Tradwives: A Comforting Lifestyle or Gateway to White Supremacy?

Dearest Reader,

I must confess, I have been loath to write this week’s newsletter. I have been busy in past weeks so my rhythm has been off, publishing later in the week than I would like—I’m working on it! But this week’s subject is one I feel compelled to explore (probably even beyond this initial piece), but nevertheless this was very unattractive to research. I’m speaking about the the “Tradwife” trend or movement. Essentially, it’s an online trend of women filming content of a traditional homemaker lifestyle—think 1950s “Susie Homemaker” type stuff. This is an increasingly popular and lucrative trend of women, mostly white but black women have their version as well, who showcase cooking, taking care of children and/or a “soft life” (being materially provided for by their spouse and showcasing a life of ease) while their spouse earns a living outside the home. I think it’s important to write about this because, on the one hand, I think it speaks to a general feeling of insecurity that both men and women are grappling with in modern neoliberal society and, on the other hand, it is a harbinger of increasingly effective white supremacist marketing towards radicalization or “red pilling” of society.

People my age and younger feel cheated. We all know that the economy and climate that our elders enjoyed is not going to benefit us in the same way. People 45 and younger, especially in their teens to early 30s, have a harder time purchasing a home, documented anxiety around the climate changing, growing drug addiction with attending consequences including overdose deaths, growing national suicide rates that peaked in 2021 for youth and mental health challenges brought about by phone addiction.

In the ninth episode of Love Party Podcast I spoke with esteemed Barnard College History professor and author Premilla Nadasen who recently published a book called Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (Haymarket Books, 2023). In our conversation she said:

“In my most recent book about care I distinguish between what we might call corporate care or the care economy or care in the marketplace from the grassroots practices of care in our communities and in political struggle. So, there’s discourse about care—the ways we need to care for our loved ones. Hospitals will tell us what we need to do to care [trying] to sell us all sorts of medications or drugs in order to take better care of ourselves. The institution I teach at, Barnard College, often presumes to care about the community; about faculty and students. [So] care and love are very much a part of the culture of the college, at least in rhetoric and in the marketing of the college. Part of what I do in my book is I try to dismantle those narratives and dismantle that dominant understanding of care. And what we see in the corporate marketplace [is] actually the exploitation of our feelings and our love for one another. Corporate entities are making billions and billions of dollars over our need to care for ourselves and our desire to care for our loved ones.”

I share this important insight from Professor Nadasen to illustrate the gaps that exist in our lives around care and love that are so easily exploited by corporations and marketing campaigns that are distinct from the authentic care and love that comes from grassroots community. With that said, enter the “tradwife” trend.

Tradwives are typically women posting on social media with a following of 20,000 to 200,000 people who encourage a lifestyle centered around the home (i.e. cooking from scratch, home-schooling, home-birthing, homesteading). Before getting into the different ideologies these women espouse online, it’s important to note why I think this trend is popular at all. Like I said, people my age and younger feel cheated. We feel insecure about almost everything; nothing feels permanent or stable. And for many, especially those not yet married, there is a fear around finding a partner who can provide or support a stable home-life.

Tradwives project a kind of domestic bliss with well-to-do husbands, spacious homes, kids playing and a visible abundance of resources. And most importantly, these women seem happy subordinating themselves to their husbands, working primarily around the home. Doesn’t that sound more pleasant than the latest frightening climate change statistics? Tradwives lives look easy, idyllic, and secure. For young men, especially, who are very much adrift in society unable to form deep personal bonds and establish romantic relationships at near crisis levels, these women offer parasocial escape from their miserable personal lives. And for women who follow the trend, I think it attends to a need for love and care that they don’t feel in the working world. But as Professor Nadasen points out, these corporatized examples of care and love are mostly exploitation. Indeed many tradwife influencers come from filthy rich households even before posting their first video. Additionally, they present carefully curated images for social media marketing since they are generating profits from brand deals and other forms of online monetization. In short, many of their lives look luxurious and beautiful.

Aside from filling a void of insecurity among their viewership, tradwives are also a literal vehicle to promote white supremacy and women’s crucial role in maintaining western hegemony. It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but the movement really is disproportionately led by conservative white women. According to a study conducted by the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET), “Tradwives are an influential online community of right-wing women who espouse a highly traditional heteronormative rendition of the ‘wife and mother’ role that is equal parts ideology. and aesthetic.” According to their research, GNET found that most tradwives fit into three categories: Conservative, Alt-Light and Alt-Right.

Since 2020 when we were all locked in our homes, this online community has grown. I see a fair amount of incredulity from mainstream media for these women because we live in a feminist society where women have fought so hard for the right to vote and work outside the home. But among conservatives, as seen in the legal rollbacks of Roe v. Wade (bye bye abortion rights!), affirmative action, voting rights and more, an alternative worldview where women are happily subservient homemakers tending to a gaggle of kids and making mozzarella from scratch is now being marketed through seemingly innocuous influencer accounts.

Conservative Right Tradwives favor traditional gender roles and femininity, Alt-Light Tradwives start dipping into nationalism and anti-feminism and Alt-Right Tradwives are overtly riding for white supremacy. GNET provides a rich, accessible framing that I am simplifying here, but these different types of tradwives mark an escalatory path towards radicalizing younger women and men into white nationalism and ideas of western supremacy. I know, it sounds nuts, but this is not a drill. This is happening. I would like to explore specific influencers in this space down the line plus better quantify the impact of this movement. But I can say anecdotally that almost every woman in my life, my age and younger, has brought these influencers up in casual conversation whether in jest or with admiration.

In fact, a nuance in the tradwife trend that GNET did not address are black tradwives represented through “the soft life” or #hardwigsoftlife and the #blackwifeeffect — these influencers are not part of this conservative tradwife ecosystem, but they speak to that void of care and love that one can market to. Black tradwives are a response to many black women’s longing for less arduous careers so we can live with greater ease and comfort under the care of a financially stable or affluent man. All of these trends don’t bode well for the popular understanding and legacy of the feminist movement.

In a 2023 report by decision intelligence company Morning Consult, they surveyed over 2,000 adults in the United States. Morning Consult found that 57% of Gen Z compared to 41% of adults from all ages, said they would be an influencer if they could. 53% of Gen Z surveyed said influencing is a respectable career choice, and a similar percentage would willingly quit their current jobs if they could sustain their lifestyle. With this in mind, we can’t ignore the tradwives trend because it’s distinctly possible that online marketing will be a cornerstone of future careers as we live more and more online. Although this makes me a little nervous, I also take it as a sign that the void of care and love in society is a real one. So the next time you see a woman kneading bread or drying cocoa beans in the sun for fresh brownies she’s about to make, don’t laugh, but start to ask some questions…. and make sure you’re not being slowly red-pilled.

With Love During End Times,

Agunda