All Hail The Anti-Tradwife

The videos all start the same: glossy marble countertops waxed by Mr. Clean himself; a freshly steamed sundress; makeup that men call “natural” but likely took over an hour to apply; and manicured hands that effortlessly pour, and knead, and stir.

“My boyfriend was craving a bacon-egg-and-cheese,” creator Kai Denise begins with a lilt as soft jazz plays in the background of one recent Instagram video. “But his breathing was pissing me off. So instead of shoving this potato up his Idaho, I decided to make a potato galette.”

Seconds later, a crispy galette appears, topped with a fried egg and herbs. “Two fucking hours later, all I can say is, he better fucking like this,” Denise concludes.

Introducing the anti-tradwife — a cohort of creators like Denise whose content is all irony wrapped in a tradwife bow. (Bonus points if it’s spun from the wool of herded sheep.) Here, realism displaces the romanticizing of housewife culture, and creators provide relatable master classes in finding humor in the chaos of the day-to-day.

Their parodied content is a reaction to tradwives — short for “traditional wives” — who have been rapidly gaining popularity over the past few months. Whatever side of TikTok you’re on, you’ve likely seen the idyllic-verging-on-spooky videos of creators like Nara Smith (the undisputed queen of tradwifery, and the one who gets the most heat), Hannah Neeleman , Alexia Delarosa and Estee Williams , who whip up entire feasts for their families from scratch (including homemade Cinnamon Toast Crunch ), manage their children, and run households without a coiffed hair out of place, or an unrolled sleeve catching a stain somewhere along the way. (One person commenting on a video of this self-proclaimed