Feminists argue trad wife influencers on social media may have helped Trump win over women's vote
Feminist academics argued social media "influencers" who promote a traditional family lifestyle may have helped President-elect Trump win the White House by boosting his performance with women voters this election.
Trad wives are a subculture of women who believe in clear gender roles and show other women their homemaker lifestyle on social media, which often involves living on a homestead and making food from scratch. Content creators like Nara Smith and "Ballerina Farm"'s Hannah Neeleman are two of the most popular "trad wife" accounts and have millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram.
Feminist scholars who spoke to USA Today called the boom in trad wife content on social media a "political" movement that has shaped the culture, particularly among Millennial and Gen Z women. They also say it romanticizes traditional gender roles that Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have promoted.
"(Trad wives) are endorsing a lifestyle, and they're endorsing a way of moving through the world that is very political," feminist studies researcher Jess Rauchberg, an assistant professor of communication technologies at Seton Hall University, told USA Today.
"There's a lot to say about the effects of romanticizing the past and how that has played in this election," another expert, UCLA gender studies professor Juliet A. Williams, told the outlet.
"More attention has been given to the yearning of, let's say, working class White men to return to a time when just going to work and earning a living that could support your family has a dignity to it. And when you put it that way, it seems like a very reasonable and honorable nostalgia," she continued.
Many of these content creators do not weigh in on political matters, the report noted, but said they are still showcasing the "strong nuclear family" lifestyle that Republicans are pledging to protect.
"As part of their campaign to Make America Great Again, the Republican Party has promised a return to the good ol’ days, with strong nuclear families at the crux," the report said.
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Democrats lost ground with women in the 2024 election, with Vice President Kamala Harris winning the female vote by five points, down from President Biden's 10-point advantage in 2020. Trump improved on his 2020 performance among young women (+14 points) and young men (+13 points) and boosted his share of the suburban vote by three points, compared to 2020, according to a Fox News Voter Analysis.
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