In Claude Monet's Camille Monet and a Child in the Artist's Garden, a woman in an elegant blue dress tends to the embroidery on her lap as she perches among bright red and pink flowers. A rosy-cheeked child in matching attire sits serenely at her feet.

It is a vision of pastoralLand used for grazing sheep or cattle or, in the Christian church, appropriate to the giving of spiritual guidance. bliss. Captured with vivid ImpressionistA 19th Century art movement known for small but visible brush strokes. brushstrokes and vibrant colours, it sings with the tranquillity and warmth of a peaceful relationship between mother, child and nature.

You might even look at it and feel a pang of longing for some freedom to loiter about the foliage and the flowers. After all, the modern world does not enable such peace often.

If you feel this way, consider yourself among the target audience of some of TikTok's burgeoningBeginning to grow or increase rapidly. superstars: the tradwives. From Nara Smith to Hannah Neeleman, these stay-at-home-wives are making the patriarchyA system of society where men hold power and women are excluded. seem cool again.

They sell a life that looks idyllic. In a deadpan voiceover, Smith coolly remarks that she is doing an easy recipe for her toddlers, who want grilled cheese. She proceeds to make the cheese, butter and bread from scratch - all with a full face of makeup and in a glamorous ballroom dress. 

Meanwhile, Neeleman boasts that she was a professional ballerina accepted into the prestigious Juilliard School, but she gave this up to care for her super-rich husband and to raise her eight children on a farm in rural UtahA mountainous state in the west of the USA. More than half its inhabitants are Mormons, who founded its capital, Salt Lake City..

The tradwives are always the picture of glamour. They dress in expensive, feminine designerwear while churning their own butter, making sourdough and waxing lyricalTalking about in a very enthusiastic way. about the benefits of raw milk. Their target audience is women, and the loudest part often goes unsaid: your life could be better if you stayed home with your children and allowed your man to provide for you.

But there is an acute irony to this fringeOn the edges of an area or group. Not mainstream. subculture. The tradwives may glamourise 1950s aestheticsThe branch of philosophy looking at the nature of beauty and taste. , evoking the nuclear familyA family group consisting of a married couple, typically assumed to be straight, and the children they share. and describing themselves as homemakers, but they are working women. They upload their videos to millions of views and likes. They score lucrative brand deals. They are often the breadwinners, not just the bread-makers.

These women are not advocating for a lifestyle. They are selling it. Behind their beautified clips - which bear little resemblance to the lives of homemakers outside the top income percentile - is a cynical sales strategy built to exploit dissatisfaction in others.

So why do the tradwives appeal to so many? Some say it speaks to our atomisation. Women fought long and hard to (re-)enter the workplace. But far from finding freedom there, they have only found exploitation - and instead of fighting for a better world, they are falling for a reactionary, ultraconservative fantasy which teaches them that feminism is the problem.

And society is cruel to women. FemicideAn intentional killing of a woman with a gender-related motivation. cases have been rising for two decades, as have sexual offences against women. The gender pay gap remains stark. The thought of retreat to an isolated homestead has a guilty appeal for many.

So, some argue, the tradwives are emblematic of a societal failure. Domestic work is possibly the most essential work there is. But it is not the sole preserve of women - and nor is surrendering your dreams to the homestead.

Is this a threat to feminism?

Yes: Women have fought long and hard for the right for a life outside the home. It is okay if your life's calling is to stay at home, but you should never romanticise surrendering your dreams to tend to a man.

No: People will always choose different lifestyles. There are some families with traditional structures, and some with more modern or non-traditional structures. Nowadays, there is room for both, and we can celebrate both.

Or... The tradwife movement has strong links to fascismA political ideology that rose to power in 20th-Century Europe. It stressed militarism and order over personal freedom, and often divided society according to racial hierarchies. and the far-right. We should analyse the kind of messages these women and their husbands are sending to young people, rather than making it all about gender.