despite minding other people’s business online, I didn’t know what a “trad wife” was. Now it seems like every time I log in to Instagram or TikTok, there is another video of a beautiful woman cleaning her home or making an extraordinarily long and needlessly difficult meal. These trad wives, short for traditional wives, are women who post online content showing themselves adhering to patriarchal gender roles while keeping house and raising children—and making it look easy. Take Nara Smith, a model and mother of three who’s married to Mormon actor and model Lucky Blue Smith. Nara, who’s biracial and opaque about her politics and religion, doesn’t claim to be a trad wife, but the signs are there. Through mellow voice-overs, she walks us through cooking barbecue chicken pizza or pasta from scratch in full makeup, jewelry, and evening wear. No powder, liquid, or sauce ever touches the hem of her sleeve or splashes her face. Her kitchen is spotless and grand. There is not a single sweat bead dotted on her forehead. In short, everything is perfect.
