1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:04,520 On January 12th, 2024, Nara Smith posted a TikTok video 2 00:00:04,520 --> 00:00:07,160 making her children peanut butter and jam sandwiches. 3 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:10,880 Like many mom fluencers on the app, Nara primarily shares 4 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:14,080 lifestyle vlogs and aesthetic home making content cooking 5 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:17,320 barefoot in her white marble kitchen, wearing a red lip while 6 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:19,920 tending to her children, showcasing her loving 7 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:23,360 relationship with her husband, and narrating all of this in a 8 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:26,680 soft voice that conveys that she has found the ultimate happiness 9 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:28,640 and peace from her domestic life. 10 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:32,280 But unlike most other mom fluencers on TikTok, Nara is 11 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:35,040 making the peanut butter and jam sandwiches from scratch. 12 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:39,080 Like scratch scratch. This morning my toddler stumbled 13 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:42,400 into my room and her first words were PB and J. 14 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:44,400 So that's exactly what I got Started on. 15 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:46,800 Growing up, I loved having fresh bread. 16 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:49,760 It was one of my favorite things, so I get it started by 17 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,960 making a really simple sandwich Bread with some yeast, water, 18 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:56,080 salt, sugar and flour. Kneaded that until the dough 19 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:59,880 formed and then let that dough rise for about two hours until 20 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:02,960 it doubled in size. I started on my Raspberry jam. 21 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:06,200 I used some lemon monk fruit sweetener, but you can also use 22 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:08,680 sugar and some cornstarch to thicken it. 23 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:11,280 While that was going, I started on my peanut butter. 24 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:14,440 I roasted all my peanuts in the oven and then ground them up 25 00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:17,080 with some sea salt until a paste formed. 26 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:20,320 You can definitely add honey to this if you want to. 27 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:23,240 I didn't today because the Jelly would be quite sweet, but by 28 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:26,960 this time my bread was doubled in size so I punched it to 29 00:01:26,960 --> 00:01:30,280 release all the air and then split it in two, rolled that out 30 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:33,200 and then folded that over to fit in my loaf pans. 31 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:37,160 I let that rest for another 30 minutes to about an hour until 32 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:41,000 it looked like a decent size in my loaf pan and then I popped 33 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:46,120 that in the oven and it came out so perfectly brown, soft in the 34 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:48,080 middle. I was so excited I couldn't 35 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:50,960 wait, so I definitely sliced it a little too early. 36 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:55,160 My daughter requested a mini PB and J so I cut the bread down 37 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:57,840 and spread it with my peanut butter and Jelly, cut it 38 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:00,440 diagonally and this was really good. 39 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:03,520 She ended up having a few of them and wanted more. 40 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:06,720 It's Nara's commitment to making her family homemade meals from 41 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:09,960 scratch while looking gorgeous and calm that has built her a 42 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:13,560 loyal following of over 3 million who have branded her a 43 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:18,840 very loaded label trad wife. And though Nara, a woman of 44 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:22,960 color, has not openly peddled trad wife ideology, nor has she 45 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,520 been clear about her political or religious beliefs, she is 46 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:29,520 just one of many young mothers on TikTok who have found 47 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:32,760 themselves accused of taking women's progress back in time to 48 00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:38,280 the 1950s, an accusation that is not always justified. 49 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:41,800 From Centennial World, I'm Lauren Meissner and this is 50 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:45,680 Infinite Scroll, a podcast about Internet culture at the creator 51 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:48,240 economy and how social media is shaping. 52 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:51,560 Jen said welcome back to Infinite Scroll everyone. 53 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:54,800 I am so excited to be back. It feels like it's been so long 54 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:58,120 since I recorded my episode with Crystal on Taylor Swift. 55 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:02,320 We recorded it so early so it's been quite a while since I've 56 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:04,640 sat down to record, but I am happy to be back. 57 00:03:04,640 --> 00:03:08,640 It was really nice having a Co host to be able to have a help 58 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:11,600 prepping but also be kind of that banter and that 59 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:14,040 conversational style back. That is something that I know 60 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:15,600 I've missed. I know you guys have really 61 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:17,080 missed. So it was really great to have 62 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:20,160 her kind of involved in last week's episode and it made me 63 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:22,680 feel much more comfortable with like looking for Co hosts and 64 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:26,120 kind of planning out my schedule like that for, you know, some 65 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:28,240 deep dives in the future, which is really exciting. 66 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:30,840 So as always, Please remember to rate, review and subscribe. 67 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:35,120 It means so much Reading your reviews really keeps me going in 68 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:38,360 this time. No, but it actually is the best. 69 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:39,840 I love it. It makes my week. 70 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,200 It makes it worth it. You know what I'm doing here, so 71 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:46,400 I absolutely love it. And sign up to our newsletter, 72 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:48,360 which is also called Infinite Scroll. 73 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,800 So on Wednesdays we send out a commentary article about a 74 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:55,480 trend, creator, drama or news. And on Fridays we round up the 75 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:59,080 five biggest think pieces about Internet culture on the Internet 76 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:01,400 that week. Also join our Geneva group which 77 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:04,200 is called Infinite Scroll as well where you guys can talk to 78 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:06,880 other people who are just as obsessed with Internet culture 79 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:11,760 as we all are. And you can also chat with me so 80 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:14,200 I will read a couple reviews. Like I said last week we 81 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:16,920 recorded so early so I'm so sorry if you left a review and 82 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:19,240 thought maybe you would hear it last week, but hopefully you 83 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:23,200 will hear it this week. So Elise says love the new 84 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:25,040 format you're doing. Amazing. 85 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:26,760 So well researched and informative. 86 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:29,680 Thank you for continuing on. I'd be devastated if Infinite 87 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:32,360 Scroll disappeared from my life. Thank you, Elise. 88 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:35,640 I would be devastated too. So don't worry, we're going to 89 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:37,640 keep going. I have very exciting things in 90 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:42,480 the works for the future of this podcast and what I am bringing 91 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:44,960 back. I think I will like let you guys 92 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:48,360 know as soon as I know. I think it will probably be 93 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:51,760 April first, which I think is April Fool's Day, but I'm dead 94 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:54,040 serious. I think it will be April 1st 95 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:58,320 that I have something else really big and exciting coming 96 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:01,760 for you guys. The next review is from Sammy 97 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:03,800 and they say more obsessed than ever. 98 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:05,720 Go Lauren. I'm loving the new format and 99 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:08,000 I'm so happy that you're continuing on and finding your 100 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:10,160 groove. Get a girl always backing you 101 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:12,960 Thank you you guys are so freaking swayed. 102 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:16,600 And then Sarah S on Instagram said loved this new format. 103 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:19,400 I love the mix of in depth analysis with commentary. 104 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:21,840 It was super fun and made my long commute a lot more 105 00:05:21,840 --> 00:05:23,320 enjoyable. Thank you guys. 106 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:25,960 And then we also got some really sweet messages in Geneva, which 107 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,120 I won't read, but I just so appreciate the feedback. 108 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:32,440 I never know if I should read things from Geneva because I 109 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:33,920 feel like it's kind of like a close community. 110 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:36,960 It's it's like a Discord, right? So it's like a closed community, 111 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:38,560 essentially. So I don't want to, like, put 112 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:41,120 you guys on blast if you're interacting with us in Geneva. 113 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:44,760 And then I kind of like read it out, but just know I saw them 114 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:49,200 Love you guys. Nara Smith, born Nara Pelman, is 115 00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:52,760 a model influencer and the wife of popular Tumblr model Lucky 116 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:55,400 Blue Smith. They have two children, Rumble 117 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:58,640 Honey and Slim Easy, and are currently expecting their third. 118 00:05:58,840 --> 00:06:01,600 Nara has gone viral for posting Stay at Home mom fluencer 119 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:03,720 content. While there is nothing 120 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:06,920 inherently wrong with these types of videos, users have 121 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:10,240 criticized her for promoting trad wife ideology, Mormon 122 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:13,160 propaganda, and anti feminist beliefs. 123 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:16,680 Nara's most viral moments have all been centered around her 124 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:19,480 commitment to making food for her family completely from 125 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:21,880 scratch. Aside from questions about how 126 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:26,280 Nara possibly has the time, her content has led to accusations 127 00:06:26,280 --> 00:06:30,320 that she is creating trad wife propaganda, an accusation that 128 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:33,920 more and more creators in that momosphere space are facing in 129 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:37,080 recent months Now I have explored the definition of trad 130 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:40,000 wife before, specifically when we investigated the career 131 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,520 trajectory of Gwen Swinnerton, a once bisexual ASMR YouTube and 132 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:48,160 only fans creator who has seemingly transitioned to a trad 133 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:51,200 wife, TikTok creator. Yes, that is a real sentence 134 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:54,840 that I just said. A portmanteau trad wife is a 135 00:06:54,840 --> 00:06:57,080 descriptor combining traditional and wife. 136 00:06:57,280 --> 00:07:01,160 While the term originated in 2015, it has gained increasing 137 00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:04,760 popularity in the twenty 20s, particularly thanks to TikTok. 138 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:08,840 In January of 2020, the BBC released a documentary called 139 00:07:08,840 --> 00:07:12,920 #trad Wife submitting to my husband like it's 1959, 140 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:16,600 featuring a popular creator named Alina Kate Petit. 141 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:19,520 This soon led to coverage from other mainstream outlets like 142 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:21,120 the New York Times and the Guardian. 143 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:24,480 The Trad Wife niche has grown exponentially since then, 144 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:27,240 especially with the COVID-19 pandemic and the advent of 145 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:30,120 TikTok. At the time of recording #trad 146 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:34,800 Wife has 433 million views. TikTok creator Ali Rooker 147 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:37,600 outlines some of the reasons why Trad Wife content is on the 148 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:40,160 rise. First, she notes that as Gen. 149 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:43,840 Z enters the workforce, they are realizing that basically work 150 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:46,920 sucks, leading them to potentially follow the Trad Wife 151 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:49,480 path. Though trad wife life involves 152 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:53,040 significant domestic labor, this lifestyle might be appealing to 153 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:55,560 young people because they are not working in a professional 154 00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:57,920 setting. The 2nd is that there is a 155 00:07:57,920 --> 00:08:01,600 general malaise about capitalism at the moment, with many young 156 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:03,600 people feeling unfulfilled in their career. 157 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:07,360 Quote at least being a trad wife serving someone that you love 158 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:10,080 maybe feels like there is a little more of a point, Ali 159 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:12,440 says. Additionally, Ali explains that 160 00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:15,520 many women today tend to do a significant amount of domestic 161 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:19,400 labor while also having a full time job, so it may be enticing 162 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:22,240 to leave the professional world if you have to do everything in 163 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:25,760 the home anyway. Lastly, trad wife is a very 164 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:29,680 lucrative niche for creators. This is something that we as 165 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:32,799 viewers should keep in mind when consuming trad wife content. 166 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:35,880 More on that later. The trad wife belongs to Tik 167 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:39,559 Tok's Momosphere, the corner of the app where mothers and wives 168 00:08:39,559 --> 00:08:42,960 post content related to cooking, relationships, and parenting. 169 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:46,400 The trad wife will post content centered around domestic life, 170 00:08:46,680 --> 00:08:48,880 sharing aesthetic vlogs, preparing a meal for her 171 00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:51,720 children with the ingredients often made from scratch or 172 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:54,600 cleaning the house, sometimes with homemade cleaning supplies. 173 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:57,360 But there is an important distinction to be made here. 174 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:02,320 Trad wife is not an online aesthetic, it is not a type of 175 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:05,800 content creator, and it is not a stay at home mom who likes to 176 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:09,360 cook for her family. Trad wife is an ideology rooted 177 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:12,800 in white supremacy. It is Nazi propaganda, and 178 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:16,280 though Trad wives claim to be empowered by this lifestyle, its 179 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:19,240 core values are deeply anti. Feminist. 180 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:22,400 Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Elon University 181 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:26,000 Devin Proctor notes quote Triad wives promote traditional gender 182 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:28,880 roles in family life, wherein the man provides for and 183 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:31,800 protects the family and the woman has children and takes 184 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:34,600 care of the family's needs. Triad wives believe that the 185 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:37,480 place of the woman is in the home, justifying this 186 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:40,200 perspective through various political, religious, and 187 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:42,960 personal beliefs. By embracing traditional 188 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:45,880 principles, trad wives claim that opting for a more 189 00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:49,360 conventional path in marriage does not diminish their rights. 190 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:53,280 The recent popularity of tik tokers like Nara Smith has 191 00:09:53,280 --> 00:09:56,720 created both increased interest in the trad lifestyle and a 192 00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:00,320 misunderstanding of what a trad wife actually is. 193 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:03,600 The most obvious critique of trad wives is that their 194 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:07,000 lifestyle is inherently sexist and heteronormative. 195 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:10,880 Trad wives, often entrusting their husbands with complete 196 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:14,240 control over the family's finances, find themselves 197 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:16,880 confined to domestic responsibilities, and are 198 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:19,880 expected to wholeheartedly submit to their spouses. 199 00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:23,160 While this may be the goal, the trad wife lifestyle 200 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:26,720 fundamentally contradicts the objectives of feminism dating 201 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:29,440 back to the first wave in the early 20th century. 202 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:34,000 As Proctor writes, quote, trad wifery stands firmly against 203 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:36,880 many feminist struggles over the past half century. 204 00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:41,320 The right to work, the right to maintain one's own finances, the 205 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:44,200 right to bodily autonomy, the right to freedom from 206 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:47,960 harassment. So many trad wives are proud to 207 00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:52,040 be, quote, anti feminist. Proctor explores how some trad 208 00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:55,640 wives maintain that their chosen lifestyle is a way of expressing 209 00:10:55,640 --> 00:10:58,240 feminism. This comes down to the concept 210 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:02,520 of choice feminism, the idea that the individual choices of a 211 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:06,280 woman are inherently feminist. But Proctor goes on to debunk 212 00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:09,200 this argument, noting that the majority of women don't have the 213 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:12,880 luxury to make this choice quote for racial, geographic, 214 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:14,880 cultural, and many other reasons. 215 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:18,160 Many women are unable to work even if they would choose to, 216 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:20,520 and for economic and systemic reasons. 217 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:23,160 Many women who have to work would choose not to. 218 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:25,520 The choice itself reflects privilege. 219 00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:28,960 Proctor also explains that domestic labor is inseparable 220 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:31,200 from the demands of a capitalist society. 221 00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:34,640 While trad wives may opt for this lifestyle, their choice 222 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:37,760 also responds to the significant challenges of balancing 223 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:40,920 caregiving and the seemingly ever rising cost of living. 224 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:45,680 The trad wise lifestyle is driven by patriarchal norms and 225 00:11:45,680 --> 00:11:49,080 the notion of an idealized woman undermining the perception of 226 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:50,920 genuine choice among these women. 227 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:55,160 As Bella Kellogg for the Michigan Daily writes quote, the 228 00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:58,040 patriarchal oppression doesn't discriminate between the 229 00:11:58,040 --> 00:12:01,600 traditionalists who embrace it and the feminists who defy it. 230 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:05,160 Under the patriarchy, inferiority is an inescapable 231 00:12:05,160 --> 00:12:08,920 condition of the female psyche. Traditional women cope with this 232 00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:12,200 patriarchal oppression by framing their subordination as 233 00:12:12,200 --> 00:12:15,480 self sacrifice. This includes the denial of 234 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:18,960 basic emotional communication between themselves and their 235 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:21,600 husbands. Having said that, it is not 236 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:26,000 inherently anti feminist for a woman to value and pursue their 237 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:30,160 role as a mother and a wife, and this false conflation has 238 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:33,600 created a lot of tension online as the trad wife aesthetic has 239 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:37,600 become increasingly trendy. The real issue arises when these 240 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:41,240 roles are weaponized to platform the alt right, an ideology 241 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:43,400 shrouded in racism and white supremacy. 242 00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:47,200 While many trad wives do not personally identify with the alt 243 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:50,280 Right, it has been well documented that embracing the 244 00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:52,520 trad life can lead women down this path. 245 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:56,320 Christie Champion and Kirioli ignam right for the conversation 246 00:12:56,320 --> 00:12:59,920 quote Trad wives believe contemporary society is beset by 247 00:12:59,920 --> 00:13:04,000 decadence and consumerism, sexual depravity and promiscuity 248 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:07,360 and unnatural ways of living. This is all supposedly 249 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:09,600 engineered to weaken the white race. 250 00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:13,640 Becoming a trad wife is one way far right women push back 251 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:17,400 against the supposed threats. Evian Ledig explains in the book 252 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:20,600 The Women of the Far right that the idea that society is in 253 00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:23,400 moral decay is very common in these circles. 254 00:13:24,040 --> 00:13:27,360 This has led many people who subscribe to this ideology to 255 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:31,080 homeschool their children quote to circumvent mainstream social 256 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:34,680 and cultural norms. This conspiratorial mindset has 257 00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:37,840 become prevalent in trad wife circles, where many of these 258 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:41,280 women adopt A crunchy lifestyle. For those unfamiliar with the 259 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:44,760 term crunchy, it refers to a subculture defined by the 260 00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:48,240 pursuit of slow living, Wellness, independence, and 261 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:51,520 traditional aesthetics. As Kathleen Belew writes for The 262 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:55,240 Atlantic quote, crunchy, coined as a pop culture reference to 263 00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:58,840 granola, has come to refer to a wide variety of cultural 264 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:02,240 practices, including avoiding additives in food dyes, 265 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:05,440 declining or spacing out childhood vaccinations beyond 266 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:08,680 what pediatricians recommend, and more extreme actions in 267 00:14:08,680 --> 00:14:11,160 pursuit of health, independence and purity. 268 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:14,400 Ballou further outlines the Crunchy to Alt Right pipeline, 269 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:18,320 observing that this subculture serves as a channel for direct 270 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:20,840 recruitment into the white power movement. 271 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:24,040 Essentially individuals who embrace the crunchy lifestyle 272 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:27,000 become more susceptible to fear mongering and conspiracy 273 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:30,280 theories fueled by their pre-existing distrust in 274 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:33,040 government, medicine and other institutions. 275 00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:36,120 For an in depth analysis on how this crunchy to alt right 276 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:39,720 pipeline happened before our very eyes with popular YouTube 277 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:43,120 Gwen Swinnarton check the show notes for episode on Gwen in 278 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:45,760 season four. Considering Baloo's crunchy to 279 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:49,560 alt right pipeline Trad Wifery often has a strong association 280 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:51,960 with the far right through domesticity and white 281 00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:54,560 nationalism. Trad wife memes are a good 282 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,920 example of this. Author Casey Davis reflects on 283 00:14:57,920 --> 00:15:00,680 her experience with trad wife culture online in a recent 284 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:03,440 TikTok series. Trad wives are Nazi propaganda. 285 00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:07,320 I'm not being hyperbolic. They literally are. 286 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:10,240 I've talked about this on my page before, but I recently 287 00:15:10,240 --> 00:15:13,560 discovered something that I first saw 15 years ago that I 288 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:15,880 think will finally cement this for people that don't believe 289 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:17,840 me. People think that trad wife is 290 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:21,120 like this new TikTok trend because it's videos of these 291 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:24,120 beautiful women being like domestic goddesses and having 292 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:26,800 these aesthetically pleasing videos of them like baking bread 293 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:31,440 and having babies. But the term trad wife like the 294 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:34,400 things that that those people are doing when they #trad wife. 295 00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:40,240 It originated long time ago. This is one of the first trad 296 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:43,440 wife memes. I first saw it 15 years ago and 297 00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:46,720 it's this, you know, liberal feminist versus trad wife. 298 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:49,960 Trad wife stands for traditional wife and I want to draw your 299 00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:51,640 attention to things on this chart. 300 00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:56,920 The trad wife, bottom left, loves her family, race and 301 00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:00,520 country in that order. Knowledgeable about her European 302 00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:05,400 roots, homeschools her kids so they aren't taught progress BS 303 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:07,600 in school. If we look over here at the 304 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:11,080 Liberal Feminist, you can see second from the bottom right 305 00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:14,280 she's only attracted to black men on the left. 306 00:16:14,280 --> 00:16:16,600 She aborted her black baby last year. 307 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:19,480 By the way. The liberated Feminist is chubby 308 00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:24,360 when you see that chubby and sleeps around, whereas the trad 309 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:30,480 wife has a natural tan, natural hair highlighted from the sun 310 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:33,720 and a slim figure from her homemade meals. 311 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:37,440 The far right sees the woman's role as one of service, meaning 312 00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:40,400 that a woman's purpose is to bear children for her husband 313 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:42,720 and subsequently spend her time raising them. 314 00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:46,800 Through these efforts, trad wives quote serve their imagined 315 00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:50,960 racial and cultural heritage. Champion and ignam right Trad 316 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:54,960 wives draw upon a very specific period of history, the 1950s. 317 00:16:55,280 --> 00:16:58,200 Throughout this era, women were largely denied access to the 318 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:00,440 workforce or any sense of independence. 319 00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:04,000 While this was vastly different from previous decades where 320 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,400 women participated in activities such as textile production, 321 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:10,960 agricultural management, industrial work, and even 322 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:14,480 military service, trad wives view domestic life as the 323 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,760 epitome of womanhood. While a trad wife's definition 324 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,800 of true womanhood is oversimplified and inaccurate, 325 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:23,920 it aligns perfectly with the messaging with an alt Right 326 00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:28,560 circles beyond the synergy Championing 1950s ideals of 327 00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:32,600 womanhood inherently favors white women, as Proctor writes 328 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:35,000 quote. By framing these particular 329 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,160 formations of gender roles and identities seen in the white 330 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:42,040 middle class United States of the 1950s as traditional, the 331 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:45,960 trad wife personifies them into natural fact for all humans. 332 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,880 This certainly makes for a powerful breeding ground for 333 00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:54,080 white supremacy and nationalism. And though many creators making 334 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:56,880 aesthetic trad wife content would argue that they are not 335 00:17:56,880 --> 00:18:00,320 white supremacists, and they see no correlation between their 336 00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:05,800 lifestyle and Nazi propaganda, some creators in this space do. 337 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:09,440 One trad wife creator known as Wife With a Purpose, whose real 338 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:13,000 name is Elias Stewart, epitomizes these racist beliefs. 339 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:18,560 In 2017, Elias started the quote White Baby Challenge, 340 00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:22,000 encouraging white people to match or beat her number of 341 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:25,760 offspring, Annie Kelly writes for the New York Times quote 342 00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:29,240 Wife With a Purpose might be the most prominent and certainly 343 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:32,600 most openly white supremacist of the women who call themselves 344 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:35,440 trad wives, but she is not an anomaly. 345 00:18:36,160 --> 00:18:39,680 These accounts veered dizzyingly from Cosmo style tips on 346 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:44,200 pleasing your husband to racist musings about ghetto music to, 347 00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:47,200 on some occasions, calls to reassert their vision of the 348 00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:50,080 white race. Considering the ideals that 349 00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:51,920 underpin the trad wife lifestyle. 350 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:55,640 Ali Rooker on TikTok outlines why trad wife propaganda is 351 00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:58,520 problematic. You are working this framing 352 00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:01,040 that there are women who work and there are women who don't 353 00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:03,840 work because men have gifted them the opportunity to stay 354 00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:05,240 home and cook and clean for them. 355 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:08,960 You're both working. It is fine to want to stay home 356 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:12,760 and do those things, but that is not a gift of no labor. 357 00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:15,960 You are both working, and when you're doing it exclusively in 358 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:19,200 the home, you're working with no rights, no protection, no safety 359 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:20,760 net. You're providing services that 360 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:22,920 if you weren't around, that man would have to pay multiple 361 00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:25,440 professionals to get because it's work, It's valuable work. 362 00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:28,760 But your job security and doing that is entirely contingent on 363 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:31,920 that man deciding to keep you around as your youth and your 364 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:34,920 beauty, two things that are very protective of that job security 365 00:19:35,120 --> 00:19:36,800 to a certain point, start to fail. 366 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:39,760 Just because it feels fulfilling and free to not go to work 367 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:42,120 everyday does not mean you are free. 368 00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:46,640 So with these extremist beliefs in mind, what really constitutes 369 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:50,160 trad wife content? In a recent video, Casey Davis 370 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:53,360 explores this question in relation to TikTok, explaining 371 00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:57,400 that trad wife content is defined by three concepts #1 372 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,200 women should be at home raising their children, and men should 373 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,240 be working outside the home. Number two, they must be 374 00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:07,080 Christian religious. And #3 they must believe that 375 00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:09,920 wives are called to submit to their husbands by God. 376 00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:14,400 Davis then notes some trad wife red flags, which include 377 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:18,200 homeschooling, homesteading, and the importance of being 378 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:20,480 beautiful and feminine for their husband. 379 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:24,440 So while Trad Wife embodies a specific lifestyle with a set of 380 00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:28,240 underlying beliefs, TikTok users have increasingly applied this 381 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:32,200 term to a wide range of creators in the momosphere, most of whom 382 00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:36,880 are not actually Trad wives. Emily Mariko is 1 creator who 383 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:39,560 has been facing the Trad wife allegations as of late. 384 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:43,440 Emily gained viral fame on TikTok in 2021 for her cooking 385 00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:46,640 and lifestyle content, most notably her salmon and rice 386 00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:48,960 bowls. Before becoming an influencer, 387 00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:51,040 she graduated with a neuroscience degree from 388 00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:54,480 Columbia University and worked at L'Oreal and Facebook. 389 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,000 Last year, Emily married her longtime boyfriend Matt Rickard 390 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:00,080 and is currently expecting a child. 391 00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:02,760 Her recent marriage and pregnancy, coupled with her 392 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:06,160 cooking and cleaning videos, have led TikTok users to jump to 393 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:08,800 conclusions and claim that Emily is a trad wife. 394 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:10,080 Look, I'm just going to say this. 395 00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:12,160 Emily Mariko is the ultimate trad wife. 396 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:14,680 The performance of domestic labor on her account is 397 00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:16,880 impeccable. In terms of the fine print of 398 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:21,000 patriarchy, she is a dream wife. The audience, AKA the people for 399 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,520 whom she curates this performance, only know her as a 400 00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:26,320 woman who lives inside of a kitchen. 401 00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:30,160 She is pregnant and she is silent, which means that you, 402 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:34,040 the viewer, get to project any of your own opinions or thoughts 403 00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:36,720 or feelings on to her. She is a vessel. 404 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:40,920 This is literally the dream when it comes to patriarchy. 405 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:45,440 A smiling, silent woman who cooks meals and reproduces. 406 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,760 However, Shannon McNamara, the host of the Fluently Forward 407 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:52,600 podcast, recently made a TikTok questioning whether Trad Wife is 408 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:55,920 an accurate label for Emily. I've been seeing videos on here 409 00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:59,880 of people calling Emily Mariko A trad wife, and I just feel like 410 00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:03,360 the lingo is out of control. There is always a word that gets 411 00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:06,160 popularized on TikTok, and then people start assigning that word 412 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:08,040 to everything, even when it shouldn't be. 413 00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:09,680 This happened with nepo baby, right? 414 00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:12,600 People were like, oh, anyone who's has rich parents is a nepo 415 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:14,560 baby. Not what the word means happened 416 00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:17,000 with PR relationship. People were like, oh, everyone 417 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:18,600 is in a PR relationship. No, no, no. 418 00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:21,240 And now that the phrase trad wife is getting popular now, 419 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:24,320 it's been around for like years, people are using it in a way 420 00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:26,400 that doesn't mean anything. So I saw this video where this 421 00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:30,000 girls like Emily Mariko is a perfect trad wife because she is 422 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:33,960 performing domestic labor while pregnant and she is silent while 423 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:35,520 she's doing it. Which number one? 424 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:38,560 Performing domestic labor. She's cooking like she's also 425 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:40,880 cleaning up around the house. But I just find it crazy that 426 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:44,440 there are so many male creators on here who all they do is cook. 427 00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:45,760 You know, there's that guy, right? 428 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:46,160 Who? What's it? 429 00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:47,600 He's like, what does Catherine want? 430 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:49,560 I'm going to make a meal for my wife every day. 431 00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:52,880 No one calls him a trad husband. Nobody would because he's a man. 432 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:55,280 But if you are a woman and you're cooking for people in the 433 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:57,120 family, all of a sudden now it's sinister. 434 00:22:57,120 --> 00:23:00,960 Trad wife like energy content. Trad Wife creators also espouse 435 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:04,320 their values, calling on their followers to make food from 436 00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:07,120 scratch and uphold the traditional ideals of womanhood 437 00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:11,080 that we have already discussed. Emily Mariko, on the other hand, 438 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:14,120 rarely shares anything with her followers. 439 00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:17,800 On top of this, Emily clearly has financial independence. 440 00:23:18,120 --> 00:23:20,640 She has had partnerships with different brands and most 441 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:25,000 recently launched $120.00 Tote Bag, a move that did generate 442 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,960 considerable criticism but I'm sure still made her a lot of 443 00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:30,000 money. The idea that Emily has 444 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:33,080 financial independence and thus is not a trad wife is a point 445 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:36,680 worth exploring, however, because that is the hypocrisy of 446 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:40,760 trad wife content creators. They do have a job through 447 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:44,560 content creation, and they do have financial independence 448 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:47,480 through their influencing careers, A career built off 449 00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,560 telling other women to submit to their husbands and let them 450 00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:54,600 control their finances. Even if these popular trad wife 451 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,000 creators are not monetizing their videos through 452 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,720 sponsorships or through the TikTok Creator Fund, they have a 453 00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:04,560 safety net of thousands if not millions of followers that they 454 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:07,880 can easily monetize if things go South in their marriage and they 455 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:09,960 find themselves needing to support themselves. 456 00:24:10,360 --> 00:24:12,680 Another element of this discussion around trad wife 457 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:16,160 finances is the fact that so many of these really popular 458 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:19,560 trad wife influencers, like Ballerina Farms, have incredibly 459 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:22,480 wealthy husbands. That privilege enables them to 460 00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:25,760 choose to stay at home and live a domestic life that is far more 461 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:27,440 glamorous than the average woman. 462 00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:31,280 This financial privilege also appears to extend to Nara Smith, 463 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:35,040 who, as noted at the top of the episode, has blurred the lines 464 00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:37,600 between trad wife creator and mommy Blogger. 465 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,440 Given her fame and influence at the moment, several journalists 466 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:44,960 have attempted to uncover who Nara is and if she is really a 467 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,520 Trad wife. First and foremost, Nara is 468 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,400 married to Lucky Blue Smith, who was raised in the Church of 469 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:52,200 Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 470 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,160 Trad Wifery is closely linked with Mormonism. 471 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:58,920 While not all Trad wives are Mormon, many Mormon mommy 472 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:01,440 vloggers fall into the Trad wife category. 473 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,960 This is arguably because Mormon beliefs around motherhood align 474 00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:08,480 with Trad wife values. The LDS Church places a strong 475 00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:12,520 emphasis on family values and motherhood is highly regarded. 476 00:25:13,120 --> 00:25:16,120 Women are often encouraged to focus on their roles as wives 477 00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:19,480 and mothers, with an emphasis on nurturing and raising children 478 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:21,440 in accordance with religious practices. 479 00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,520 With this in mind, many Internet users have come to believe that 480 00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:26,640 Nara's content is promoting this lifestyle. 481 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:30,040 Quote This couple is Mormon and making bank off of promoting 482 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:32,000 trad wife stay at home Mormon content. 483 00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,440 But both she and him are successful models, him being one 484 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:37,520 of the most highly paid male models. 485 00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:41,640 She is not a trad wife but is encouraging women to be and to 486 00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:46,080 leave the workforce for men. Insidious wrote ex user at Give 487 00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:48,280 receipts. While Mormon Mommy vloggers may 488 00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:52,200 not actively prophetize or endorse their religion, many 489 00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:54,640 leverage their influence to advocate for values 490 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:58,160 traditionally associated with the church, even when addressing 491 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:01,960 A secular audience. EJ Dixon for The Rolling Stone 492 00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:05,000 points to Ballerina Farm, whose real name is Hannah Nealman. 493 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:09,120 As an example quote, the former ballerina and beauty pageant 494 00:26:09,120 --> 00:26:11,840 winner has garnered 8 million followers by performing 495 00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:13,400 traditional wife, Dim and Motherhood. 496 00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:17,240 She bakes Brad barefoot, wears overalls and her rustic wood 497 00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:21,680 paneled kitchen and cooks from scratch on her $30,000 Aga 498 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:23,640 stove. Although there is an apparent 499 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:27,000 link between Trad wives and Mormonism, Nora's affiliation 500 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,880 with the church beyond her connection to her husband 501 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,120 remains ambiguous. This complicates the claim that 502 00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:36,360 Nara's content is Mormon propaganda, as many TikTok users 503 00:26:36,360 --> 00:26:39,960 believe quote The specifics of Smith's relationship with 504 00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:42,640 Mormonism are unclear, Dixon continues. 505 00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:45,520 Though I was unable to verify online rumors that she had 506 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:49,000 converted upon marrying Smith, she has responded affirmatively 507 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:52,520 to comments asking if she self identifies as LDS, and she is 508 00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:55,400 obliquely referred to studying scripture and the Book of Mormon 509 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,480 in her content. On top of this, Nara's content 510 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:02,120 isn't overtly religious. She rarely, if ever, discusses 511 00:27:02,120 --> 00:27:05,440 her faith, Dixon claims. She only mentions her faith to 512 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,120 put a stop to rumors and speculations, pointing to a 513 00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:11,880 December 2023 TikTok where Nara says quote, it's absolutely 514 00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:14,320 crazy to me that people assume they know what I believe and 515 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:16,080 what my faith is and what they assume. 516 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:19,320 My stance on other issues are. Nara's admittedly tenuous 517 00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:22,520 association with Mormonism has prompted a discussion online 518 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:25,240 about whether Nara would be receiving the same criticism if 519 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,680 she were a white woman, as Internet users do not direct the 520 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:32,080 same amount of criticism towards white Mormon trad wife creators, 521 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,400 once again holding black women to a double standard. 522 00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,560 On the flip side, many Internet users feel unsettled by the fact 523 00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:42,520 that Nara is a woman of color and allegedly supports a church 524 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,160 that has long been discriminatory to minorities. 525 00:27:45,360 --> 00:27:50,200 For example, until 1978, the Mormon Church avoided opening 526 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:54,160 missions in areas with large black populations, discouraged 527 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:57,280 people with black ancestry from investigating the church, 528 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:01,240 advised members to avoid social interaction with black people, 529 00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:05,000 and instructed black members to segregate themselves when white 530 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,560 members complained about having to worship with them. 531 00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:11,320 Some ex users have even gone on to praise Nara, applauding her 532 00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:14,000 for excelling in a space dominated by white women. 533 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:17,440 Quote, people keep shitting on her because she's 22, Mormon, 534 00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:20,480 two kids and pregnant. But I saw a whole TikTok about 535 00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:23,280 how white women own this space and it's nice to see someone who 536 00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:25,080 isn't white succeed in this space. 537 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:28,520 So that made me a Nara Smith fan, thank you very much. 538 00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:32,560 So if Nara isn't promoting Mormonism, is she promoting Trad 539 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:34,880 wifery? Nara's content definitely 540 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,280 champions traditional stay at home motherhood, even though she 541 00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:41,080 caters to an audience that may not necessarily have those 542 00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:43,720 values or financial means to follow her lifestyle. 543 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:46,680 Having acknowledged this, it's worth noting that she hasn't 544 00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,880 explicitly endorsed the trad wife lifestyle. 545 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,760 She doesn't espouse the racist or anti feminist beliefs 546 00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:57,720 associated with Trad Wife Free. However, she does perform them 547 00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:01,280 in some ways, seemingly prioritizing domestic labor and 548 00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:03,800 acting like the idealized version of a woman. 549 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:06,720 But as Dixon notes, we don't know the true nature of her 550 00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:10,120 relationship with her husband. She clearly values motherhood 551 00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:13,880 and being a homemaker, but it doesn't seem like patriarchal 552 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:17,480 servitude is her only option, distinguishing her from many 553 00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:19,920 other women who may live a similar lifestyle. 554 00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:23,160 There is no indication on Smith's social media platform 555 00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:26,160 that her husband, Lucky, harbors such expectations. 556 00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:29,000 He appears to be a devoted partner to the degree that her 557 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,960 fans and followers regularly swoon over the affection that 558 00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:34,440 they have for each other, expressing their desires to 559 00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:36,560 similarly cater to their own husbands. 560 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,640 But it's hard not to notice that many of the meals his wife makes 561 00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,920 from scratch are intended for him, and that he is rarely seen 562 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:46,400 performing any type of domestic labor whatsoever, Dixon writes. 563 00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:49,400 TikTok user Ali Rooker makes a similar point. 564 00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:52,840 While she doesn't speak on Nara specifically, she notes that 565 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:56,280 many trad wife or trad wife adjacent influencers are selling 566 00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:58,600 a reality that doesn't truly exist. 567 00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:01,480 This is the most insidious part of these trad wife influencers. 568 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,080 If they're not even trad wives, they are not dependent on their 569 00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,400 husbands. They have their own money from 570 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:10,120 influencing us to want to be trad wives, but they've found a 571 00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:13,480 way around the worst part of being a trad wife, The part that 572 00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:16,160 made us rebel against being a trad wife and go get our own 573 00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:19,240 jobs, which is trad wives are dependent on their husbands 574 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:21,960 because they make all the money and we do all of the unpaid 575 00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:24,240 labor. They are getting paid for their 576 00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:28,280 labor for selling you the aspirational life of being a 577 00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:32,120 trad wife while other people do the labor behind the scenes that 578 00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:35,760 make that aspirational, soft, easy life possible. 579 00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:38,800 Nevertheless, considering the aspirational nature of Nara's 580 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:42,320 content, she is essentially portraying what a perfect life 581 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:45,680 could look like, potentially pushing her followers down the 582 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:48,880 trad wife path. But this is where we need to be 583 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:52,520 cautious. TikTok users incorrectly putting 584 00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:56,320 the trad wife label onto women poses a threat impacting both 585 00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:59,880 the creator and the audience. Not only are we imposing A 586 00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:03,880 deeply problematic belief system on, to quote UN quote regular 587 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:07,720 influencers, but we are also downplaying the influence this 588 00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:11,120 ideology wields. It is easy to get caught up in 589 00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:14,760 the seemingly easy and fulfilling life of a trad wife 590 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:19,080 through her aesthetic vlogs and cooking videos, but it is only a 591 00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:23,040 slippery slope to adopting the racist, anti feminist, and 592 00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:27,400 conspiratorial beliefs that support the doctrine, a slippery 593 00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,240 slope that has been well documented as we explored 594 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:33,120 earlier in the episode. As the trad wife aesthetic 595 00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:36,360 continues to expand across TikTok, it is more important 596 00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:39,520 than ever for us to understand the nature of this ideology and 597 00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:43,200 which creators actually fall into the trad wife category. 598 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:47,080 Because while every trad wife is a stay at home mom, not every 599 00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:50,200 stay at home mom is a trad wife. And it's imperative we 600 00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:53,560 understand the difference between mommy vloggers sharing 601 00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:57,320 their lives and trad wife creators peddling white 602 00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:01,040 supremacist propaganda. Infinite Scroll is a podcast 603 00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:04,680 written, produced, edited and presented by me, Lauren Meisner 604 00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:07,400 for Centennial World. Additional research and 605 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:10,840 reporting is by Annabelle Ben David, thank you so much for 606 00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:12,560 listening. I love you guys so much. 607 00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:14,320 And I will talk to you next week. 608 00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:15,200 Bye.