“I don’t want a job, I don’t want to be the breadwinner,” said one video from TikTok influencer Jasmine Dinis begins. “I want to be home, I want to be in the kitchen cooking, I want to clean, I want to cook, I want to make brownies, I want to make dinner, make home-cooked meals every night. »

Her words are superimposed over a series of idyllic-looking video clips where she cradles her children, rolls with them through lush countryside, and takes freshly baked bread out of the oven. And so far, almost 7 million people have watched it. And Jasmine is not alone. Presentation of the “traditional woman”…

What is a traditional wife?

The women who create this distinct form of domestic bondage content are part of a subculture known as “tradwives” (traditional wives), based on the defense of traditional values ​​and, in particular, a “traditional” vision of wives as mothers and housewives.

Follow the hashtags #housewifelife, #tradwife or #homemaker on Instagram and Tiktok and you’ll see young women with perfectly slicked-back hair donning gingham dresses, making the family’s morning blueberry muffins, homeschooling to their children or cut flowers from a garden to “put together” a Mayfair floral style bouquet for a “casual” lunch with their husband.

Jasmine is relatively petite compared to some of the biggest influencers leading the traditional bride movement. Names like Hannah Neelemanor Ballerina Farm as she is known on social media (the content of which went viral after she was featured in a controversial article in The timestitled “Meet the Queen of Traditional Women”), has 7.5 million followers on TikTok, 9.1 million on Instagram and 1.6 million on YouTube. While Nara Smith (who has 10.8 million followers on TikTok and often receives up to 28 million views on her videos) and the cast of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives I appear regularly both on my social media and in my conversations, as the tradwife movement is both divisive and exciting.

Unsurprisingly, the traders have been criticized by many women and men, who say their rose-tinted domestic lifestyle undermines the decades of blood, sweat and tears that have been shed to promote women’s rights. “You are a disgrace to feminism,” reads a scathing comment on one of Smith’s videos.

But all is not what it seems, because upon closer inspection, traditional bliss and wrinkle-free linen dresses have much more to offer than meets the untrained eye. Because a handful of marketers, including Neeleman and Smith, have now built up large followings online and, as we well know, with large followings come big salaries. This means that they have become, intentionally or not, simultaneously traditional wives and breadwinners. A complex oxymoron, to say the least.

As of March 2024, Smith is estimated to have earned around $200,000 from TikTok alone, not including sponsored posts, according to a study by Paradewhile Neeleman is estimated to earn around £650,000 a year from TikTok views, not to mention the income she will receive from driving her followers to the products she and her husband sell thanks to the farming life back home. essential that they document.