“Since When Do We Celebrate Not Having Talent?”: Common Tropes and Counterstory in Tradwife TikTok

Abstract

My thesis examines common “tropes” that appear in Tradwife content on TikTok. Tradwife content reaffirms and platforms harmful cultural norms and stereotypes regarding gender roles and is often connected to other forms of online extremism. In this thesis, I examine three common tropes I’ve identified in Tradwife content—religion, othering, and aesthetic comfort content. Tradwife content creators state religion to be a main driver behind their lifestyle and often produce content that presents an othering, “us-vs.-them” dynamic between themselves and their detractors. The toxic nature of their message is made more palpable via what I refer to as “aesthetic comfort content,” where their visually pleasing multimodal content presents their lifestyle as idyllic. I also expound on how some commenters are using elements of counterstory and disidentification in the Tradwife creators’ comment sections to fight back against these same stereotypes. The comment section becomes a site of debate and discourse where commenters can engage in acts of micro-activism by using their own experiences to complicate and critique the Tradwives’ messaging.