If you’re on social media, chances are you’ve seen the “trad wife” movement. Just picture a white woman speaking sweetly while baking sourdough bread about the need for us to focus on being wives and mothers. The trad wife lifestyle advocates for a return to “traditional” gender norms, with a woman focused on children and the home while her husband works.
Many trad wives hold conservative religious and political views, but this is not a requirement. Some “crunchy” moms — those who value healthy lifestyles and “clean living” — may lean left politically but share similar interests with trad wives, like homesteading or baking. And if we think of the political spectrum as a horseshoe, not a line, it makes sense that the far-left and the far-right might be closer than we think.
The trad wife movement, though clearly not for everyone, might seem innocent enough. But lately, it’s been gaining more national attention due to its connection to alt-right politics and conspiracy theories. For some women, regardless of politics, joining the trad wife movement is the first step in the direction toward white supremacy and Christian nationalism – and they might not even be aware.
Just consider the story of Dominique, who was raised in an evangelical church and started doing door-to-door ministry when she was eleven years old. After marrying young, Dominique wanted to be a trad wife, even encouraging her husband to be more dominant in their marriage. After her first pregnancy, she quit her job and turned her focus to keeping a nice house and following the “mommy blogger” craze. Alone with her baby all day, Dominique turned more frequently to the communities she found online.
Eventually Dominique’s trad wife online communities led her to QAnon, an extremist conspiracy theory political movement. She says from her upbringing as an evangelical to her time as a trad wife, so much of her life was rooted in fear. The far-right white supremacy movement exploits this fear and reaches out to women who are vulnerable to find new recruits. They seek out women who are living in fear and promise them security by giving them a community to belong to.
Meanwhile, the presence of submissive, “traditional” looking women focused on raising a family gives the movement a softness. By centering women, the alt-right makes it seem safe for other women to join the community. The women also work as bait to attract more white men to the movement.
Once someone joins the community, they start hearing “everything you’ve been told is a lie.” This is a vital part of the alt-right’s messaging. If they can get someone to start questioning one thing, they can build on that fear and make them start questioning everything. Studies show that people who believe one conspiracy theory are more likely to believe another one. And that’s how someone gets hooked. Even someone who started by innocently looking online for ways to live a cleaner, healthier life, regardless of politics.
In the coming weeks we’ll talk more about what we can do to protect our friends and family against these online communities that serve as gateways to the alt-right, and offer ways to get involved in pro-democracy, anti-extremist communities instead!