Latest news with #TradWife
News24
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News24
TikTok's Nara Smith hits back at ‘Trad Wife' claims: ‘My husband does dishes'
Content creator Nara Smith is pushing back against being labelled the 'Trad Wife Poster Child'. The 23-year-old model, known for making mouthwatering meals from scratch for her family, says she has been battling the misconception since going viral on TikTok in 2023. The assumption largely stems from her marriage to Mormon model Lucky Blue Smith (27), with Mormon wives traditionally expected to put family before personal ambitions and devote themselves to marriage, motherhood and submissiveness. In a recent interview on the On Purpose podcast with Jay Shetty, Nara opened up about why the stereotype couldn't be further from the truth. 'The other day, someone brought it up to me, and they were like, 'You have a very traditional way of life.' I'm like, 'What do you mean?' We split chores. I work. My husband works. We have children. We split everything. I cook because I love to, not because I have to.' Nara says there's nothing traditional about them as a couple, except getting married young and having children. The pair tied the knot in 2020 when Nara was 18 and Lucky was 21, and they now have three children – Rumble Honey (4), Slim Easy (3) and 14-month-old Whimsy Lou. 'There's things that Lucky does that I guess traditional men wouldn't do,' Nara says. 'Like do the dishes or get the kids dressed or do their hair, or whatever it may be that people don't associate with a traditional man.' @naraazizasmith ultimate summer meal! 🤍 #easyrecipe #homecooking #fypシ #marriage #mediterraneanfood #salad ♬ Nice and Easy - Louis Adrien Despite repeatedly trying to set the record straight on social media, Nara says many people still refuse to believe her. 'They use me as this poster child of this very traditional wife and I'm not,' she says. And there's things that I do, like having a full-time career [as a model] and having Lucky be home watching the children while I travel for two weeks. Which is not traditional in their mind Nara Smith This isn't the first time she's had to defend her lifestyle choices. In August 2024, during a GQ interview, both Nara and Lucky addressed their critics directly. 'It's not so much about, 'Oh, I need to make my husband a meal right now or else he's going to be mad,'' Nara clarified. 'He does clean up. Which I'm grateful for because I hate that part.' 'I view our situation as a big partnership in every aspect of our lives,' Lucky added. Nara explained that her viral cooking videos aren't meant to promote a Mormon lifestyle, but rather to inspire people through her genuine passion for cooking. 'I used to cry at home and tell Lucky, 'I don't understand why they're saying all these things. Whether it's a meal idea or a home-cooked meal I've made my toddler, or my soothing voice, or whatever it is, I just put content out there to inspire people.' However, she's learned to let people think what they want and has found peace in being misunderstood. 'They don't care for the truth,' she says. 'They care about what they want to hear and what serves them. So the less I say, kind of the better because it preserves my energy. 'I'm gonna do me and whoever resonates with that, great.' These days, Nara is channelling her energy into what truly matters – her growing family. Last month, she announced her fourth pregnancy during a TikTok live, revealing she's six months along. 'I'm so excited,' she shared. 'And we do know the gender. I'm probably not going to announce it before the baby is born.' Show Comments ()
Telegraph
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
How to do ‘boyfriend breakfast' like Gwyneth Paltrow (tops optional)
It's a question that plagues Reddit forums and troubles the minds of more women than Camille Paglia might wish: should you make your husband / partner breakfast? If you're a Trad Wife, the correct answer is, clearly, a resounding 'yes'. If you're an Oscar-winning actress with a multimillion dollar lifestyle and wellness empire, however, the answer is clearly… also 'yes'. Gwyneth Paltrow – net worth: $200 million – has been espousing the virtues of the 'boyfriend breakfast' since 2022, when she revealed to her 8.8 million Instagram followers that she likes to cook them for her husband, Brad Falchuk. 'When Brad was just my boyfriend, I started a tradition of making him breakfast every Saturday morning,' she wrote. 'Coming up with surprising menus, the prepping and cooking was a way for me to disconnect with the other stresses of my life and direct my focus on my boyfriend. It became this very special moment for us. They are called #boyfriend breakfasts to this day.' On Father's Day, she made the moment even more special by cooking Falchuk's breakfast topless, posting a video to Instagram of her slaving over a hot stove in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. One can only hope the oil from her Tuscan sausages didn't splash. Unsurprisingly, Paltrow's boyfriend breakfasts have provoked a backlash, not helped by an article on her lifestyle website, Goop, revealing that she doesn't always eat the breakfast she cooks, preferring to fast in the mornings while Brad tucks into his gluten-free egg soldiers with organic avo and some crispy martyrdom on the side. But Paltrow had an answer for those critics accusing her of setting back feminism to the 1950s. 'What's actually anti-feminist, at this point, is prescribing what feminism is – including looking down on domesticity,' she responded. 'For me, it's not anti-feminist to serve; it's an act of service that's about seeing the other person and understanding their needs. It brings a particular energy and intimacy to a relationship. Cooking is also, for me – and I think many type A people – relaxing and grounding. Embracing something so traditionally feminine and old-fashioned balances the hard-driving, work side of myself.' From her marble-top kitchen in Montecito, Meghan Markle was clearly taking notes. Four years later, she'd take Paltrow's words and make an eight- part Netflix documentary out of them. No doubt her Notes app is open once more – for Paltrow has just released another wheeze. Not content with giving us the #boyfriendbreakfast, she's now intent on dressing the world in 'boyfriend breakfast style'. For heaven forfend you cook his eggs in an M&S nightie and a bobbled dressing gown. Just as the world was tiring of TikTok-friendly microtrends like 'mob wife' and 'coastal grandma', Paltrow is proposing another one. 'You asked, we answered', she recently posted on Goop's Facebook page. 'The boyfriend breakfast shop: easy shirtdresses, boxer shorts and pj sets inspired by Gwyneth.' Although strictly speaking, surely they were inspired by Brad, since the items in question (which are currently being sold on seem to be comprised of oversized shirts and stripy boxer shorts – garments you may find familiar if you happen to have a teenaged daughter, who has likely been plundering her dad's wardrobe for the same items for years. This is Paltrow's trick: putting her own spin on items we already own, then elevating them by recasting them in her own image. It's hard to reach midlife without acquiring at least one oversized shirt, while the high street is currently groaning with stripy boxer shorts, all of which cost considerably less than the $175 'Shorty' boxer Paltrow is selling under her own brand, G. Label. But none of this will deter her fans. They're buying into a lifestyle. No matter that they're in Morecambe: by purchasing her $325 'Teddy' shorts, they'll feel bathed in the benevolent glow of a Montecito sunrise. G. Label Teddy short, $325, Goop G. Label Shorty boxer, $175, Goop In an era where the word 'storytelling' is bandied about too frequently, Paltrow is a masterclass in how to do it well. 'She offers a regular and stylised window into her personal life which is aspirational but attainable,' notes Sara McCorquodale, founder influencer insights agency, Corq. 'That's not to say it isn't idealised – everything about Paltrow and Goop is elevated – but the concept of a relaxed Saturday morning making breakfast is not out of reach. On a deeper level, Paltrow's boyfriend breakfast concept points to something that is highly inspirational to many people: finding love and new traditions with a new partner post-divorce. It's a lifestyle concept about having a nice breakfast, but in a bigger sense it's about getting the extremely pleasant life that you always wanted.' While it's a sexist cliché to pit Paltrow and the Duchess of Sussex against each other, it's hard not to conclude that the latter has tried to follow Paltrow's playbook. Few could blame her. Paltrow is the Martha Stewart of her day, with added Hollywood cachet to boot. But while she might have the privilege and platform, that doesn't mean what she has achieved is easy, even if she makes it seem so. Just as she's at the vanguard of ' quiet luxury ', she's a dab hand at 'quiet marketing'. 'She's been relatively slow to commercialise her boyfriend breakfast concept, which has had millions of views and now has an invested audience grown over several years,' notes McCorquodale. 'Many celebrities would have capitalised on this much faster and more aggressively through books and even a podcast, but in doing so they would have risked making it seem contrived. Paltrow has wisely launched products linked to her boyfriend breakfast concept at a time when there is a definite, positive audience. Very few stars are able to sell products to their followers without some kind of backlash. The parasocial Instagram environment means negative sentiment can quickly snowball.' With a £300 million business under her belt and G. Label growing at an estimated 42 per cent year over year, Paltrow is owning the lifestyle and wellness space, yet is still careful to appear humble, a quality that people seem to require more of female entrepreneurs than males, as she knows only too well. When she was a guest on the podcast Aspire With Emma Grede last month, Paltrow spoke honestly about her failures as a CEO, the role she's held at Goop since 2016. 'It's important to admit defeat early. If it's not working, let it go, [because] it doesn't get better.' Wise words that more should heed. Cute co-ords to buy
News.com.au
14-06-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
High school ‘Tradwife' debate topic divides
A hot button topic put forward for Year 9 students to discuss during a statewide debate competition has caused a stir online. Debating SA, a non-profit organisation that runs debating competitions in South Australia, revealed its latest topics ahead of next week's debates. However, it was the topic for round three — 'The 'Trad Wife' movement is good for women' — that has raised eyebrows and sparked fierce discussion. The 'Trad Wife' movement has been popularised by the likes of influencer Hannah Neeleman, also known as Ballerina Farm, who has more than 10 million followers on Instagram, and Nara Smith, a US-based model and influencer with nearly 5 million followers. The movement is often rooted in 'traditional' values, based on the idea of a woman looking after the home and children while the woman's husband goes off to work and earn money. Typically, it is associated with conservative values where the woman is seen as submissive, however defenders say those who follow it, do so as a matter of personal choice. Debating SA's topic choice left many questioning whether it was appropriate for Year 9 students to research and discuss, let alone be aware of the phrase 'Trad Wife'. 'Personally I think being able to debate around a topic even one that is clearly terrible is still an important skill,' one social media user said. 'But the point of contention is that tradwife stuff promotes not only staying at home, but actual straight up misogyny. And it would always be controversial to debate 'is it okay to hate women?'.' Another said: 'This is a huge misstep by the debating orgs (and I'm saying this as a former high school debater and coach).' 'Sounds like those who champion 'critical thinking, cultural nous and debate' to set this topic have NFI of the current cultural implications of the 'tradwife' movement online, especially its direct pipeline to white supremacy and misogyny,' another added. But others argued there was no real issue. 'I thought one of the points of debating was arguing for a side you don't necessarily agree with. My son recently was involved with a school debate where the topic was 'Is the current climate change man made?'. I don't see a trad wife debate being much different,' one parent wrote. Another weighed in: 'Honestly, if the goal is to teach kids how to think critically about the content they're bombarded with online, this isn't the worst topic to explore. 'The tradwife movement is something they'll run into on TikTok or YouTube eventually, so better to unpack it in a guided, moderated classroom than leave them to figure it out through algorithm-fed echo chambers. Context and intent matter. If this was framed as a critical discussion — not an endorsement — then it's literally education doing its job.' Following the outrage, Debating SA sent a clarification to schools, saying that students 'must look critically at sources'. 'It goes without saying that any websites that denigrate women (or any person) are not a good source of information and are not relevant to the topic,' the clarification, which also appeared on its website, said. 'To avoid any confusion about the topic, the following definitions for the purpose of the debate apply: 'Tradwife is a portmanteau for 'traditional wife', a woman who embraces traditional gender roles, primarily focusing on home making and family care, while her husband is the primary breadwinner. This can include cooking, cleaning, child-rearing, and maintaining the home. 'This term is intended to be synonymous with the idea of a stay at home parent.' 'The tradwife movement is therefore a group of people who support a lifestyle such as the above. Note that this does not include any concept of 'submission' as some sources may define. 'Good for women generally refers to something that has a positive impact on women's lives and wellbeing. Note specifically that the definition does not infer 'all women'.' In a further email provided to Sonja Lowen, the chairman of Debating SA, said: 'The positive response to the topic and our organisation [has] been well expressed by a number of people in the mainstream media. 'The negative response from some of the public has been very illuminating in the way in which they chose to express not only their views. but also the idea that there can be no debate about this subject. It seems that thinking about a subject that they don't agree with has become a radical act. Shutting down discussion is not a good idea and is the antithesis of a free society.' Ms Lowen said it made her realise debate provides a regulated forum for students to be able to present a case in a measured way, 'something some of the public would do well to emulate'. 'We expect our debaters to present their case with evidence and reasoning. It is very necessary for young people to be able to develop the skills to navigate their way in what is now a very complicated social landscape and those skills are perfected and refined by debating,' she said. 'Debating is an intellectual and academic discipline that allows the participants to examine both sides of a topic regardless of their own personal beliefs. This ability to explore both sides makes us tolerant of other views. Thinking is hard work and we should not surrender our intellectual independence because a topic may be difficult or in this case deemed unacceptable by some of the public.' But some were not satisfied with the reasoning from Debating SA. 'This isn't moderated in class discussion, it's a discussion topic for a Debating Competition, and the organisers have said that they used trad-wife as a synonym for 'stay at home parent',' one said. 'Honestly, their excuse sounds pretty pathetic – trad-wife is not a synonym for stay at home parent, it's a controversial social movement with significant connections to right-wing politics and influencers.' Another added: 'They're engaged enough to know the term, but not the context. 'Tradwife' is absolutely not a synonym for 'stay at home parent'. They've gone awry from the outset.' 'The issue is them conflating SAHM with Trad Wife. Trad wife is a social movement. They are vastly not the same thing. And the Trad Wife may not necessarily have children,' another said.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The stark reality of ‘The Handmaid's Tale' in Trump's America
Margaret Atwood is often asked where she got the inspiration for her magnum opus, 'The Handmaid's Tale.' In interviews, she tends to answer the same way: 'The Handmaid's Tale' comes from real events. Everything in the novel, she'll say, looking straight into the camera or squarely into the face of a fan, has already occurred. History repeats itself; that much we know. Everything in the novel is still occurring. It happened on the MSNBC franchise I write and produce: the Velshi Banned Book Club. Atwood sat down for an interview with host Ali Velshi and clearly elucidated that she was far more worried today than when she wrote the novel in 1985. Just one day later, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Her worry, it seemed, was correctly placed. It's hard not to think about that prescience, that condemning foresight, when watching the sixth and final season of the 15 Emmy award-winning Hulu adaptation of Atwood's novel. While it's hard to say enough about Elizabeth Moss' stunning portrayal of June in Hulu's 'The Handmaid's Tale,' in this final season, which concluded Monday, what — or who — rings the truest to me in our present political moment is the character of Serena Joy, played by Yvonne Strahovski. When the series debuted in 2017, there was no meaningful Trad Wife movement or any other so publicized return to traditionalism. We saw glimmers of an uptick in women-led conservatism, in the 52% of white women who voted for Donald Trump the first time he ran for office, for example. But Serena still felt paradoxical to me. If you're somehow unfamiliar with the book, television, stage or film adaptation, 'The Handmaid's Tale' takes place in a near-future America called the Republic of Gilead, now governed by a theocratic dictatorship. With much of the population left infertile from environmental disasters, Gilead has implemented forced surrogacy and sexual slavery. (Indeed, the environmental component of the book has become alarmingly more relevant, but that is best left explored for another column.) Fertile 'handmaids,' a term and concept taken directly from the Book of Gensis in the Old Testament, are enslaved, raped by high-ranking officials, impregnated and then forced to surrender their children to their rapists and their complicit wives. Our hero, June, is one such handmaid. Strahovski's Serena, one of the show's most callous and complex antagonists, is the wife of Commander Waterford, to whom June is enslaved. The first season of the show follows the novel very closely, but the subsequent seasons are the creation of Bruce Miller with input from Atwood. A true believer in Gilead, Serena is not a woman carried by the tide of a regressive Puritanical movement out of her control. Serena herself helped make the waves. It was her Cult of Domesticity-type polemic, her written work and public-facing persona, that helped create Gilead. Season six opens with June and Serena, joined once again by fate, on a train with other women seeking refuge from Gilead. As the two women speak about the horrors they have experienced in Gilead with other refugees, someone exposes Serena by calling her by her notorious married name: Mrs. Waterford. The refugees want revenge, and Serena, now a war criminal for the role she played in Gilead, doesn't back down. 'Before Gilead, America was full of whores,' she tells them, with indignant eyes and gritted teeth. 'Women were getting raped and killed every day, and nobody cared, and that was your country. You were unfit. I am not responsible for your tragedies; your children were not taken from you, they weren't stolen, they were saved. God hated America because America turned their back on God, and God took your country away. God bless, America.' Serena is always both an oppressor and a victim. This consistent duality, up until the very end when Serena marries another Gilead Commander under the false pretense that he is one of the good and progressive ones, is one of the most compelling aspects of the show. Why? Because Serena, as a phenomenon and as a woman, is real. Many American women perpetuate and then ultimately suffer under patriarchal structures. Their reasons for aligning themselves with an oppressor may be varied, but the outcome will always be the same. There is no room for women in a world like that. Serena proves that to us. Like the increasingly popular conservative influencers who substantially profit from advocating a return to biblical subservience, Serena is incongruous. Crucially, 'The Handmaid's Tale' doesn't demand we view her in any one way. Serena is nuanced, willing to bend the rules of the society she created to meet her own needs and sometimes sympathetic. She, too, has suffered physical and emotional abuse. In the final episode, Serena apologizes to June while boarding a bus bound for a U.N. refugee camp. Tearfully, holding her son, Noah, wrapped in blankets, she says, 'When I recall some of the things that were done to you and the things that I did and that I forced you to do, I'm ashamed.' June forgives her, the two women embrace, and Serena gets on the bus. After, a U.S. Commander commends June's 'generous' forgiveness. June demurs and says, 'You have to start somewhere.' Like so much of this show and the source material, that small moment is thought-provoking. Is forgiveness the place to start? Serena no longer feels improbable to me. Atwood warned us, in the pages and in the scenes of 'The Handmaid's Tale,' that women like Serena have existed and will continue to exist. I don't know why I didn't believe her. This article was originally published on
Daily Mirror
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Nara Smith and Ballerina Farm fans must read this new twisted tradwife thriller
The Tradwife's Secret is a twisty thriller perfect for adding to your summer reading list Love it or hate it, tradwife content is a big deal on TikTok right now, with influencers like Nara Smith and Hannah Neeleman just some of those gathering large followings by sharing their tradwife lifestyles. Think videos of beautifully-dressed women making homemade cereal or toothpaste for their families in their enviable kitchens, surrounded by angelic children. The tradwife trend emerged on social media all the way back in 2018, gaining momentum during the pandemic as people isolating at home looked to find excitement and comfort in day-to-day household tasks. Celebrating the 'traditional' parts of homemaking, it has proved to be controversial, sparking fierce debates. Fast-forward to today, and the tradwife trend has reached the fictional world too, with several forthcoming novels, including Sarah Langan's Trad Wife and Caro Claire Burke's Yesteryear, exploring the darker side of the social media sensation. Leading the pack is The Tradwife's Secret by Liane Child, a twisted domestic thriller. In it, we meet Madison March, the perfect wife with the perfect family and life who spends her days at her Montana homestead, sharing her lifestyle online with her millions of followers. Whether she's cooking sourdough from scratch or teaching her children about proper gender roles, her fans can't get enough. But when new tutor Callie turns up to help educate the March children, she soon notices the cracks in Madison's image. The book is written from several points of view, with Madison, Callie and aspiring tradwife Brianna all providing very different perspectives throughout. If you've ever wondered what really goes on behind the scenes of a tradwife account, this book is for you. It's addictive, with lots of drama, some memorable side characters and a huge twist I for one did not see coming.
