Introduction

The introduction describes trad women’s understanding of traditionalism as a modern revolution and proposes to take them at their word, not to endorse the tenets of gender traditionalism they propound, but to foreground how the tradlife is defined by the desire to realize an alternate future. For this reason, the book refers to the trad phenomenon as trad futurism, which is defined as a sensibility based on shared sentiment rather than a coherent movement or ideology. The defining feature of this sensibility is the feeling that feminism is oppressing women and preventing them from taking pride in their innate femininity and role as wives and mothers. Detailing a history of the trad present that accounts for trad futurism’s roots in neofascist digital cultures – most notably the American “alt-right” – as well as a gendered happy work/life balance ideal that reflects the neoliberal cooptation of feminist themes, the introduction situates trad futurism as a means of managing the tensions inherent in neofascism and late neoliberalism alike. It forwards the term neoliberalism-nearing-neofascism as a means of referencing the historical conjuncture the tradlife stems from and intervenes on.