“Cheetos from Scratch”: A Tutorial for Tradwives

This week, Suchi bought a book at an antique store in Harrisburg, and somehow we ended up here talking about making Cheetos from scratch. In episode two, we’re talking about the rise of the trad wife movement and what it looks like on the internet. We ask what brought us here, who benefits when women romanticize losing rights, and where do we go from here? Featuring themes from Foucault, sexism, and feminism.

Assigned Readings:

Woolf, Antonia, Calli Tzani, Maria Ioannou, and Thomas James Vaughan Williams. “Social Media’s Dangerous Fantasy: How the ‘Trad Wife’ Movement Fuels Inequality and Gender-Based Violence.” Assessment & Development Matters17, no. 2 (2025): 36–41. https://doi-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.53841/bpsadm.2025.17.2.36.

Bower, L. J. (2025). The thorn in feminism’s side: black feminist reconceptualization and defence of #tradwives and the #tradwife movement. Journal of Gender Studies, 34(7), 1037–1053. https://doi-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1080/09589236.2024.2423198

Bower, Laura Jane. “Shifting the Focus Towards ‘Tradhusbands:’ A Black Feminist Examination of the Visible Tradwife and the Invisible but Integral Role of the Tradhusband.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 50, no. 2 (2026): 186–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/03616843261442452.