Kristina Kljajic
Feature, BBC journalist
Bread is being baked in the oven while a young woman in a tufna dress prepares lunch to welcome her husband after returning from work.
Although this description may resemble an advertisement or an insert from a film shot in the 1950s, this is how an afternoon in Anđela Vasić's everyday life looks like.
"I believe that the family is the foundation of society.
"That's why I wanted to create a pleasant and healthy atmosphere for my children and husband," says this 25-year-old for the BBC in Serbian.
And a trend has emerged on TikTok where women share why they enjoy staying at home and taking care of their families.
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The users film themselves cooking, sewing and cleaning a mostly expensively decorated living room, wearing make-up and clothes from well-known fashion brands.
Recordings are often accompanied by i explanations why do they believe that a man should bring money and a woman should be a mother and a housewife.
They use the coin for themselves Translator, formed from words One Traditional mode (traditional) i wife (wife).
In an era of struggle for human liberties and women's rights, this return to patriarchal norms may seem unusual.
"We say something is traditional, but we rarely think about whose culture it is part of," explains Devin Proctor, an anthropologist and professor at Elon University in North Carolina, for the BBC in Serbian.
"The housewife from the mid-20th century represents the traditional American woman, but the portrayal of the traditional woman is not the same in Serbia
The view of tradition depends "on context, but also on memory".
"We often remember things better than they actually were, it's rosy retrospectism," he adds.
How traditional women went viral
During the covid-19 pandemic, due to staying at home for a long time, a large number of people recorded content about the experience of parenthood, cooking and everyday life.
"That's how this trend developed," says Proctor.
Among the most popular influencers is Nara Smit.
The former model is known for the fact that in expensive creations, often with a child in her arms, she prepares a wide variety of products at home - from gummy candies and chewing gum, right down to sunscreen.
And while some admire her and others make fun of her, this 22-year-old has more than 10,5 million followers on TikTok.
Translator the trend romanticizes the period of life from the middle of the 20th century, explains Teodora Šulj, a sociologist for the BBC in Serbian.
"It was the last moment when male and female gender roles were precisely defined," he says.
Men were expected to earn money and provide everything for the family in public life, while women were expected to stay at home and take care of their children and husband.
"However, these women are not the same as housewives, they act as housewives on TikTok and make money from it," she believes.
Economic uncertainty is one of the causes
Anđela says she enjoys the life she has chosen, and she is especially happy preparing meals for her family.
He especially "likes to make dishes according to his mother's and grandmother's recipes".
She lives more modestly than the more famous influencers from TikTok, and shares her family life only with followers on Instagram.
She is aware that staying at home, without traditional employment, requires a certain privilege.
"I don't think that's why I was born under a lucky star, my life is more a combination of favorable circumstances," says Anđela.
She would get a job if she had to, but "her husband earns enough".
"I just sometimes think that my friends and acquaintances judge me", that's why he thinks that.
She is often asked "how come she isn't bored", but she rarely has time for leisure due to her obligations around the children.
"The biggest lie told to women is that it is better to work from 9 to 5 than to be at home and look after the children", wrote one TikTok user filming herself kneading bread.
Economic insecurity may have to do with tradwife trend, explains Teodora Šulj.
"Due to the ever-increasing price of real estate and the cost of living, the idea of someone supporting us seems tempting.
"There is hypocrisy in everything, because women are told to stay at home, and it is precisely the most famous trad influencers who earn huge money from TikTok, which means that they have their own sources of income," he adds.
Obedient and smiling
"My husband mentioned that he wanted a Coke the other day, and since we were out of soda, I decided to make him one," he says Nara Smit, while adding sugar to the bowl.
"Traditional social media women are always happy, smiling and at the service of men," says Devin Proprer,
That's why this trend is often criticized as sexist, because it shows women as subordinate to men and unequal in society, he adds.
From 1850s estates, with women in wheat fields to pearls and loose weaves that evoke the 1950s, all these images insist on defending "timeless, natural, traditional femininity against feminism," writes Katarina Tebaldi of the University of Luxembourg in the paper Tradwives and Truth Warriors.
That's how the "cult of the real woman" was built as innocent, submissive and obedient, compared to militant feminists, and the continuation is the latest TikTok trend, explains Tebaldi.
"Traditional women from the phone screen condemn the fight for women's rights, as well as the right to autonomy and work.
"Feminism is viewed one-sidedly, as an ideology that forces women to enter the labor market, which is not true," says sociologist Šulj.
Among TikTok women, mothers, queens there's a bit of posing too, says Proctor.
Retro dresses, subtle make-up, expensive kitchens and suburban gardens are not part of everyone's life, the anthropologist explains.
And yet, the aesthetic is inseparable from the Tradwife trend.
"It serves to promote a femininity that opposes feminism," he points out.
Generation Z more conservative
For women, it is often a tiring idea that they have to achieve everything - to be successful both at work and at home, that is, in both the private and public spheres, explains Šulj.
And when women get a job, "their household duties are no less".
Societies are becoming more conservative, research shows.
Young people value stable relationships more and they are much more devoted to family than the generations that preceded them.
On that could have influenced the collapse of the traditional family or the world economy that occurred while they were growing up, which contributed to a sense of insecurity.
About 40 percent believe that folk customs and traditions should be firmly adhered to, according to a survey in Serbia in the summer of 2023. Violent extremism and youth: From misinformation to radicalism.
A little less than half of young people support the idea that they should apply the morality preached by their religious community.
Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the most trusted institutions in Serbia, and it advocates for the traditional family, biological sex determination, is against abortion i of the law on gender equality.
I in research by the Global Institute for Women's Leadership, a third of respondents of generation Z believe that a man who stays at home to take care of children is 'less masculine', and a fifth of their peers share the same opinion.
Angela does not plan to change anything in her life, because she has always dreamed of having a family.
"I don't see a problem with being at home, it suits my husband as well.
"I raise the children, and he supports and looks after the family," she concludes.
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