A simple hashtag had symbolized the liberation of women’s speech all over the world. Almost six years after the #Metoo wave on Twitter, could another hashtag put it in danger? across the Atlantic, #sahm for “stay at home mother” is blooming on TikTok. In the middle of videos of facetious toddlers, we see Sam, a young American, in the middle of a table setting tutorial. A vintage apron tied around her waist, she delicately sets the cutlery to a tune of 1940s jazz. A simple twist on her profile lets you know for sure.
With her posts poking fun at gender equality, Sam is not just an aspiring lifestyle influencer, but a “tradwife”, a movement advocating a return to the 1950s and the traditional family. Translation: the husband at work, the wife who scrubs the house, takes care of the children and proves her love by accepting all the requests of her man.
With his small contingent of 1,500 followers and his dozen posts, Sam has just joined this movement which is conquering the Web, led among others by Estee Williamshis 120,000 followers on TikTok, his fooding tutorials and even his CNN article (in 2022).
Conservatism, great replacement… and kitchen tutorial
Cooking, baking, cleaning, total financial dependence, etc. On the anti-feminism questionnaire, this way of life ticks many boxes. “It’s a movement that was born on social networks during the presidency of Donald Trump and we could observe an increase in searches in the midst of a pandemic, a time when many women were asking themselves questions about their way of life”, explains Cécile Simmons, researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think thank you specializing in issues of extremism and polarization.
In France, the examples are not legion, but they do exist. After a (short) political career on the far right, Thaïs d’Escufon operated a rebranding on a Youtube channel dedicated to the “psychology of male-female relationships”. With great facecam and gif shots, she reveals “the great secret of women” or the underside of the Tinder dating application in videos that sometimes reach 300,000 views.
The “white baby challenge”
Behind communication, ideology thrives. “In France, we must distinguish the identity environment from the traditionalist environment, analyzes Jean-Yves Camus, French journalist and political scientist specializing in the far right. Traditionalists follow the doctrine of the Church. But the pot also has to be boiled, and women sometimes want to work or have to work to cope with economic realities. The identitarians, including Thaïs, have above all a natalist idea: to have French children to avoid migratory submersion. »
Among the brilliant ideas launched by the movement on social networks, the “white baby challenge”. “I did six, do the same or beat me”, urged the American supremacist Ayla Stewart on his blog in 2017. In his case, the political purpose is explicit. But the strategy adopted by other influencers, yet advocating the same ideas, is less frontal.
Ideology and mainstream codes
“It’s a spectrum, there are both ideologues and other women who produce content that is less politically marked in appearance. It allows you to increase your audience by exploiting popular aesthetics on social networks, such as the cottagecore [le retour à la campagne, en français]. For example, aesthetics tradwife is very visual, it can be difficult to realize at first glance what it conveys”, specifies Cécile Simmons. “These influencers borrow from the codes mainstream. They will put links on their profiles that refer to makeup blogs, lifestyle. This strategy also makes it possible to limit the risk of censorship of videos,” explains the researcher. A way to pass under the radar.
USA import product and Great Britain, this conservatism with hints of the far right is marinated in French sauce by certain influencers. Hanna Gas, who seduces a community of 57,000 people on Instagram, describes herself as an expert “in etiquette and French manners”. While not offering any women’s pants in its online clothing store, as spotted Madame Figaro.
Conversely, Pearl Davis, presented as the “women’s Andrew Tate” across the Channel, continues the controversies to support his masculinist remarks. Faced with the ideas conveyed by these “gurus 2.0”, Cécile Simmons sees more “an intersection between anti-feminism and an anti-immigration ideology” than a sectarian drift. With a desire to hide, not always successful, advances Jean-Yves Camus before concluding: “For Thaïs d’Escufon, her past (ex Action française and Génération identitaire) speaks for her, despite her attempts to smooth her image. »