Month/Year of Graduation

5-2026

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

Department

Communication

First Advisor

Dr. Emily Sauter

Abstract

Recently in the United States there have been debacles over gendered spaces in the home and workplace as debates spark over who a homemaker can be in a modernized society. TikTok, a short-form video social media app, is a way members of the younger generation communicate with one another over political and world events and discuss with one another in real time. The “tradwife” phenomenon on TikTok is examined here by using Walt Fischer’s Narrative Paradigm to show how what popular tradwife influencers’ words matter to a generation of adolescent girls and young mothers. Three popular influencers, Nara Smith, Hannah Neeleman, and Estee Williams, exemplify a plotline of love that can only be understood if you are in their exact situation. This false fidelity is what is so harmful to current religious-centered heterosexual gender norms.

Comments

Reviewed and passed for accessibility

Download

Share

COinS