Adolescence, the widely appreciated new British television miniseries available in India on Netflix, has shown us the impact of the manosphere, a term coined to describe a network of interconnected websites and online communities that share a misogynist and male supremacist worldview. Not only adult men but even young boys are increasingly influenced by the likes of British-American influencer Andrew Tate who broadly agree that women have acquired too much freedom and too many rights, which they associate with a loss of power and rights for men. These increasingly powerful individuals promote deep resentment and hatred towards women and girls through the online communities they are active in, seeking to push back years of efforts by the feminist movement to secure equal rights.
However, the manosphere is not the only threat to the future of gender equality. The growing number of “tradwife” accounts on social media are likely encouraging an entire generation of women to subscribe to gender-stereotypical roles within marriage of wife, mother and stay-at-home moms, wholly devoted to family caregiving and household duties.
Former actor-singer Raageshwari’s post on “Is cooking anti-feminist?”, suggesting that today’s women don’t cook because they witnessed their mothers’ and grandmothers’ cooking go unappreciated, garnered 25K likes and about 756 comments. Her rather simplistic cure for this was asking men to compliment their women’s cooking so that they would be encouraged to cook with love, nourish their families and contribute to better family health. Although her comments were couched in nuance, many women on her timeline called out her post for being toxic and promoting patriarchy.
Actor Swasika Vijay has often said she wants to start her day by touching her husband’s feet and always being one step behind or below her husband. Many forwards on WhatsApp seem ever ready to make working women feel selfish for their choices but never tell men to share domestic responsibilities. The good wife is the tradwife (traditional wife) – servile, submissive, obedient, putting everyone before herself and feeling happy about it.
The concept of the tradwife is problematic not just because it poses a threat to gender equality and women’s human rights, not to mention its roots in far-right movements, but also this: its ambassadors are women, who create soft-focus, aesthetically pleasing videos and other online content that sell the idea – and the ideal – of the ‘momosphere’. It’s also hugely problematic because it is prescriptive and pressurising, denying women the freedom of choice – to opt for a career (often balancing professional and personal roles) or to be stay-at-home moms.
The twin engines of the manosphere and the ‘momosphere’, sending content our way through seemingly innocuous but viral social media content, aided and abetted by the algorithms that push more such content towards its followers, pose the biggest threat to the strides made over the years by the long and ongoing feminist struggle for equal rights.
InkSights is a monthly art series by NWMI member Anupama Bijur viewing current affairs through a gender and news lens.
