Tradwives presents on Instagram an image of women reminiscent of the 50s. Being a housewife seems easy, but it is not realistic either.

Go back to the 50s? Photo: Pond5 Images/imago

These “Tradwives” videos have been flooding my Instagram feed lately. It's my fault, I watched one of these videos in full because I was a little surprised to see a very elegant woman in a black feather-trimmed robe standing in her kitchen and eating two types of cereal: these cereal products that are sold in the US. In the US with a lot of added sugar and it ends up on the breakfast table: for your children in the morning “from scratch”, that is, you prepare it yourself instead of buying it in the supermarket like the average mortal.

Now the algorithm thinks I care. And what can I say, abysses of ridiculousness open up. Because while it's totally fine for a mom to choose to be a stay-at-home mom (as long as it's an option, it's financially equitable, and she has reasonably realistic expectations), these Tradwives have as much in common with real-life stay-at-home moms as Luke Mockridge does. with Funny People: nothing at all.

Traditional handcuffs are an Internet phenomenon. It is basically the verbal or visual exaltation of the traditional wife who stays at home, takes care of the children, cooks constantly and pays homage to her husband, all always with great style and good humor. In these videos everything looks a bit like the 50s or the Amish throwing up in the room.

There is now a lot of debate about whether this is right-wing thinking or whether it is actually part of feminist emancipation that women can decide for themselves not to pursue a career and not make money if they want to. The curious thing is that these are accounts that have thousands – or like the feather lady, even more than 2 million – followers. By definition, these are influencers. This is a job that makes money. A race, so to speak.

Far from reality

So these women are businesswomen who make a lot of money holding face creams in front of the camera from time to time. Other Tradwives have wealthy families, like Hannah Neeleman, who is a dancer and lives a simple farming life with her husband and her eight children.

Everything seems very transparent, but the real problem is found in the comments: young women who want to identify with these beige videos full of happiness, aprons and rollers. They think that what they see has something to do with the reality of a housewife and mother in an average home.

Because you never see these women doing what housewives usually do: cleaning the kitchen three times a day. Children get upset and warn about dirty clothes. in It belongs in the basket and not on the ground. Scoop the diaper scraps out of the bucket when you feel sick. Running sweatily from one appointment to another with the kids. Developing more and more disdain for your partner because you are constantly picking up socks, doing laundry, scraping dry cereal off the floor, serving food; because you do all these things that over time no one sees anymore. Unless, of course, you put videos of it on Instagram.