make tradwives gay again

i was reading under the "politics" tag here on the uic radio, when i came across "the rise in conservatism in trends" by trending how. as stated in the title, the blog details how we can track the rise of conservative beliefs by analyzing recent fashion trends such as "model off-duty," "clean girl," and "trad wife."

i highly recommend giving it a read.

one section in particular stuck out to me:

 "[The trad wife aesthetic] shares many of the aesthetics of 'Cottagecore' which got very popular in 2020-2022, with long flowing dresses, making food from scratch, and returning to a vintage/antique look. The difference is that 'Cottagecore' did not believe in antique values and had mostly queer women participating who were not happy with our society and it was a form of escapism and self-reliance."

-trending how, 2025

this got me thinking. making sourdough used to be a huge lesbian indicator. now, it might mean you think rfk jr. will make america healthy again. oh the times we live in.

an onslaught of questions arose: how could such similar trends convey completely opposite beliefs? can clothes really be fascist or feminist? do women on the left and right have more in common than we think? and so i went down a rabbit-hole of fashion, femininity, and politics.

let's get into it.

a brief history

cottagecore was everywhere in 2020. imagine: baking, lesbians, light colors, dresses, a cottage in the woods far, far away from patriarchal society.

by the end of the year, biden won the presidential election.

2023 is when tradwife aesthetics first began trending. imagine: baking, marriage, light colors, having babies, dresses, farmhouse, having more babies. the aesthetic reached its peak in 2024.

by the end of the year, trump won the presidential election.

there are some minute, but key, aesthetic differences between the two. cottagecore is slightly more based on medieval times, featuring peasant tops and corsets, while trad wife is more based on the 50's, which has a-line skirts and generally more structured silhouettes.

what could these differences mean? most obviously, and as stated in lauren's blog, the trad wife aesthetic seems to be rooted in the days of strict gender roles and submissive housewives. it was also a time of great economic growth and far less wealth inequality. this security allowed many members of the middle-class to settle down and start a family, hence, the baby boom. who needs second-wave feminism when a household can survive off of one income? a truly beautiful time for america. (unless you weren't white, or a man, or straight, or...)

i can see why conservatives may yearn for the mid-century. the fantasy of affording a house, groceries, and even a trip to the movies every fridays. i yearn for these things too. the only issue is that they believe what went wrong was women gaining rights and not, say, ronald reagan.

as for cottagecore, the middle ages was an era before capitalism. in its place was the wonderful system of feudalism. other notable features include the bubonic plague and the crusades. "and the women?" you might ask, "how were they treated?" poorly, for the most part. to illustrate, many young women were forced to become anchoresses, meaning that they would abide to a life-long solitary confinement in the name of christianity.

how could such a point in history be romanticized, let alone be an aesthetic of the left?

literature and fashion

unless, we say that the cottagecore aesthetic doesn't stem from history, but rather from literature. books where princesses are the main characters and have things like magical powers and agency. "fairycore" (arguably a subsect of cottagecore) is proof of these fantastical roots.

this isn't the only example of the literature-to-fashion pipeline. take "dark academia." this aesthetic is derived from donna tart's 1992 novel, the secret history. the southern gothic aesthetic? originally a literary movement. think to kill a mockingbird by harper lee or the sound and the fury by william faulkner. it's important to note that these two aesthetics both have roots in queer culture.

now if i know one thing, it's that reading is gay. it's so gay, in fact, that we should ban it altogether. pen america has reported 6,870 book bans in the 2024-2025 school year. alongside the rise of conservatism, came the rise of anti-intellectualism. literature has the ability to build empathy, imagination, and social consciousness. for the past few years, popular fashion has been stripped of its literary roots, and infused with a new agenda.

and so "dark academia" turns into "old money," all of the elitism without any of the academics.

then "southern gothic" becomes "western nostalgia," a romanticization of the south without the irony and macabre.

finally, "cottagecore" evolves into "trad wife."

the curtains are blue

above are the top results for the search terms "cottagecore outfit" and "trad wife outfit." they look practically the same.

in some ways, cottagecore and trad wife aesthetics have the same "thesis." they both critique two things: labor and modernity. many women are discontent with working conditions and technology-ridden life, so much so that they dream of escaping society altogether to live a quieter, more simple existence. in a way, the similarities symbolize a class unity. it really is a matter of up vs. down, not left vs. right.

nonetheless, while on paper almost identical, they also reflect either authoritarian or anti-authoritarian values. one signals women's independence while the other signals women's dependence. these trends are an example of exactly why we must look deeper into everything we see on the internet. it is important to ask yourself who is selling you these lifestyles, and what exactly they want to tell you.

i'm sure you guys are familiar with the following image:

[sourced from @smackythefrog on reddit]

in this case, both curtains are blue, so to speak. cottagecore and trad wife followers are probably wearing the same house of cb sundress, but if we were to say that "the curtains are just f*cking blue," we would be oblivious to so much important discussion.

cultural analysis is less about what something "means," but moreso on how it "functions." a dress itself doesn't mean anything. baking sourdough doesn't mean anything either. however, these objects and actions are vehicles of political ideology, and failing to see that can have tangible consequences.

[sourced from jerz's literacy weblog]

tldr

• clothes are political

• books influence culture (shocker!)

• the curtains are never just blue

your local english major,

sputnik sweetheart ⋆˙⟡♡

[all images, unless otherwise stated, are sourced from pinterest]