Proctor is a cultural anthropologist who studies how identities are formed in digital environments, with a particular emphasis on the processes of radicalization into far-right extremist movements.
Devin Proctor, assistant professor of anthropology, spoke with Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil’s largest daily paper, about the influence of the “tradwife” movement on Brazilian culture.
Tradwives are a growing collection of women on social media who embrace what they consider attributes of the “traditional wife,” including not having a job, keeping the home, raising children and being obedient to their husbands. While involvement and interest in the group has grown exponentially on TikTok and Instagram in recent years through influencers like Nara Smith and Ballerina Farm, it has not been able to shake off an undercurrent of initial connections to alt-right networks and white supremacy.
The article, “Entenda a onda ‘tradwife’, de influenciadoras de direita belas, recatadas e do lar” (in English, “Understand the ‘tradwife’ wave of beautiful, modest, and housewifely right-wing influencers”), discusses how the movement—which originated in the UK and US several years ago—has begun popping up in Brazilian social media spaces, and questions whether it is linked to Brazil’s recent political turn to the far-right under Bolsonoro.
When asked about whether the movement is misogynist or racist, as many critics argue, Proctor argues that there is, rather, “implicit misogyny and racism in this trend, which stems from the valorization of a perfect past.” Proctor goes on to explain that: “there are probably many tradwives who do not view themselves as racist, don’t say any overtly racist things, and would be offended if someone suggested otherwise. On the other hand, they are acting out this past that was quite oppressive to people of color. The idea that the 1950s in the US was an idyllic, perfect, peaceful time of prosperity is a myth that can only be realistically applied to a specific segment of white middle-and-upper class people.”
The article in Folha de S.Paulo is the most recent in a series of international pieces Proctor has contributed to about tradwives. He initially wrote about tradwives in a journal article in 2022, but as the trend widened beyond the UK and US, he has been interviewed by De Volkskrant and Psychologie Magazine (both Dutch) as well as BBC Serbia.