The online version of idealised homemakers is flawed on so many levels, but that doesn’t make it any less compelling
The problems with the rise of the “tradwife” are dense and many, from their fascist undertones to their regressive gender politics, but the one that is most unnerving, most irritating, and most difficult to articulate, is that they make this life look so bloody delicious.
Tradwives are women who live, online and sometimes in Utah, as idealised homemakers. They cook, clean, raise children, and then perform and document these tasks (tasks more often, of course, taken on by those living in poverty), gaining millions of followers and dollars along the way. Last weekend, the Sunday Times profiled Ballerina Farm, the brand name of Hannah Neeleman who is a Mormon dancer turned beauty pageant winner, homesteader, mother of eight and, with about 18m followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, the undisputed queen of tradwives. She’s famous for baking pies, milking cows straight into her coffee cup and giving birth by candlelight before competing in the “Mrs World” pageant 12 days later.
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