Qel guilty pleasure, to appear feminist while secretly watching the videos of “traditional wife” (“traditional wife”), which promote a return to the patriarchal values of the 1950s. I admit to being captivated by this trending with 309 million views on TikTok – this column was also written on a vintage placemat embroidered with flowers. But how can we resist the charm of these pretty young women, elaborate blow-drying, vintage look and apron tied at the waist, going out of their way to teach us how to stay on top in all circumstances, even after eight months of pregnancy?
This epiphenomenon appeared in 2013 in the United States on the Reddit forum “Red Pill Women » (71,000 members today). During the election that saw Donald Trump become president in 2016, women hijacked his campaign slogan and transformed it into “Make Traditional Housewives Great Again” (“return greatness to traditional housewives”). Then, during the emergence of the #metoo movement against sexual violence, the “trad wife” arises in opposition to feminist developments. Since 2016, the British Alena Kate Pettitt has been running a blog entitled “The Darling Academy “. The latter explodes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Confinement obliges, many women fall back on the memory of “comfortable times” perceived as gentler.
Conservative, anti-abortion and ultra-patriotic
The “trad wife” aspires to a return to the gendered (and essentialized) division of roles, where the woman gets up well before her husband to get ready and prepare breakfast for him, takes care of household chores, makes his own bread. house and educates her children herself. Conservative, anti-abortion and ultra-patriotic, she campaigns to keep the nuclear family at the center of her life. Sometimes we think we hear our little grannies reincarnated as TikTok dolls with filters.
Nostalgic for the 1950s, this great coquette does everything to please her husband. Very proud of the latter’s social status – even more so when he is in uniform – she never stops singing his praises in public.
In France, far-right activist Thaïs d’Escufon, spokesperson for Génération identitaire from 2018 to 2021 (date on which the group was dissolved by the government), promotes this reactionary trend, even if, on his blogshe has some reservations about the lifestyle of the 1950s. The YouTuber invites the man who would be attracted to this type of wife to ask himself this very pragmatic question: “Can you afford to support a housewife? » For the 24-year-old anti-feminist, with a monthly salary of less than 4,500 euros, you shouldn’t even think about it, especially if he plans to have five children with his “trad wife”, and send them to private school. .
You have 20% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.