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If you鈥檙e online, then you may have noticed that women are being encouraged to 鈥渆mbrace their femininity.鈥� 鈥溾�� promote the idea that working outside the home is a masculine trait. encourage women to be submissive in order to wed rich men and increase their social positioning.

While there鈥檚 nothing new about women across , , and embracing traditional gender roles, the rise of promoting this style of thinking is a newer phenomenon.

is drawing more women to this movement. Both and femininity influencers of color peddle the idea that attracting and partnering with a man will give women financial stability. Plus: Why claw your way to the top of a male-dominated and misogynistic workplace when a man can take care of you instead? While the COVID-19 pandemic is causing , is , conservative legislatures are , and , the is as the solution. 

鈥淭hese conversations are not brand new,鈥� says , a lifestyle coach with more than 120,000 followers on TikTok. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just being transmitted in a different form, and that form is social media.鈥� Shanu coaches on femininity and dating, but not in the conservative sense. She has helped hundreds of 鈥渙verworked and overstimulated鈥� women tap into 鈥渟ofter aspects of feminine energy,鈥� which she describes as 鈥渂eing nurturing, being compassionate, [having] a sensitivity to emotion, [and having] a desire to connect or build communities.鈥� 

For Black women, in particular, femininity content can be appealing, perhaps because of its unintentional portrayal of the 鈥�,鈥� a 19th-century idea that women should be . Black women were , partly because they . A town in South Carolina even made it in 1918 so they could care for white families. 

As Shanu explains, 鈥溾�婭t was an act of rebellion for, in particular, the Caucasian woman to not be a housewife and to leave the home and get a job and earn as much as a man. However, for Black women at that time, that was not a life that they were accustomed to鈥擝lack women were already in the workplace.鈥� When considering the context of and femininity being devalued in society, it makes sense that some Black women are eager to reclaim their femininity.

It鈥檚 important to note that a lot of femininity content has been as . , the belief that there鈥檚 a single, inherent way to be a man or a woman, is oppressive to both cisgender and transgender women. While performing femininity can be empowering for some, being forced to and, given the number of , dangerous. 

And yet, as , a leading expert in feminism and media, notes, . 鈥淲e have a system in which being masculine depends on women鈥檚 vulnerability,鈥� she says. 鈥淗ow are you supposed to provide [for] and protect a woman if she鈥檚 not vulnerable? If a woman says, 鈥業鈥檓 going to provide for myself, and I don鈥檛 need or want your protection,鈥� where does that leave masculinity? The entire premise of American masculinity is the vulnerability of women.鈥� 

As Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels note in , to squeeze the maximum amount of labor possible from male workers while allowing women, who are caring for the home and the children, to be lorded over by those men. As women began working outside the home, as well as making gains in secondary education, . 鈥淎nd our society doesn鈥檛 value care work,鈥� says Chemaly.

The growing embrace of the tradwife life could be seen as a rebuke of , as well as the 鈥�.鈥� If you鈥檙e going to have to juggle a career with all of the housework, why not just lean into the latter? Reverting to conventional gender norms, which Black women and other women of color never had access to, can be, as Chemaly says, 鈥渁 comfortable place in a very destabilizing time.鈥� This specific thirst for economic stability comes with the promise that being a 鈥攁 woman who upholds patriarchal standards to appeal to men鈥攚ill keep you safe. proves that to be untrue.

Instead of prioritizing marriage, what if we improved material conditions for women? What if we established ? What if ? What if we invested in , , , and ? Would content promoting traditional gender roles still be as appealing as it has become?

It鈥檚 jarring to see so many promote anti-feminist ideals while our rights are actively deteriorating. Relying on patriarchal ideas makes a hollow movement, but perhaps none of these influencers and their followers are trying to lead a movement to liberate women. Instead, maybe they鈥檙e just trying to survive.