Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict: Online-First Articles

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Tradwives: A soft face for the Alt-Right?

A corpus assisted critical analysis of Tradwife discourse

ORCiD logo with link | Universidad de Granada, Spain
Published online: 10 December 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00142.koc
Abstract
Considering the importance of metapolitics in the propagation of contentious ideologies, this study focuses on the Tradwife discourse to discover if there are any points of intersection between the Tradwife movement and the Alt-Right ideology. Drawing upon Critical Discourse Studies and Corpus Linguistics, keywords and their concordances are closely examined in a corpus compiled from YouTube videos of three white Tradwife influencers to identify the discourse topics and argumentation strategies that underpin Tradwife rhetoric. Even though whiteness is found to be more implicit and performative in Tradwife discourse, the explicit anti-feminist stance appears to be the foremost point of confluence between the movement and the Alt-Right. Another interesting conclusion is the highly pragmatic nature of the Tradwife movement which capitalizes on neoliberalism and feminism while appearing to defy both.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Historical background
    • 2.1Women and the far right
  • 3.Methods
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Theoretical framework and procedure of analysis
  • 4.Analysis of the discourse topics and argumentation strategies
    • 4.1Analysis of the discourse topics
      • 4.1.1Discourse topics related to femininity
      • 4.1.2Discourse topics related to masculinity
    • 4.2Analysis of argumentation strategies
      • Argumentum Ad Antiquitatem
      • Mythopoesis
      • Argumentum Ad Hominem
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (96)
References
Achino-Loeb, Maria-L. 2006. Silence: The Currency of Power. New York; Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anti-Defamation League. 2024. “Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW).” ADL. 20 March 2024. Retrieved from [URL]
Arp, Robert, Steven Barbone, and Michael Bruce. 2019. Bad Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Fallacies in Western Philosophy. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Paul. 2012. “Acceptable Bias? Using Corpus Linguistics Methods with Critical Discourse Analysis.” Critical Discourse Studies 9(3): 247–256. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2023. Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. 2nd Edition. London: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Paul, Costas Gabrielatos, Majid KhosraviNik, Michal Krzyzanowski, Tony McEnery, and Ruth Wodak. 2008. “A Useful Methodological Synergy? Combining Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics to Examine Discourses of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK Press.” Discourse & Society 191: 273–306. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bar-Tal, Daniel, Lily Chernyak-Hai, Noa Schori, and Ayelet Gundar. 2009. “A Sense of Self-Perceived Collective Victimhood in Intractable Conflicts.” International Review of the Red Cross 91(874): 229–258. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benford, Robert D., and David A. Snow. 2000. “Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment.” Annual Review of Sociology 261: 611–639. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blee, Kathleen. 1996 [1991]. Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bonikowski, Bart, and Oscar Stuhler. 2022. “Reclaiming the Past to Transcend the Present: Nostalgic Appeals in U.S. Presidential Elections.” Sociological Forum 37(1): 1263–1293. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bowman, Emma, and Ian Stewart. 2017. “The Women Behind The ‘Alt-Right’.” NPR. 20 August 2017. Retrieved from [URL]
Campbell, Joseph. 1990. The Hero’s Journey: The World of Joseph Campbell: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work. San Francisco: Harper & Row.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Campion, Kristy. 2020. “Women in the Extreme and Radical Right: Forms of Participation and Their Implications.” Social Sciences 9(9): 149–169. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Casadio, Massimiliano C. 2014. “The New Right and Metapolitics in France and Italy.” Journal for the Study of Radicalism 8(1): 45–86. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
CC Marie. 2020. ‘‘We Need to Talk About Mrs.Midwest.’’ YouTube Video, 19:21. Posted September 20, 2020. Retrieved from [URL]
Clarence, M. 2000. “Slang words for Promiscuous.” Urban Thesaurus. 07 January 2000. Retrieved from [URL]
Cooksey, Mariel. 2021. “Why Are Gen Z Girls Attracted to the Tradwife Lifestyle?” Political Research. 29 July 2021. Retrieved from [URL]
Crichton, Fraser. 2024. “TikTok Tactics, Far-Right Influence and the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.” Influence Industry. 12 August 2024. Retrieved from [URL]
Cynthia, L. 2024. “Questions.” Cynthia Loewen Blog. Accessed May 19, 2024. Retrieved from [URL]
Dafaure, Maxime. 2020. “The ‘Great Meme War:’ the Alt-Right and its Multifarious Enemies.” Angles 101: 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Damer, Edward. 2009. Attacking Faulty Reasoning: A Practical Guide to Fallacy-Free Arguments. 6th edn. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Darby, Seyward. 2020. Sisters in Hate: American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism. New York: Little, Brown and Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deem, Alexandra. 2023. “‘Feminine, not Feminist’: Trad Truth-making on Social Media”, Ethnologia Europaea 53(2): 1–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Desmond, Matthew and Mustafa Emirbayer. 2016. Race in America. New York/London: W.W.Norton & Company Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eggenberger, Maxinne. 2020. “Are you a Tradwife? Hood Investigates this Intriguing New Phenomenon.” Hood Magazine. 24 March 2020. Retrieved from [URL]
Estee C. Williams. 2023. “Pro Tip? Doll Yourself Up For Your Husband” YouTube Video, 0:10. Posted May 26, 2023. Retrieved from [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Esteecwilliams. 2024. Instagram Post. 31 May 2024. Retrieved from [URL]
Every-Palmer, Susana, Rob Cunningham, Michelle Jenkins, and Erica Bell. 2020. “The Christchurch Mosque Shooting, The Media, and Subsequent Gun Control Reform in New Zealand: A Descriptive Analysis.” Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 28(2): 274–285. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferguson, Michaele L. 2010. “Choice Feminism and the Fear of Politics.” Perspectives on Politics 8(1): 247–253. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frye, Marilyn. 1983. The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory. New York: The Crossing Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ganesh, Bharath. 2018. “What the Red Pill Means for Radicals.” Fair Observer. 7 June 2018. Retrieved from [URL]
Gill, Rosalind C. 2007. “Critical Respect: The Difficulties and Dilemmas of Agency and ‘Choice’ for Feminism — A Reply to Duits and Van Zoonen.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 14(1): 69–80. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grey Ellis, Emma. 2020. “My Life as a Blue-Haired ‘Commie Bitch’ in Portland.” Wired. 3 November 2020. Retrieved from [URL]
Harrington, Mary. 2024. “Lauren Southern: How my Tradlife Turned Toxic: The Online Ideology doesn’t Work in the Real World.” Unherd. 6 May 2024. Retrieved from [URL]
Hartzell, Stephanie L. 2018. “Alt-White: Conceptualizing the ‘Alt-Right’ as a Rhetorical Bridge between White Nationalism and Mainstream Public Discourse.” Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric 8(1/2): 6–25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hesse, Monica. 2019. “Wolfie James and the Insidious Role of Female White Nationalists.” The Washington Post. 14 August 2019. Retrieved from [URL]
Hirschmann, Linda R. 2006. Get To Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World. New York: Viking.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
hooks, Bell. 1981. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ibrahim, Monica. 2017. “‘Rapefugees not Welcome’ Ideological Articulations of Media Discourses on Migrants and Refugees in Europe: New Racism and Othering — A Critical Discourse Analysis.” London: Media@LSE London School of Economics and Political Science.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jakubíček, Miloš, Adam Kilgarriff, Vojtěch Kovář, Pavel Rychlý, and Vít Suchomel. 2013. The TenTen corpus family. In 7th International Corpus Linguistics Conference CL 2013 July: 125–127. Retrieved from [URL]
Jetten, Jolanda, and Michael J. A. Wohl. 2012. “The Past as a Determinant of the Present: Historical Continuity, Collective Angst, and Opposition to Immigration.” Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 421: 442–450. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, Greg. 2018. “What is the Alternative Right?” In The Alternative Right, ed. by Greg Johnson, 1–28, San Francisco: Counter-Current Publishing Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly, Annie. 2018. “The Housewives of White Supremacy.” The New York Times. 1 June 2018. Retrieved from [URL]
Kelsey-Sugg, Anna, and Siobhan Marin. 2021. “For Some, Being a Tradwife Is About More Time with Family. For Others, it’s a Dangerous Far-Right Ideology.” ABC. 21 August 2021. Retrieved from [URL]
Keneally, Meghan. 2018. “What to know about the violent Charlottesville protests and anniversary rallies.” ABC News. 8 Aug 2018. Retrieved from [URL].
Kilgarriff, Adam. 2009. “Simple Maths for Keywords.” In Proceedings of Corpus Linguistics Conference CL2009, ed. by Michaela Mahlberg, M., Victorina González-Díaz, and Catherine Smith. Liverpool: University of Liverpool.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kilgarriff, Adam, Vít Baisa, Jan Bušta, Miloš Jakubíˇcek, Vojtˇech Kováˇr, Jan Michelfeit, Pavel Rychlý, and Vít Suchomel. 2014. “The Sketch Engine: Ten Years On.” Lexicography 11: 7–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koulouris, Theodore. 2018. “Online Misogyny and the Alternative Right: Debating the Undebatable.” Feminist Media Studies 18(4): 750–761. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leidig, Eviane. 2021. TradWife, TradLife: Women of the Alt-Right. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2023. The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization. New York/ West Sussex: Columbia University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewiński, Marcin, and Dima Mohammed. 2016. “Argumentation Theory.” In The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy, ed. by Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Robert T. Craig, Jefferson Pooley, and Eric W. Rothenbuhler, 1–15. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lima, Mateus. 2024. “What does ‘304’ Mean on TikTok?” Know Your Meme. 17 June 2024. Retrieved from [URL]
Lorde, Audre. 1984. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacEwen, Philip. 2022. “Is the Naturalistic Fallacy Really a Fallacy?” Canadian Journal of Practical Philosophy 8(1):1–14. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Macklin, Graham. 2019. “Greg Johnson and Counter-Currents.” In Key Thinkers of the Radical Right, ed. by Mark Sedgwick, 204–223. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Main, Thomas J. 2018. The Rise of the Alt-Right. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maly, Ico. 2020. “Metapolitical New Right Influencers: The Case of Brittany Pettibone.” Social Sciences 91: 113–135. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Manne, Kate. 2018. Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mattheis, Ashley. A. 2022. “#TradCulture: Reproducing Whiteness and Neo-Fascism through Gendered Discourse Online.” In Routledge Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness, ed. by Shona Hunter and Christi van der Westhuizen, 91–101. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Melle, Ingrid. 2013. “The Breivik Case and What Psychiatrists Can Learn from It.” World Psychiatry: Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) 12 (1): 16–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mineo, Liz. 2020. “A Warning on Homeschooling.” Harvard Gazette. 15 May 2020. Retrieved from [URL]
Morgan, Helena. 2020. “Kinder, Küche, Kirche: The Role of Women in Nazi Germany.” Chariot Journal. 13 July 2020. Retrieved from [URL]
Mr. G, 2020. “YogiOabs How Much of an Idiot Is He?” YouTube Video, 6:51. Posted January 21, 2020. Retrieved from [URL]
Mrs.Midwest. 2023. “Winter Days as a Mum.VLOG 30. Solo Evening Routine With Kids & A Day in the City.” YouTube Video, 44:30. Posted March 27, 2023. Retrieved from [URL]
Mrs. Midwest. n.d. Blog. Accessed March 26, 2024. Retrieved from [URL]
Mudde, Cas. 2007. Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “Why the Far Right is Obsessed with ‘Gender Ideology’.” New Statesman. 20 September 2019. Retrieved from [URL]
Nagle, Angela. 2017. Kill All Normies. Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right. Washington DC: Zero Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nye, Joseph. 2017. “Soft Power: The Origins and Political Progress of a Concept.” Palgrave Commun 31: 1–3. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oltermann, Philip. 2020. “Halle synagogue attack: gunman sentenced to life in prison.” The Guardian. 21 Dec 2020. Retrieved from [URL].
Payne, Laura. 2024. “Gender Role”. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from [URL]
Pickering, Michael, and Emily Keightley. 2006. “The Modalities of Nostalgia.” Current Sociology 54(6): 919–941. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin, and Ruth Wodak. 2001. Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rottenberg, Catherine, and Shani Orgad. 2020. “Tradwives: The Women Looking for a Simpler Past but Grounded in the Neoliberal Present.” The Conversation. 20 February 2020. Retrieved from [URL].
Sherman, Carter. 2024. “Sundresses and Rugged Self-Sufficiency: ‘Tradwives’ Tout a Conservative American Past ... That Didn’t Exist.” The Guardian. 24 July 2024. Retrieved from [URL]
Shilling, Chris. 1993. The Body and Social Theory. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sitler-Elbel, Frankie H. 2021. “From Swiffers to Swastikas: How the #tradwife Movement of Conventional Gender Roles Became Synonymous with White Supremacy.” New York: Bard College.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Southern Poverty Law Center. 2025. “Greg Johnson: Extremist Files” SPLC. Accessed January 11, 2025. Retrieved from [URL]
Spence, Janet T., and Robert L. Helmreich. 1979. “Comparison of Masculine and Feminine Personality Attributes and Sex-Role Attitudes Across Age Groups.” Developmental Psychology 15(5): 583–584. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan, Fabrice Clement, Christophe Heintz, Olivier Mascaro, Hugo Mercier, Gloria Origgi, and Deirdre Wilson. 2010. “Epistemic Vigilance.” Mind Lang. 25 (4): 359–393. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stern, Alexandra M. 2019. “Alt-right Women and the ‘White Baby Challenge’.” The Salon. 14 July 2019. Retrieved from [URL]
2022. “Gender and the Far-right in the United States: Female Extremists and the Mainstreaming of Contemporary White Nationalism.” Journal of Modern European History 20(3): 322–334. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stubbs, Michael. 2010. “Three Concepts of Keywords.” In Keyness in Texts, ed. by Marina Bondi and Mike Scott, 21–42. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taylor, Alex. 2021. The Matrix’s Real-World Legacy — From Red Pill Incels to Conspiracies and Deepfakes. BBC, 21 December, 2021. Retrieved from [URL]
Thwaites, Rachel. 2017. “Making a Choice or Taking a Stand? Choice Feminism, Political Engagement and the Contemporary Feminist Movement.” Feminist Theory 18(1): 55–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tüfekçi, Zeynep. 2018. “YouTube, the Great Radicalizer.” The New York Times. 10 March 2018. Retrieved from [URL]
Unreported World. 2020. “Trump’s Housewives.” YouTube Video, 24:00. Posted August 16, 2020. Retrieved from [URL]
van Dijk, Teun A. 2009. “Critical Discourse Studies: A Sociocognitive Approach.” In Methods for Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. by Ruth Wodak, and Michael Meyer, 62–86. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, Theo. 2008. Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vollhardt, Johanna R. 2020. “Introduction to the Social Psychology of Collective Victimhood: Examining Context, Power, and Diversity in Experiences of Collective Victimization.” In The Social Psychology of Collective Victimhood, ed. by Johanna R. Vollhardt, 1–34. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walton, Douglas N. 1998. Ad Hominem Arguments. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walton, Douglas. 2000. “Case Study of the Use of a Circumstantial Ad Hominem in Political Argumentation.” Philosophy & Rhetoric 33(2):101–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth. 2001. ‘‘What CDA is about: A Summary of Its History, Important Concepts and Its Developments.’’ In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. by Ruth Wodak, and Michael Meyer, 1–12. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse-Historical Approach”. In The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, ed. by Karen Tracy, Cornelia Ilie, and Todd Sandel, 1–14. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue