In the 20th century, women began to occupy a very important space in the struggle for insertion into contemporary society, which revolutionized their role as citizens and highlighted their importance as a person.
The stigmas that woman only had the role of generation and caring began to be debated at the end of the 19th century and gained even more strength with the suffragist movement, called the first wave of feminism, the struggle sought spaces for equality and legal rights, such as access to education, the right to divorce and the right to vote, which characterized the movement around the world.
In the scenario of the Industrial Revolution, the movement sought to modify the modern social structure in formation, which still had very limited democratization and was fostered by exploitation and lack of equity. As the century went by, decisions on sexual freedom, motherhood and reproductive rights were won through disputes for a space in society and subsequently brought the participation of black and LGBTQIA+ women to the fight.
DEMOCRACY AND GEOPOLITICS, UNDERSTAND THE CURRENT CONSERVATIVE STRUCTURE
However, in the current scenario we are surrounded by a wave of extreme conservatism in the geopolitical context. In Afghanistan, the Taliban prohibit women from speaking, and women’s rights are increasingly becoming a symbol of threat to neoliberal society with which there is an open attack against the feminist agenda taking place in parliamentary spaces around the world.
After years of intense violence, the strong presence of restricted policies and the increase in social inequality generated a feeling of insecurity and fear in the population. These sensations caused a moral blindness built through narratives to a perception of threat to the family.
The construction of a moral panic around the idea of a threat to the family, has increased young people’s despair and disillusionment with traditional politics. Social media algorithms and has amplified the trend by attracting moderately conservative young people to more extreme and radical conservative male models and worldviews. This idea has been extremely successful in much of the world and in the United States to an even greater extent, even attracting many women to a movement called “Trad Wives”.
BALLERINA FARM AND TRADWIFE MOVEMENT
The movement “Traditional Wife’s” is growing on social media with the exposure of an idealized routine of 1950s women who prefer to assume traditional roles in marriage and extol the virtue of staying at home, preparing meals, having many children and submitting to male leadership.
Hannah Neeleman, or Ballerina Farm, is one of the biggest names in the niche of trad wives on social media. Today she posts the routine on the farm with her eight children and husband for years and now has a consolidated profile with 10,1 million followers on instagram and more than 9,2 million on Tiktok.
Her case caught the attention of social networks after the publication of a report written from The Times, which talks about Hannah´s exhausting routine and how she seemed to be living a life imposed by her husband.
CONSEQUENCES OF THIS GREAT TRADITIONAL WAVE
She represents through her social networks an idealization and romanticization of the role of women in society, the name Ballerina describes well the old dream of Hannah, who gave up dance college to become the dreamed ideal woman. The one who has no opinion or will of her own and always prefers to agree with the wishes of others.
The point is that all the characters composed, from woman who glamorizes a life of submission on social networks to the anti “MIMIMI” policy, play an extremely important role in democratizing the feminist agenda by helping women rethink their conquered spaces in society and analyse the traditional idea “Angel of the Home”. Also, the support of anti-feminist groups reinforce the perception that women’s rights are provided by a minority that is distanced from the conservative traditions and interests of the majority.
Therefore, the waves of extremism around the world are considered threats to the rights of women and minorities and drawing attention to the current political role played by antifeminists.
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The article above was edited by Mariana De Oliver.
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