Tradwives and truth warriors

Abstract

The language of white identitarian traditionalist women, or ‘tradwives’, recontextualises white nationalism in the language of sexual politics. It creates images of the enemy other as a ‘societal sodomiser’ and of an idealised woman who represents and defends the threatened family and nation. These homophobic horror stories create deep affective investment in white nationalist nostalgia and subsume women’s individuality to the image of the nation. White womanhood stands in for the national body under threat, allowing these tradwives to portray themselves as idealised whiteness, pseudo-subversive dissidents who reinforce the social order, and mother-protectors of the nation. Yet even the most arch-feminine performance of white womanhood need not be inextricably linked to nationalist imaginaries, enabling the possibility of a truly subversive femininity.