hadley (January 20, 2020). "'Tradwives': the new trend for submissive women has a dark heart and history: A certain kind of housewife has found social media and is airing the details of their fight with feminism. But maybe they should tone it down a notch". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 13, 2022. ...But this isn't actually about fighting the system: this is about women fighting against their own insecurities about their lives. ... it is very much part of the "alt-right" movement.
Rottenberg, Catherine; Orgad, Shani (February 7, 2020). "Tradwives: the women looking for a simpler past but grounded in the neoliberal present". The Conversation. The Conversation Trust (UK) Ltd. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
ABC News, Bridget Judd, February 23, 2020, Tradwives have been labelled 'subservient', but these women reject suggestions they're oppressed Archived September 2, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved October 2, 2020, "...Others have likened it to an extension of white nationalism, propagating the belief that women should focus on their "natural" duties of childbearing and housekeeping..."
Jones, Sarah, October 28, 2020, New York Magazine, Trump's Base Isn't Housewives, It's Tradwives Archived January 3, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved January 2, 2022, "...The tradwife is going to stick with Trump and the Republican Party. ..."
^ Darby, Seyward (2020). Sisters in hate : American women and white extremism (First ed.). New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-48778-8. OCLC 1238089281. Archived from the original on May 29, 2024. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
^ Sykes, Sophia; Hopner, Veronica (April 18, 2024). "Tradwives: Right-Wing Social Media Influencers". Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. 53 (4): 453–487. doi:10.1177/08912416241246273. ISSN 0891-2416.
Leidig, Eviane (September 19, 2023). The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization. Columbia University Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-231-55830-3.
Grose, Jessica (May 15, 2024). "'Tradwife' Content Isn't Really for Women. It's for Men Who Want Submissive Wives". The New York Times.
Proctor, Devin (2022). "The #tradwife persona and the rise of radicalized white domesticity". Persona Studies. 8 (2): 7–26. doi:10.21153/psj2022vol8no2art1645 – via informit.

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