Researcher ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4518-2385

Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Media Studies

Reader 1

Elizabeth Affuso

Reader 2

Carlin Wing

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

Sophia A Bauman

Abstract

In recent years, tradwife social media influencers, women who perform “traditional” heternormative family structures on social media, have become a cultural phenomenon. Previous scholarship has often focused on tradwife influencers as women of the far right. Building off of that, this paper looks at the relationship that the environment plays in tradwife content and the spreading of right-wing ideologies. Many tradwife creators situate themselves in the rural and identify themselves as homesteaders. On their accounts, they feature aesthetic imagery of the environment, placing themselves in the internet aesthetic cottagecore. This paper looks at two tradwife and homesteading content creators on Instagram, analyzing the portrayal of the natural world on their accounts through the Lacanian concept of political fantasy. Ultimately, showcasing the environmental fantasy that tradwives can present on their accounts through their use of visually pleasing natural imagery. They capitalize on preconceived notions about women and the environment and what the ideal nature is. This content can appeal to viewers as environmental collapse becomes more imminent, but this fantasy can have depoliticizing effects on environmental issues as well as becoming a way for tradwife influencers to spread their content outside of far-right spaces.

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