Frilly dresses and white supremacy: welcome to the weird, frightening world of ‘trad wives’ | Sian Norris

No longer a far-right subculture, the movement's anti-feminist tenets are now inserting themselves into mainstream western politics

In some more traditional relationships (but not all) the man disciplines the woman either physically (like spanking) or with things like writing lines and standing in the corner," one woman advises another on the Red Pill Women forum, an online community of rightwing, anti-feminist women.

Welcome to the weird and frightening world of trad wives, where women spurn modern, egalitarian values to dedicate their lives to the service of their husbands. My research into this far-right subculture began during the writing of my book on the far right and reproductive rights. I was curious to learn how the movement, determined to reduce women to reproductive vessels to aid white male supremacy, recruited women to its cause. The answer was a toxic combination of anti-feminism, white supremacy, normalised abuse and a desire to return to an imagined past.

Sian Norris is a freelance investigative journalist and the author of Bodies Under Siege: How the Far-Right Attack on Reproductive Rights Went Global

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