https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i2.082
Contemporary Influencer Culture: Privileged Politics of The American Tradwives of Social Media
RITUSREE GANGOPADHYAY
Master’s Student
Banaras Hindu University, India
NISHTHA
Master’s Student
Banaras Hindu University, India
Abstract: In recent years, social media has seen a rapid rise of “Influencer Culture” wherein people create virtual spaces that are encamped with large followings and stand separate from their offline self. While the ‘slice of life content’ is a domestically inspired genre, the ‘trad wives of social media’ seek to motivate women in embracing the “traditional” or “feminine” lifestyle, pushing them into an economic and social blind spot, disregarding the still existing privilege of agency in the greater female and third world diaspora, where women are still expected to be homemakers and barred from the public workforce. While not a complete subculture, there is a subset of American women, typically upper middle or upper class, who create ‘Tradwife’ content. It has led to a significant number of women who advocate and demand the normalisation of strict gender roles in a marriage while blurring boundaries while seeking to remove the concept of ‘consent’. The movement seeks to indoctrinate young women to remove themselves from education, sexual expression and the pursuit of economic freedom in favour of becoming a subservient wife and mother. This paper intends to identify patterns of indoctrination, and the severe effects of influencer culture. This paper seeks to discuss the promotion of glorified male subservience by upper-class women while dismissing the idea that it was women who fought for their freedom of expression presence in social media. By applying Antonio Gramsci’s conception of “hegemony,” this work intends to dissect the consequences of patriarchy repackaged as a choice and media manipulation that pushes underprivileged women into an abyss of control. It also seeks to establish the inconsistencies and contradictions of mass influencer culture, and attempts to differentiate between reel and real life and willing submission of agency.
Keywords: Tradwife culture, influencer culture, patriarchy, gender roles, social media, hegemony, domestic ideology, digital feminism
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