Young, Married, and Online: The Viral Rise of India’s Tradwife Influencers

While scrolling on Instagram you may have come across videos of married women giving a peek into their thoughts. The videos generally happen to be on household chores, spending time with their in- laws or husbands.

Their videos give an impression that they are happy with the stereotypes of their life. Cooking tasty foods for their husbands and doing all the household chores alone, with the husband sitting in the drawing room waiting for serving of lunch or dinner by their wives. They feel pride doing these chores. These stereotypes have been dinned into so much into their minds from childhood that they consider it their praiseworthy ‘sanaskar’ and are appreciated for that by their members, relatives and friends.

The reels begin with titles such as “A Day in the life of a 21-year-old married girl" or “Life of a 22-year-old married girl.” They usually dress up well and try to look as aesthetic as they can be while making videos. These videos have started trending online.

These women are described as trade wife on social media. A tradwife is a married woman who embraces traditional gender roles and values; the word is particularly used for a young woman who chooses to be a homemaker and shares her lifestyle online.

They are often trolled as well as appreciated. An Instagram page by one of these women named Tanishkka has around 30,000 followers. Her video starts with “A morning in the life of a 21-year-old married girl” or “An evening in the life of a 21-year-old married girl.” She gets up, freshens up, dresses in Indian attire, heads to the kitchen, wash pooja utensils and finally does her morning prayer.

Heads to the kitchen again to prepare breakfast.  Have her tea with her husband and mother-in- law, then prepares lunch and dinner. Most of her videos are like this. In some videos she is also seen spending some time with her husband, friends and the family, going out for lunch, dinner and shopping.

Apart from taking care of their families they also take time off from their busy schedules for their self-care. Another such page is named Japneet Siman Sethi. Her video also begins with a similar title.   “A Day in my life as a 22-year-old married girl". She has around 47,000 thousand followers.

Apart from likes and appreciation, she gets nasty comments for what she shows in her videos. “Living the retire life at 22, kuch real kaam kar lo behan,” “Graduation hote hi shaadi kar li,” “The only achievement she has married at 22,” “Soon she will shoot mother of a kid at 24”, “Ghar ki kaamwaali bai,” “Koi productive kaam nahi hai” and similar such comments she receives on her videos. She is also praised for being the ideal daughter-in law.

Tanishkka also faces backlash for her content. “Feeling sorry for you,” “Thoda late ho gaye ho aap 18 mein kar leni chahiye thi,” “Why do you want world to know you are 21,” “Behan anpad berozgar hi behtar hoon, ye nahi ,” "What is this new trend of 21-year-old married women, whey they are not in college,"  “Enough motivation to stay in college no matter how hard it gets,” and many other such comments she receives for her videos.

 Such videos have started trending online and many married women have joined the bandwagon. Most of these women are often criticised for marrying at an early age, for brainwashing women to marry at an early age, for glorifying that it is the job of women to take care of their families, for having no ambition in life.

Being a housewife is not bad in itself. But why does not the English have a word to describe husbands who can be a full-time house-husband. In our society the roles for men and women are defined as per the gender. 

Whether a woman is a housewife or a working woman they are conditioned and moulded in such a way that they themselves think that it is their sole responsibility to look after their houses and manage everything inside it. In this hustle bustle of managing everything we forget what impact it is having on their mental as well as physical health. Instead of burdening them with unlimited responsibilities, the men in the must share the load. Household responsibilities are not gender defined; they are basic life skills that everyone should know. 

The lives of women in these videos seem so perfect to us. Perfect family, husband, a happy home but we tend to forget that their reel life and real life are quite different. They might be doing this for the attention, likes and comments they are getting and some of them also do brand endorsements for money. But they are promoting the idea that taking care of the house is a woman’s job.