The term “tradwife” has seen a surge in social media mentions over the past year, but the lifestyle choice has also come under fire from critics, who have deemed it “alarming,” “frightening,” “creepy,” and “anti-worker activity.”
Fox News Digital spoke to two tradwives and a former tradwife about a lifestyle choice others call ‘frightening’.
Estee Williams, 25, from Richmond, Virginia is a proud tradwife. She traded her love of weight-focused bodybuilding and form-fitting activewear for lower-impact workouts and flowy dresses leading up to and after her January 2023 wedding.
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Williams said she always wanted to be a stay-at-home wife, but felt society frowned upon it. That changed when she met her husband, Conner Williams, 23, three years ago.
“Before we got engaged, I dropped out of college and took on nannying,” Williams said. “When we got engaged, we talked about this whole [tradwife] lifestyle, and he gave me the option to stop working and start with the lifestyle now or wait ’til we got married. I chose the former.”
Williams has gained over 84,100 TikTok followers since she began posting tradwife videos in March 2022. She said she doesn’t make money from her TikTok content, preferring instead to share her “purpose and message” with others.
Some social media users have associated her with the 1950s due to her homemaker lifestyle, curled hair, and current choice of dress.
“My style changed when my hair changed and that was not intentional,” Williams said. “I had platinum blonde hair with long fake hair extensions, and I was into that whole look for years.”
Despite her vintage style, she’s not pushing for a return to the ’50s as some critics suggest, Williams said.
“Time has changed for the better. It’s also changed in bad ways as well. That’s always how it’s going to be, I think,” Williams said. “But feminism started with choice. Now it’s definitely gotten into this weird mix of all sorts of things. Some people have a problem with what I’m posting about my lifestyle, so it’s clearly not all about choice anymore.”
Hannahlee Yoder, 26, a tradwife in Georgia, also spoke to Fox News Digital. She said she and her husband decided early on that she would be doing the whole homemaking housewife role — and he would be doing the ‘break-your-back-in-the-field’ type of work.
Madison Dastrup, 24, a stay-at-home mom of two in Cedar City, Utah, initially gained a following on TikTok for her tradwife content. But in September 2022, Dastrup revealed she no longer identified as a tradwife now that some “extremists” have given the subculture a bad name.
In her PSA video, Dastrup said that while she still upholds traditional values, she doesn’t wish to associate herself with controversial TikTok personalities whose content supports White supremacy and disregards sexual consent in marriage.
“I do not condone the behavior that the tradwife movement has come to, and it really saddens me that it’s gotten to that point,” she said in her video.
@madisondastrup to the feminists in my dms #homemaker #housewife #tradwife #wifeandmomlife #sahm #youngmom #thereservedwife #wearethehomemakers #antifeminism ♬ Lazy Beat – Akira Meru
The tradwife lifestyle has become a contentious issue, with many people having strong opinions on the matter. But while some may feel the lifestyle is outdated, oppressive, or even dangerous, those who practice it believe that society could benefit from adopting elements of the tradwife lifestyle as they feel it is important to take care of one’s children.
At the end of the day, it is down to personal choice and what works for each individual and their family.
@herblessedhome what are some things y’all never thought were ‘controversial’ until the internet said so? ???????? #marriagelife #controversialopinion #tradwife #tradmarriage #tradmarriageroles ♬ original sound – ashley
