{"id":5799,"date":"2025-07-24T14:05:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/?p=5799"},"modified":"2025-07-24T14:08:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:08:02","slug":"the-resurgence-of-trad-wife-culture-in-western-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/opine\/2025\/07\/24\/the-resurgence-of-trad-wife-culture-in-western-fashion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Resurgence of Trad-Wife Culture in Western Fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If one thing is sure, it is that politics influences every aspect of an individual’s life, whether they are aware of it or not. Whether it is the price of food, the quality of education, or even a person’s perception of their identity, politics are always in play. This is true, even down to the way a person dresses. The resurgence of modesty and trad wife culture within fashion trends and social media plays a significant role in understanding the influence of politics, as well as the importance of critically evaluating what you read. This raises questions, not just about what trad wife culture means for the state of the Western political world, but also for the cultivation of female identity – how does politics influence the idea of being a woman, or a ‘girl’? And how much is the average person actually aware of?<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Trad Wife’ is the aesthetic of staying at home, allowing women to maintain their femininity. The re-emergence of this ideology, along with the idea of the ‘Clean Girl’ aesthetic, speaks loudly to the political climate in which they exist. Content creators online, such as Nara Smith and Hannah Neeleman, create the idea that a way for a woman to embrace their femininity is to stay at home and feed into traditional ideas of the female gender, such as being docile and submissive to their husbands.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the second wave of feminism strove for freedom of choice, including aiming to be a housewife, saying it is the only way to be feminine is exceptionally damaging to the younger viewers on social media. The ‘Clean Girl’ also adheres to these traditional values, as well as to the conventional standards of white beauty within society. This, combined with very popular phrases that everyone has likely heard, such as ‘Girl Math’, ‘Girl Dinner’, and ‘I’m just a girl’, strive to infantilise women in a way that they largely accept and idealise.<\/span><\/p>\n

All these aesthetics, merged with the modesty of modern fashion, often labelled as ‘maturity,’ highlight the political recession the West is in. Coinciding with right-wing ideologies is no coincidence, especially with the re-election of previously impeached president, Donald Trump. The wording of these expressions online is more damaging than the actual idea. But to say you hate miniskirts at the ripe old age of 21 because of maturity is striving to shame women the same age. It’s not maturity; it’s personal preference. Trump’s idea of the Nuclear Family, backed by female content creators, is proof that the freedom of female expression in all forms is in danger.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ‘Clean Girl’ aesthetic is one I am personally weary of. Its use of white beauty standards creates prominent statements about ideas of women of colour, whether this is done consciously or subconsciously by the creators. To feed into such traditions while women of colour, especially Latin Americans, are so sexualised creates narratives deeper than a slick back.<\/span><\/p>\n

All this to say, fashion is aligning with politics. But where there is alignment, there is always rebellion. Makeup is always a trend. Men always have something to say about makeup. Whether it is about who can wear it, or how you can wear it, whether it’s the making fun of ‘birthday makeup’ (because God forbid makeup wearers have a little fun with it on their birthday) or liking ‘natural women’ while looking at women with a full face on, their opinion is always there.<\/span><\/p>\n

This too was true in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler (a figure known for the idea of the Nuclear Family too, by the way), always had this idea that women should wear natural makeup, and nothing to make them showy. It’s interesting what that trend reminds me of\u2026 But women of the time showed defiance through their fashion. They popularised the red lip to show they did not align themselves with Hitler.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, the use of fashion by America during the Cold War further highlights the significance of politics in the fashion industry. The work of Dorothy Shavers ‘American Look’ was used as a contrast between the official promise of one state and the bleakness of the everyday of the other. The American National Exhibition in Moscow, in 1959, saw scenes of American life portrayed by models of diverse backgrounds (of the time). The Russian audience tended to stay behind to meet the models. Afterwards, they used this as a tool of political defiance by Russian women, who strived to dress American.\u00a0 This is a clear example of what I am seeing today: people aligning with trends to associate with political values (Americans and capitalism) and using fashion as a weapon of defiance (Russians against communism).<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, modesty trends are often manipulated by Western political leaders to convey their message to the masses, which is increasingly becoming easier through social media. With the re-election of felon, Donald Trump, and his recklessness with threats and weapons, it is becoming increasingly important to me that people can recognise that trends online are always deeper than they initially appear. Especially when America sneezes, the UK always gets a cold. America’s recession is already happening and will continue to affect the politics of the UK. With social media, there is no way to deny that you were not aware of world events, so be on the right side of history, whether it is your version of the red lip, actively protesting what you see, or both.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If one thing is sure, it is that politics influences every aspect of an individual’s life, whether they are aware of it or not. Whether it is the price of food, the quality of education, or even a person’s perception of their identity, politics are always in play. This is true, even down to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":5801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":89,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[1333,234,568,1332,1142,311,1331],"wf_post_folders":[337],"class_list":{"0":"post-5799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-opine","8":"tag-caitlyn-cooper","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-fashion","11":"tag-makeup","12":"tag-opine","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-tradwife"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Caitlin Cooper","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/caitlin\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Trad-Wife-Culture-Image-225x300.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Opine<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Opine<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Caitlyn Cooper<\/a>","Donald Trump<\/a>","Fashion<\/a>","Makeup<\/a>","Opine<\/a>","Politics<\/a>","Tradwife<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Caitlyn Cooper<\/span>","Donald Trump<\/span>","Fashion<\/span>","Makeup<\/span>","Opine<\/span>","Politics<\/span>","Tradwife<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 1 year ago","modified":"Updated 1 year ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 24 July 2025","modified":"Updated on 24 July 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 24 July 2025 14:05","modified":"Updated on 24 July 2025 14:08"},"featured_img_caption":"Image Credit: solod_sha via Pexels","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5802,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5799\/revisions\/5802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5799"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=5799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}