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For a happy marriage, “submit to your husband”: in the United States, the wave of #tradwives is being emulated
For a happy marriage, “submit to your husband”: in the United States, the wave of #tradwives is being emulated
(SPECIAL SUBJECT / FRANCE 2)
Nearly ten years after the #MeToo wave, another hashtag is all the rage on social networks across the Atlantic: #tradwives, “traditional wives”. Who are these young women whose lifestyle is completely out of step with changes in society? In Florida, “Special Envoy” met Solie and her husband Andre.
In Florida, Solie, a young mother of three children, collects thousands of views on social networks with her videos which show her babying, cooking or taking care of her interior: 23,000 for the one where she gives her advice, ” three things to do for a happy marriage. “Rule #1: Make love often. Rule #2: Pray together. Couples who pray together stay together longer, it’s statistically proven. Rule #3: Submit to your husband.”
Solie collects thousands of views, but not just “likes”. In the comments, many Internet users find that the young woman serves as “mat” to a husband who “don’t respect her.” Points of view which are indifferent to him, because “obviously”, Solie “disapproves of feminism.” She herself is satisfied to consider herself as “a good wife”.
Like her, under the hashtag #tradwives (for “traditional wives”), a certain number of influencers on Instagram or TikTok advocate a strict return to an ultra-gendered lifestyle, which we believed outdated since the 1950s: the woman stays at home and takes care of the home, the man works and provides for the needs of his family. At 24, Solie’s life revolves around the needs of Andre, whom she met at 18, and their three young children. And it’s even her husband who manages her social networks.
Andre must be a fulfilled husband: son of a housewife, he dreamed of a wife who not only stays at home, but does it “with excellence” and even “with passion”. “A good dinner”, “a tidy house”, “clean children” : this is what he feels he has the right to find in the evening when he comes home – even though he teleworks from home most of the time… without participating in any household chores.
Like Solie, Andre is a believer, and according to him, female submission is a precept written in the Bible. And it would be his role, the husband, to transmit this teaching to his wife. And her role? “It is to submit to my will”, he professes. And when Solie doesn’t agree? It’s Andre who takes “the final decision”.
A way of life completely out of step with modern society, which has been trying for years to balance male-female relationships. The retrograde model defended by this mixed-race couple with their happy appearance is nevertheless gaining more and more followers. His values coincide with those of Donald Trump’s electorate, the majority of whom are practicing Christians and are white. Far from representing a simple trend, “tradwives” are today at the heart of a social project, that of an America that turns in on itself.
Excerpt from “The America of trad wives”, a report to see in “Special Envoy” on October 10, 2024.
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