Rewriting Femininity
Tradwives, Visual Aesthetics of Class, and Politics of Remembrance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6424023 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Clemens Beck (0000-0001-5396-1612, University of Vienna), Celina Beck (University of Vienna), Emma Lakkala |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 1-2025 |
| Pages | 64-64 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | FEMINA POLITICA – Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1433-6359 • E-ISSN: 2196-1646 |
| Publisher | Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3224/feminapolitica.v34i1.06 |
| OpenAlex | W4411210269 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 14 |
Tradwives, a group of homemaking women who gained online prominence during COVID-19, position themselves as a counterpoint to contemporary feminism while embodying and commodifying ‘traditional’ femininity and heteronormativity. Through social media, they blend aesthetics with right-wing nationalist ideologies, portraying the ideal of a submissive housewife who cares for her husband and children with unpaid domestic labor. Disguised as ‘tradition,’ tradwifism shares ties with conservative Christian and right-wing groups who evoke tales from the past that comply with the world view of white nationalism. Tradwives do not merely reference our gendered, classed, and raced histories but actively rewrite and -live them in the present day. In our article, we explore the class-specific visual narration of labor and femininity in video content shared by two influential tradwives. By employing visual discourse analysis, we examine the discourse on tradwifism on social media, contextualizing the phenomenon within neoliberal influences, remembrance politics, and politics of respectability. With our input on this actively contested topic, we demonstrate how the persistent narrative of choice and freedom, which undoubtedly has yet to lose its importance for feminist aspirations, presents itself as insufficient in the context of tradwifism. In closing, we advocate for feminists (and non-feminists alike) to embrace alternative, more materialist argumentation in challenging the emerging glorification of heteropatriarchal, ethno-nationalist womanhood
Aesthetics · Art · Class (philosophy · Femininity · Political science · Politics · Rewriting · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Photography and Visual Culture · Artificial Intelligence
On Media Memory
The #Tradwife Persona and the Rise of Radicalized Domesticity
The Women of the Far Right
White and gendered aesthetics and attitudes of #pandemicbaking and #quarantinebaking
Performing a Vanilla Self
Trust, Innocence, and Individual Responsibility
Remembrance as remaking
Respectability, Anti-Respectability, and Intersectionally Responsible Representation
Immigrants and Welfare
Feminine, Not Feminist
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |