A social media fad of women glamorising a very retrograde ideal of domesticity is a fantasy world with hidden dangers
Having simmered away over the past three years or so, the #Tradwife trend is at boiling point.
Comments were conflicting. Some supported the idea of female homemakers and yearned for a romanticised idyll of bygone years where women coiffed their hair, fixed their make-up, applied some perfume and awaited the return of their hard-working husbands each day, greeting them with a smile, a stiff drink and a hearty home-cooked meal.
Niamh Delmer, a chartered counselling psychologist in Co Wicklow, says the tradwife movement is unrealistic in its expectations of women, courting fantasy over fact. “I would have come from a very traditional family where my dad worked two jobs so my mum could stay at home,” she says. “Because we have two girls, I wouldn’t want them to think that they have to take on that role. I’m always saying to them that I cook for dad because he works long hours and in time the roles might reverse. I’m highly educated and I’m lucky that I can work part-time and have the opportunity to be at home, and that is our choice. But I’m not here to serve my husband.
Gwen Swinarton, a Canadian former Only Fans star who was “saved by God”, wears cute flower-print dresses, and goes by the name “Gwen the Milkmaid” as she tends to her flower garden and buys baby clothes for her future children. Often pushing conservative Christian values, labelling feminism a dirty word, and quoting Bible passages to defend their thinking that men are there to provide and lead while women bear children and tend to their husbands’ needs, it is fast becoming a hotbed of white supremacist propaganda, conspiracy theories and far-right political agendas.
Fincham argues that although the trend’s philosophy is a fringe view, the subculture is still powerful enough to play a dangerous role in normalising antifeminist and discriminatory attitudes, especially among younger audiences. Indeed, an offspring of the movement under the hashtag “stay-at-home girlfriends” relays stories from young woman who have shunned education and financial independence, in favour of minding the men in their lives.
Media Matters coded and analysed 327 recommended videos after engaging with content from seven different tradwife influencers, and then liking and watching each account’s 10 most recent videos. Soon after, their feed was flooded with right-wing conspiracy theory content.
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