The former spokesperson for « Les identitaires » became a far-right influencer after the dissolution of her movement. For a few months, she has been playing the tradwife and targeting masculinists, with more conservative and anti-feminist content.
The trajectory of Thaïs d’Escufon would be “fully consistent with her sociological profile, but also with her militant career” analyzes Magali Della Sudda. It belongs to a network of identity influencers with similar developments, such as Damien Rieu, Baptiste Marchais or Julien Rochedy. Daughter of a noble family in the Toulouse region, Thaïs d’Escufon is raised in a Catholicism focused on “traditional family values”, but not in a particularly militant environment. She made a passage to the Action Française, then turned to Génération Identitaire, which she described at the time, according to several testimonies, as a place where she finds action, and where girls are put on an equal footing with boys, in a collective that “presents well”.
Toulouse (31) is the city of its militant beginnings where it is a “member of the hard core” even if it “was not even in the office,” reports an observer at the time. Anne-Thaïs is well present at a few meetings, but little by little, the former spokesperson detaches himself from his local section, begins to navigate between the Pink City and the capital. Too bad for the new little ones who flock to local meetings and ask: “Where is Thais? »
A tradwife on social media is a type of influencer that espouses a so-called ‘traditional’ form of being a wife and mother, they usually stay at home and exclusively take care of the children and the home and show off their prowess in the domestic arts. While they often identify themselves as celebrating a woman’s work and role at home, it’s much more than that. The tradwife tag or label often comes with disparagement of working women and feminist values.
Those within the movement have a very different opinion. A self-proclaimed tradwife, Alana Petit defines the term on her own website, The Darling Academy, which aims to provide education on proper British etiquette. “A TradWife is not subservient,” Petit writes. “Though a traditional housewife may submit to her husband, she is not considered of lesser importance to him, or allow herself to be in a position that threatens her rights…A traditional housewife chooses her husband based on his ability to care for people, provide for their children, and most importantly upon his integrity and values.” Petitt told the BBC that her role is “submitting to and spoiling her husband like it’s 1959.”
As with any trend, there’s no one-size-fits-all description for every woman who identifies as a tradwife. With that said, it isn’t hard to see why those who cover the movement often point out that these women are celebrating regressive beliefs in women’s rights, and argue that the trend is decidedly anti-feminist, not to mention exclusionary of the queer and trans communities. It’s reasonable to argue that a strictly “traditional” housewife is one who lives in service of her family and/or husband.
For Political Research Associates, Mariel Cooksey, a religion, politics, and conflict MA graduate, defined “tradwifery” as “encouraging women to embrace supposedly feminine characteristics like chastity and submissiveness, and trade feminist empowerment for a patriarchal vision of gender norms…and accepting that women shouldn’t work, shouldn’t have the right to vote, and should fully submit to their husbands and their faith to live a happy life of homemaking.” (She also pointed out that in some circles, being a tradwife also means being a “fundamentalist Christian.”)
But that’s not the only reason tradwives get flak online.
Kristy Campion, a specialist in extremist groups, spoke to ABC News Australia about why some experts find the tradwives phenomenon to be particularly concerning — most notably for its crossover with some volatile, far-right ideologies. “One of the key concerns with the tradwife movement, when it’s affiliated with the far-right, is that [it provides] a soft face for saying quite extreme things, quite dangerous things; things that are quite divisive and that demonize parts of our own society,” Campion said.
Cooksey explained this connection: “While not all tradwives associate with white supremacist politics — and not all are Christian fundamentalists — the movement offers an elegant solution for women seeking acceptance in white nationalist factions,” she wrote. “Some popular tradwife influencers are explicit in their connection to far-right ideas, using their platforms to disseminate white supremacist propaganda.”
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
—
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
—
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
—
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
—
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
—
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Le journal du peintre 2 