Colman Noctor: 'Tradwife' influencers pose a risk to young people 

Pic: iStock

In a recent discussion with third-level students about the online influence of gender roles on society, they spoke about the rising popularity of the ‘tradwife’, a viral TikTok trend.

The students told me how tradwife influencers promote marrying a rich man and adopting a home-making role, akin to the 1950s housewife.

Tradwives praise the benefits of a simpler life and share content relating to home baking, interior design and ‘looking after the needs of your husband’. 

Their lifestyle stands in stark contrast to the feminist ideals of equal rights and equal career opportunities. 

It’s a beguiling alternative to the modern-day ‘rat race’, with many women trying to do and be everything.

In January, US investigative researcher Olivia Little and her team at Media Matters conducted a study examining the impact of tradwife influencers. 

They found that TikTok’s ‘For You’ algorithm propelled young female users towards tradwife content.

Writing about the study, Little explains how the tradwife movement has transitioned from niche internet subculture to mainstream social media trend in recent years, gaining significant popularity among young people. 

Media Matters’ analysis of 327 tradwife accounts suggested that many young girls were following them.

Tradwife influencers are typically glamorous. Their content is often filled with beautiful imagery of gardening, baking, and a rather blissful life.

While this might be deemed harmless, the Media Matters study also found that nearly every tradwife influencer pushed right-wing conspiracy theories, often focusing on a general distrust of the government and modern medicine positioned between soft visuals of baking, gardening, and modest fashion.

The conservative influencers commonly spread the rhetoric that ‘education is a waste of time’ and promote a ‘stick it to the man’ narrative, claiming they achieved their success and impressive lifestyle independently of formal education. 

I wonder if this content impacts female teenagers’ view of the value of formal education, contributing to the dismissive attitudes some teachers are reporting.

Promoting misogyny

In a recent Forbes newsletter, Cornell University psychologist Mark Travers raised concerns about the potential negative influence of the tradwife movement. 

In the digital realm, he says the ‘momosphere’ was originally an online haven of mothers and wives creating content related to cooking, relationships and parenting. 

However, the new tradwife persona has emerged in this space, encouraging conformity to traditional gender roles and an anti-feminism message. 

While they may seem innocuous, Travers warned that the surge in tradwife content poses significant threats to women’s independence and gender equality.

Oxford University researcher Julia Ebner, who specialises in radicalisation and extremism, also believes that tradwives pose a risk to young people. 

In her book, Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists, she highlights how their promotion of a “return to traditional power roles and exaggerated notions of masculinity and femininity” is appealing to some young people.

Her 2020 study found that up to 30,000 women in Britain describe themselves as tradwives and openly make misogynist statements, such as ‘women’s highest value to men is her sexual value, and she’s most valuable when she’s in her sexually pristine state’.

According to Ebner, tradwives are part of a much larger misogynist online community that shares a hostility towards feminism, liberalism, and contemporary gender roles: “Confusion about changing notions of masculinity and femininity has pushed men and women into fundamental identity crises,” she writes.

“The idea of going back to old-fashioned gender roles can be appealing to men as well as to women. Was it all easier back then? With well-defined roles and behaviours on both sides?”

While some tradwives use feminist rhetoric to portray their movement as an empowering choice, the investigation by Olivia Little and her colleagues revealed potential connections to extreme views, such as posts suggesting that the sun does not cause skin cancer, blaming Andrew Tate’s arrest on ‘the matrix,’ and describing worryingly regressive views that the worldwide Pride festival as ‘full of mentally ill people and groomers’. 

And claims such as ‘the elites have been working for decades to destroy femininity, masculinity, healthy marriages, and families’.

Girls put under pressure

Like the rise in popularity of misogynistic content in boys, it seems a similar issue may also be emerging for young girls.

The potential for unvetted and unchallenged content to be fed into the devices of impressionable children is deeply concerning. 

It is well documented that online pornography damages young people’s understanding of intimacy and relationships. 

It seems the tradwife trend may also complicate their understanding of what a healthy and equal relationship looks like. 

Young boys are also viewing this content. On TikTok, you’ll find many men openly expressing their desires to find a tradwife who will fulfil all their demands.

While we would all hope young girls would be able to see through this nonsense, there will always be a small number who are susceptible to being influenced by it.

I speak to many young girls in my clinic who describe being overwhelmed by the responsibility of growing up and being expected to have a career, a home, and to look after their families. In the face of this pressure, I can see how the promise of the tradwife role could seem appealing.

Much like the misogynistic influencers who show young boys their fast cars and impressive lifestyles, tradwives live in beautiful homes and always look picture-perfect. It is not surprising that this content would appeal to young girls.

Ongoing public discourses about concepts such as fluid or non-binary genders may be giving rise to counter-narratives that promote rigid adherence to gender roles like the manosphere and the momosphere. 

However, this so-called ‘traditional’ content could cloak more sinister messaging around other, more far-right ideologies.

While we may be having more conversations about protecting young boys from misogynistic content, a similar degree of caution and attention is required for young girls, too.

Responsible adults need to step in and start conversations with young people about what intimate relationships should look like. 

The onus falls once again on parents, teachers, and other adults to offer healthy alternatives to these misogynistic online movements influencing how young teens view the world.

• Dr Colman Noctor is a child psychotherapist