Sometimes I long for the life of a tradwife. Then I remember it’s a reactionary fantasy

‘I’m fascinated by tradwife life, why it appeals and what it’s selling.’ Photograph: Posed by model/Deagreez/Getty Images/iStockphoto

I’ve been dipping pruriently into a kerfuffle that kicked off in the ruddy-cheeked and sourdough-scented world of the tradwife lifestyle influencer recently. Its brightest star, Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm, has just prepared for and then competed in a beauty pageant, two weeks after giving birth to her eighth child.

Even some fans of this corner of social media – where stay-at-home mothers document their lives as helpmeets to strong, outdoorsy gents, exalting labour-intensive domestic chores, child-rearing and churning your own butter – have found this a touch, well, much. At odds with Neeleman’s shots of folksy simplicity; a harmful and unrealistic example for other new mothers, that kind of thing. But most think it’s “so inspiring!”