What are tradwives? Why young women are reverting back to the 1950s

With their hair perfectly styled and makeup flawlessly applied, these women don vibrant, modest dresses. They pride themselves on meticulously caring for their families and managing household tasks like gardening, cleaning, and cooking. These young women on TikTok and Instagram epitomize the submissive, domesticated ideal reminiscent of the 1950s.

Estee Williams (pictured) is perhaps the leading exponent of the Tradwives in the United States. This is not a new fashion or a new style of dress. It is a trend that is spreading in many countries around the world and that exalts the traditional roles between men and women. This conservative current is opposed to the feminist movement, which fights for the independence of women.

Photo: Screenshot from a video of Estee Williams on Instagram@esteecwilliams

But…what does Tradwife mean?

The term tradwife is an abbreviation of traditional wife. This concept refers to a prototype of woman: the housewife of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States, as detailed by the media JP+. While the woman takes care of the home, the husband goes out to work.

In her videos, Estee Williams shows her daily life. Her beauty routine, household chores, her journey to the grocery store, how she prepares to welcome her husband when he is about to arrive home... On Tik Tok, she has more than 197,000 followers.

Photo: Screenshot of Estee Williams' Tik Tok account

Although the phenomenon is not new in the US, thanks to social media it has started to become popular in other countries. Like in Spain, where there has been a lot of talk about this trend after the videos of Rocío Bueno, known as RoRo on Tik Tok, went viral.

“Today Pablo is going to play football in the afternoon and I know that after playing he always gets very hungry, so I'm going to prepare a snack for him to take with him,” she says in one of her videos while cooking for her man. Most of the content she uploads starts with the same idea: “Pablo loves it,” “Pablo likes it,” “Pablo was craving it.”

Photo: Screenshot from a Tik Tok video of RoRo

This 22-year-old Spanish girl has gone viral with her content on social media, where she prepares new recipes that her lover likes, meals for his friends, or while sewing a dress to go out to dinner with Pablo. More than 5.7 million users follow RoRo on Tik Tok, most of them in recent weeks.

Photo: Screenshot of RoRo's Tik Tok account

The case of this young woman, however, is not as extreme as the phenomenon in the United States. In fact, interviewed on the television program Espejo Público, she says that she has her own professional career and that she uploads her videos because she likes to cook: “I don't live for him, I'm not a submissive woman,” she says.

Photo: screenshot of the interview in Espejo Público

The popularization of this trend has raised many critics, especially from the feminist front, which considers that this trend promotes the submission of women to the desires of men. In several discussions, feminists have branded this movement as "misogynistic and supremacist." Others are convinced that it will endanger the achievements made during years of struggle for women's rights.

In a 2020 article in Frontiers magazine, sociologist Nancy Love describes the phenomenon as follows: “ Tradwives, a group of white nationalist “mom bloggers” who promote the virtues of staying home, submitting to male leadership, and having lots of children (...) These women extol a 1950s escapist fantasy of chastity, marriage, motherhood.”

In the face of criticism, many Tradwives are rebelling. Speaking on the podcast of journalist Juan Ramón Lucas , RoRo has called herself a feminist: “If by feminist we mean equal rights between men and women (...) I support women's freedom to do what they want, but they (the feminists) are not supporting me for doing what I want.”

In one of her videos, which was picked up by JP+ , Williams says that “Being a housewife and having traditional values does not make us bad people. In this day and age, women should have the option of being housewives or not, without being judged and not being rejected for wanting to be more traditional.”

Despite these explanations, this trend in the US has reached such a magnitude that it has become a political phenomenon. In fact, two experts from Massey University followed 36 women who considered themselves TradWives on social media for 10 months to learn about their world.

The conclusion they reached is that these “women use ideological radicalization, their influence on social media and a sophisticated understanding of platforms to 'market' and spread right-wing ideology,” reads the study published on the website of the Global Network of Extremism and Technology.

In fact, many of these women do not hide their political ideology. In one of her latest posts, Estee Williams openly supported Donald Trump in his race for the White House. "Proud to be an American," the woman writes on her profile, quoting the Republican.

In fact, with their discourse, these women reinforce patriarchy, using current instruments such as social media. “Using their position of influence to perpetuate controversial perspectives on wife submission, abortion rights, birth control, racism and the LGBTQIA+ community, TradWives actively contribute to social changes towards a more conservative and traditional life,” the experts conclude.

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