Posted on 08/29/2021 10:30:41 AM PDT by Drew68
Growing veggies, making clothes from scratch and ditching the office job to stay at home. For many women in the tradwife subculture, life is as simple as that.
The tradwife or "traditional" wife subculture is made up of heterosexual females from around the world, advocating traditional values of the past.
They revere being stay-at-home parents and housewives, while their husbands work outside the home. Division of labour is clear. Devotion to family is paramount.
But there's a complex spectrum within the subculture, and at its extreme end, a loose thread appears in an otherwise tightly knit image of wholesome family life.
Pull that thread and ugly things reveal themselves, including highly offensive and dangerous attitudes.
Personal or ideological?
The ideas of the tradwife community are not new. In 1970s Australia, Women Who Want to be Women (now the Endeavour Forum) lobbied against the feminist movement and in support of women's right to be full-time homemakers.
Then as now, the ideas don't belong to a homogenous group.
Some tradwives are inspired by 1950s-era lifestyles – and often the fashion of that time – while others embrace a back-to-nature aesthetic.
Others still have the same focus on family and traditional values, but push an ideological agenda. It's here that tradwife can enter far-right territory.
Attacks on feminists, queer people and people of different cultural backgrounds are not difficult to find under the #tradwife hashtag.
The complex subculture is marginal but growing.
"I definitely have seen hashtags like #tradlife, #tradwife becoming much more widely used within the last two years," says Eviane Leidig, research fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism at the Hague, Netherlands.
She's researched tradwives and far-right women who are social media influencers, and has a forthcoming book on the topic.
Dr Leidig says the subculture started to emerge around 2015, coinciding with the growth of the influencer and "quite a big boom in terms of the influencer culture".
Since then she says tradwives have appeared on blogs, podcasts, subreddits, YouTube ("a very big avenue"), Instagram and Pinterest ("because of the interior decorating aspects"), which form a "loose coalition of different types of mediums that tradwives connect across".
A 'soft face' for saying 'extreme things'
Charles Sturt University's Kristy Campion, who specialises in extremism, has also researched tradwives.
For many women, Dr Campion says the decision to "leave the workforce and become wives and mothers" has no connection to political agendas. It's about personal preference and a sufficient level of financial privilege.
But her research has focused on the intersection between the tradwife sub-culture and right-wing extremism, where she says ideology is important.
"One of the key concerns with the tradwife movement when it's affiliated with the far-right is that [it provides] a soft face for saying quite extreme things, quite dangerous things; things that are quite divisive and that demonise parts of our own society," she says.
According to Dr Campion, this group of tradwives romanticises an era when societal norms didn't include things like gender equality, widespread migration or embracing diversity.
She says understanding how to distinguish between the different tradwife iterations is important, in order to not "overgeneralise and create a suspect community" where it's not warranted.
"You can be a tradwife and not be a far-right tradwife," she says.
'A sense of pride and purpose'
Laura Spencer, who lives on the outskirts of Sydney with her husband and three young children, has connected with the tradwife subculture since becoming a full-time and home-schooling mum.
For Laura, the tradwife lifestyle is in no way synonymous with the far-right; rather, it's a personal decision, about "paying homage to a slower, more intentional lifestyle".
"For me, being a traditional wife is choosing to uphold the values that are very important for our family. That's family connection, time with our children … just slowing down at this season in our life," she says.
Aside from teaching and caring for her children, Laura cooks, cleans, sews clothes for her family and tends to their vegetable patch.
She considers these tasks a way of expressing love and she is happier in this lifestyle than in her first few years of parenthood, in which she continued to work and study.
"I was resentful every time I had to leave the house and leave [my son] in someone else's care, even if it was family," she says.
"So by the time we had our second child, I knew that I wanted to be at home with them full time."
Could tradwife 'propaganda' influence others?
Dr Campion says the personal choice to live a certain lifestyle is a factor in distinguishing between tradwife and far-right tradwife.
The two "exist in an overlapping space", she explains.
That space centres on the concept of family and she says it's weaponised by tradwives at the extremist end of the spectrum.
For example, Dr Campion has noted disturbing far-right tradwife comments online on the topic of race that include "the ideological positioning of white women as the future for the survival of their in-group".
"In its simplest manifestation, what we see are [far-right] tradwives talking about birth rights. So to defend your race, you need to have as many white children as possible," Dr Campion says.
One tradwife, who posts under the name Wife with a Purpose, is reported to have set a "white baby challenge" in 2017 on social media accounts that have since been shut down.
Other posts that seem to valorise whiteness are not hard to find under the #tradwife hashtag.
Dr Campion says, as well as racism, there is also a rejection of gender equality within the far-right tradwife subculture.
"The average far-right tradwife doesn't actually believe that men and women are equal," she says.
Instead, there are "narratives around feminism [as having] corrupted the modern woman and led her astray, forcing her to work instead of staying at home and looking after her husband and her children," she says.
Dr Campion says there is a risk that women who embrace the "traditional wife" lifestyle may unknowingly be influenced by far-right tradwives.
She describes extreme tradwife views masked by aesthetically pleasing imagery as "propaganda ... designed to be compelling, evocative and gripping" and "to convince people of a certain point of view".
Non-ideologically driven tradwives may reject that material or "they might find that their perception is being shaped" by it.
Dr Leidig has noted far-right tradwives using their posts to spruik their community, by appealing to "young women who feel lost or deeply unhappy with their life situation".
"There's this type of language that attempts to appeal to these women, that says, you'll be much happier if you adhere to these traditional gender norms and lifestyle".
She says that rhetoric is similar to that she sees used among other far-right women online when "recruiting", which shows a "sense of personal grievances, a sense of loneliness and alienation that's being tapped into".
A feminism 'backlash'
Laura, who has Egyptian and Greek heritage, says her version of tradwife doesn't include racism, inequality or any other extreme ideology.
Rather than support ideas of dominant men and subservient women, she argues the two should work together "as a team".
She rejects sexism – but she also firmly rejects feminism.
"I do not consider myself a feminist. I think the very basic idea of feminism – equal rights for women – is great but it's very tainted, and it's very toxic, and even from the beginning feminism was flawed," she says.
She points to mainstream feminism's historical non-representation of women of colour, giving the example of the "quite racist" 19th century women's rights leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who referred to men of colour with the derogatory term "Sambos".
"Her agenda of rights for women didn't actually include women of colour. It was purely votes for white women," Laura says.
"So no, I really don't like feminism. If I had to give myself a term, it would be egalitarianism. Egalitarianism is just the belief that every human deserves to be treated the same way."
Yet she acknowledges that there is also racism within the tradwife movement.
"Unfortunately, I think no matter what group you look at ... you're always going to get extremists," Laura says.
Christine Agius, associate professor of politics and international relations at Swinburne University, says Laura is not alone in her rejection of feminism.
"Feminism is now facing a backlash," she says, arguing that the tradwife subculture is part of that backlash.
Tradwives are "rebelling against … Western ideas around feminism and equality", Dr Agius says.
And that's in part because those ideas haven't all played out well for them.
Dr Agius says broader structural issues women face today have created a space rife for the tradwife subculture to exist.
“We live in a neo-liberal, capitalist, global economy. We have women being told they can do what they want, but at the same time, they're restricted."
She points to continuing and increased gender inequality, women being under-represented politically and high levels of domestic and sexual violence.
A life without leisure
Perth-based mother Rebecca, who prefers not to share her full name, lived as a tradwife for several years before deciding to change her life. She identifies with the term more than the subculture.
She fell in love at 17 and the "major goal" in her life at that stage was to get married, which she did at 22, taking on the role of stay-at-home wife, then mother.
Initially, she was happy. Her husband already owned a house and she considers herself fortunate that the family was able to live off one income.
She acknowledges that's not an option available to all women, and that many "wish they could spend more time with their kids".
Australian women starting a family face some of the lowest paid parental leave in the world, as well as inaccessible childcare, job instability and a housing affordability crisis.
They can find themselves in a lose-lose dilemma upon starting a family.
"The thing about being a working mum is you're supposed to work like you're not a mum, but mother like you don't have a job," Rebecca says.
Over time, she found her workday never ended and the load was oppressive. Her husband worked outside the home during the week and could enjoy leisure time when he came home.
"And I'm like, where's my leisure time?" Rebecca says.
Rebecca had sole responsibility for taking her daughter to all appointments, playgroup dates and birthday parties. She says she'd often be the only mum there without her husband.
"Obviously I asked him to come along, and he [would say] I'm not going to that ... that's a mum's job, that's not a dad's job ... He would refuse to come."
Rebecca says the strict division of roles got in the way of her husband's relationship with their daughter.
"I'd walk through the shopping centre and I'd see dads with their little girls on their shoulders, walking through the shops, and my heart would break and I would cry, because that's what I wanted to see my husband and my daughter doing together.
"But, you know, he was the man. He didn't do grocery shopping."
She began to feel stuck in a role that "was not me", but was rather the logical conclusion of a very conservative upbringing.
After becoming deeply unhappy, she finally accepted she needed to live a different life. She wanted to be a breadwinner, not a homemaker.
"I had to remove myself from that situation because it was destroying my mental health. It was destroying my self-esteem," she says.
Leaving the tradwife life was the right decision for her.
"I'm single, living on my own, working full-time, raising my daughter half the time – it's a very different life and I'm actually happier," she says.
Avoid 'denouncing all tradwives'
Prominent UK tradwife Alena Kate Pettitt posted on social media last year that she was "dumbfounded" by the media's "smear campaign" against tradwives, arguing they were all being tarred with the same extremist brush.
Dr Campion cautions against "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".
Rebecca doesn't judge those tradwives.
"It's hard work. It takes so much out of your body and soul and brain. I totally respect people who do it, I just know it's not for me," she says.
"I'm of the view, if that's what you want to do, good on you. And if you want to support other women to do the same, because they want to, good on you," she says.
Laura agrees, arguing we should "respect other people's choices".
"Just do what makes you happy. If that means carrying 20 baskets of responsibilities and doing it amazingly, do that. If it means just carrying one basket, because that's your favourite basket – and for me, that's my family – do that," she says.
And thinking that this isn't an admiration of the Taliban but more of a rejection of 60 years of decadent Western liberalism and the extreme "wokeness" that has gone of the rails over the past five years and now exemplified with the United State's humiliation in Afghanistan to a culture that forcefully rejects all the Western liberal rot that has polluted ours.
It's not just men rebelling. There's a growing #Tradwife movement emerging consisting of Western women who want to return to the traditional gender roles that have served humanity for thousands of years.
Naturally, modern SJWs are not happy with this growing movement so they've slandered "tradwives" with the racist and right wing extremist label.
I stopped reading after this sentence.
“Anna Kelsey-Sugg and Siobhan Marin”
Yeah, umm, no.
How about it’s nobody’s business if I like to grow my own food, can it, make my own clothes, and all that other stuff?
They act like it’s something novel.
They can eat their hearts out.
This article title contains the best description of the virulent diseased attitudes that have this country spiraling into 1000-years of communist oblivion...
The whole article is nothing but PC woke crap.
spruik? WTheck is that?
‘tradwife’ is a term that could be right out of 1984 Newspeak.
Yep, same spot, end of read. 🙂
my wife had a successful career, more than me at the time, as she had both language skills and a specific technical/education background which made her quite a target for corporate headhunters.
Yet she unexpectedly became pregnant and when our first child was born, she said “I am not going leave this child alone to go back to the rat-race.”
And that was it. She’s since spent her time raising educated, moral and highly superior children who will only benefit America.
The new culture has destroyed our children.
“Tradwife,” really? Some jealous feminist blogger must have come up with that ugly name. God forbid we use the normal word, housewife.
We could do a lot worse than going back to some traditions of the ‘50s.
Sure hope these women don’t live in a no-fault divorce state. 45 years old and no skills other than housekeeper isn’t a good place to be.
Damn commies just never rest
We’ve lived here in the sticks for a decade now and my wife just recently got into canning. She’s been going crazy and has come up with all sorts of stuff - even potatoes. She’s also just getting into dehydrating. WE went with a small, but efficient garden this year and it paid off in dividends. She just got a pressure canner to do stuff like potatoes and meat. Coupled with the half side of beef in the freezer, we’re looking good.
We’re literally turning into a 19th century partnership, aided by 21st century technology. Thanks to the two streams on the property and abundance of natural edible plant life coupled with her canning skills and our garden, this is actually becoming a lot of fun. I’m working on plans for a root cellar cut into one of the hillsides on our property.
Well, here is the tell.
Do tards really make good wives though?
I don’t think a tardwife would be very good to have around.
Normal is radical.
a web search reveals this 2018 nyt article slamming traditional wives as racist extremists
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/opinion/sunday/tradwives-women-alt-right.html
Naturally they looked at Islam and how their views fit into all this “traditional” stuff.
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