#TradCulture: Reproducing whiteness and neo-fascism through gendered discourse online

Smiling white women in dresses, aprons, and high heels with their makeup done and hair coiffed extolling the virtues of marriage, homemaking, and family values. This is not an old television show, a black and white movie, or even a historical documentary, it is #Trad culture, the newest internet subcultural community to hit the news headlines. Although several articles point to problematic connections between #Trad culture and far-right online cultures, discussions of how extreme gender cultures online use narratives of tradition to forward specifically racialised, white ideals and values were left out of #Trad culture's mainstream media debut. #Trad cultures online, particularly ‘Red Pill’ related #TradWife forums on Reddit, are closely linked to the extreme gender cultures of the ‘Manosphere’, a loose group of male supremacist sites and forums (Ebner 2020). #Trad and Manosphere cultures share narratives of anti-feminism, a focus on ‘traditional’, binary gender roles, and promote a nostalgic view of a mythic past when people could be ‘real’ men and women without punishment. They also, crucially, share similar unmarked white epistemological framings where the universal constructions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are predicated on white norms, values, and experiences.