There are so many trends on social media nowadays, it can be hard to keep track of them all. But one of them has caused quite a buzz recently, as it seems to have split people into camps about it—it’stradwife content.
An intuitive life coach, energy worker, and medium, Meredyth Willits, recently went viral for sharing her views on the topic ina TikTok video. By pointing out certain negative aspects of such a lifestyle, she started a debate as fellow netizens expressed varying opinions. Scroll down to find Meredyth’s video below, where you will also find her recent interview withBored Panda.
The so-called tradwife content seems to be getting increasingly popular among internet users, many of whom are rather young
Image credits:meredyth_with_a_why
A representative of Gen X shared her views on the matter, pointing out some negative sides of said lifestyle
“Why is trad wife content suddenly blowing up? Because people my age that were traditional wives are getting divorced and realizing that they threw 20 years of optional, available, could-have-been energy into the workforce, into their future, they threw that away doing laundry and watching their kids.”
Image credits:cottonbro studio/Pexels (not the actual photo)
“So I being 51, I am like one of the first or second generations of women being traditional stay-at-home wives who are coming out and saying, “Don’t do this to yourself.” Trad wife content is becoming super popular right now. Because what’s happening is the trad wife is glamorizing staying home, and being a homemaker, and a stay at home mother, which again, there’s nothing wrong with that. As long as you talk about the fact that if your husband dies, you’re screwed, like triple double screwed.
I have a family member that if her husband died or left her tomorrow, she would be a stay-at-home wife broke on her a** with four kids and no way to support herself. Or if he died, she’s completely screwed. And for all of you out there that say, “Just marry a really good man,” and that’s great and all, but what if you’re sick of this really great man? What if he dies? What if he becomes incapable of going to work? It’s not that ‘trad wife content is extremely popular right now, everyone is just being mean’, what’s happening is is that we are the second generation of women coming forward to say ‘quit being so goddamn stupid and protect yourself’.”
Meredyth’s video was watched nearly 300k times on TikTok
The tradwife lifestyle trend has boomed online over the last several years
Perfect hair, a kitchen setting, and clothing that seem in no way comfortable to cook in—these are just a few things that often accompany the so-called tradwife content online. Spreading like wildfire on social media, the tradwife lifestyle—often alarmingly similar to what one imagines when they think ofthe 1950s—is based on following traditional gender roles with the man being the provider for the family, while the woman tends to thehome and kids, and, of course, takes care of the cooking.
“The trad wife movement is an international movement of women who advocate a return to traditional gender norms through submitting to their husbands and promoting domesticity,” a researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Cécile Simmons toldEuronews Culture, adding that the origins of the movement can be traced back to Reddit, where it emerged roughly six years ago. Since then, they have surfaced in other mainstream social media platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, just to name a couple.
“I think it’s important to mention that many of these content creators are not technically stay at home moms because they can be making a living from content creation, brand deals, or coaching. They are merely showing the lifestyle and not saying how much money they are earning from being a content creator,” the person behind the TikTok video, Meredyth, toldBored Panda. “You cannot say you are a stay at home mom and also be earning six figures. That is not the same thing just because you’re working from home.”
Some people believe following such a lifestyle can lead to certain dangers
In the OP’s eyes, the financial benefits are likely to be one of the main reasons why tradwife content has become so popular online. “From the perspective of the tradwife, there’s money in it. They get a ton of views and as a content creator, there’s money in creating the content that people are eating up. Also, if they get brand deals, they can make money from that as well.”
According to Estee, for instance, a tradwife is a “woman who prefers to take a traditional or ultra-traditional role in marriage, including the beliefs that a woman’s place is in the home”. While some people don’t mind a female choosing such a path in life, others deem it a slippery slope to certain dangerous outcomes.
Some of the worries people opposing the glamorizing of such a lifestyle have are based on the seemingly ever-present what if. What if the head of the household—the man of the family—is no longer able to work and support his loved ones? What if the relationship does not last and the woman is suddenly left with no ground to stand on or a safety net to fall back on?
Moreover, she pointed out that being a trad wife often means that at the end of the day, the year, or the decade, you have nothing to put on a résumé. “So if something were to happen to your partner who is bringing in the conventional income to the family, you are stuck with no way to earn a living; it leaves you at the mercy of their income and if they want to keep you around or not, as well as if you want to stay with them yourself.
“Unfortunately, influencers focused on tradwife content do not show the woman asking for money each week to pay for things, midnight feedings for newborns, or the aftermath of not protecting oneself with a prenup, IRA, or some other financial investment,” Meredyth added.
According to Cécile Simmons, there’s also the danger that the submissiveness to one’s husband that tradwifes are known for entails, as it can lead to normalizing abusive relationships.
The popular online trend might not be representative of the reality
American journalist and author Jo Piazza pointed out that the tradwife aesthetic can be harmful to young women as the ‘50s-inspired lifestyle is based on falsenostalgia. “It’s a false nostalgia for a time that didn’t exist for the majority of the population, and for a time that was incredibly demeaning, condescending and difficult for women,”USA Todayreports her saying. However, it’s important to note that, according to the journalist, the trend becomes somewhat dangerous when it is presented as the only right way to go about life.
While clearly not everyone is a fan of the trend currently blooming on social media, there are people siding with the tradwifes, too. Some of the latter believe that as long as each woman can choose what’s best for her, who’s to say that being a homemaker, a stay-at-home-girlfriend, or a tradwife is worse than any other path they decide to take.
It started a discussion online, fellow netizens shared their views on the topic
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