
Idyllic images of blonde children and perfect homes aren’t the only selling points. The tradwife lifestyle is pitched as a way to earn men’s love and devotion. By submitting to men, tradwife proponents argue, a woman will activate his chivalric urge to protect and provide. Submission is portrayed as a fair trade to women. In exchange for giving up their autonomy, they will receive safety and joy beyond what feminists, with their petty demands for equality and anger at the patriarchy, can never imagine. But once again, the tradwife pitch has been revealed as a lie. A new study published in Psychology of Women Quarterly shows that young men who favor the trad lifestyle don’t honor and cherish tradwives — they hold them in contempt.