Social media’s dangerous fantasy: How the ‘trad wife’ movement fuels inequality and gender-based violence

Key digested message Trad wife is shorthand for traditional wife, which is a lifestyle that has gained online traction over the last decade through different social media platforms. Trad wives differ from housewives through their ideology. Trad wives hold strict archetypal gender roles, they support the patriarchy and submit to their husbands. They commodify far-right politics and disseminate sexist and racist rhetoric veiled by images of romantic domestic life. Furthermore, trad wives encourage the inequalities and behaviours which can lead to gender-based violence (GBV), such as condoning the punishment of wives by their husbands and encouraging wives to be subservient to their husbands. They do this through biblical justification. The trad wife movement works against women’s equality and safety and puts women at risk from harm.