Trad

About

Trad is an internet slang term that is short for "traditional" and is used to describe a subset of posters who champion the ideals of previous generations, particularly conservative values such as religion and the nuclear family, as well as sharp grooming and high-class dress. Many adopters or followers tend to disapprove of modern gender and family roles, and in some cases are critical of the mixing of races and sexualities. The term has seen use in multiple memes over the years since its emergence in the 2010s, but it has also been criticized by some as being racist for championing white identity and power, and in some cases, being associated with the alt-right.

History

The origins of the "Trad" movement have their roots in right-wing and alt-right culture, which began growing in the mid-2010s alongside the growing popularity of then-President Donald Trump. One of the first notable memes that parodied the "Trad" movement was Reject Modernity, Embrace Tradition, which originated as a parody of a July 27th, 2017, post by Christian Twitter account @TheCounterRev (shown below).

Related Memes

Tradwife

In memes, the first "trad" character was Tradwife, which originated on 4chan on July 9th, 2019.^[1] The character is a female Wojak variation drawn with blonde hair and a modest, blue dress.

The character is typically depicted as the love interest of the Yes Chad Wojak character, and several memes depicting the pair will characterize them as an ideal heterosexual couple, sometimes with the priority of creating a traditional nuclear family unit, such as in the My Parents At Age 29 meme.

What Happened To Men?

What Happened To Men? refers to parodies of a tweet by Twitter user @Western_Trad evidently bemoaning the feminization of men by comparing pictures of Don Draper from Mad Men and the Pajama Boy from an infamous Obamacare advertisement. Parodies usually involve using humorously exaggerated depictions of men from various sources of media.

We Used To Be A Country. A Proper Country

We Used To Be A Country. A Proper Country refers to a catchphrase coined on Twitter in early December 2021. It was originally used in an anti-vax context where the original tweeter was trying to show how good life used to be in America without masks. The phrase then picked up ironic usage going into December 2021 where people paired it with humorous images.

On December 2nd, 2021, Twitter account @DarnelSugarfoo posted a tweet (shown below) with an image of an American 7-Eleven photographed in 1973, captioning it, "We used to be a country. A proper country," in reference to the lack of face-masks worn within the photograph. The tweet received roughly 10,000 likes over the course of five days before inspiring parodies.

TradCath

"TradCath" is a movement associated with the Red Scare podcast that adopts some ideals of Catholicism and blends them with modern political theory and feminism. It gained notoriety following a tweet posted on January 11th, 2023, when Twitter user @Actually_Lia posted an image of herself and Twitter users @p8stie, @bIiccy, @DollPariah and @nastiapasta attending Catholic church, writing, "At the TradCath E-girl Summit." The post was ratioed, gaining only 86 retweets next to 1,500 quote tweets and 1,600 likes.

This Shocking Video Might Be Disturbing To Progressive Westerners

This Shocking Video Might Be Disturbing To Progressive Westerners refers to a copypasta that started in a parody of right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec posting a video of a traditional European ballroom dance, saying the contents might "shock" progressive Westerners. After similar videos were posted on Twitter / X, users began parodying the tweets by pairing the words with humorous images.

Criticism

The Trad movement has seen significant pushback and criticism on social media from many, as some users have connected it to white supremacy movements. In particular, the "Tradwife" movement, which saw significant media attention in the early 2020s, was criticized by a number of journalists. Writing in The Guardian^[2] in January 2020, Hadley Freeman wrote:

Awkwardly for the British tradwives – who like to suggest their movement is just about dressing in Cath Kidston and letting their husband choose where they are going on holiday – in the US and elsewhere it is very much part of the “alt-right” movement. It is especially popular among white supremacists, who are extremely down with the message that white women should submit to their husband and focus on making as many white babies as possible.

In 2022, CNN^[3] also tied the tradwife movement to the alt-right, noting:

Some tradwife accounts, for example, use rhetoric that nod to White nationalist ideas such as “replacement theory.” One tradwife influencer who goes by “Wife With A Purpose” came under fire in 2017 for reportedly issuing a “White baby challenge,” in which she encouraged her followers to have as many White babies as her.

Online, the propagation of Trad content has been met with significant backlash. In January 2024, a video of a so-called "tradwife influencer" named @naraazizasmith (shown below) drew criticism for appearing to promote a staged and unrealistic ideal of femininity.^[4]

On Twitter, many subsects of trad culture, such as trad architecture and trad dress (example posts shown below), have periodically gone viral as other users criticize the ideals they claim to support.

Search Interest

External References