A debut novel follows a famous influencer who wakes up in 1885 after consuming ultraconservative influencer content. The story centers on Natalie, an antiheroine who tries to live as a good Christian wife and mother while also following a turbocapitalist mandate to monetize her personal brand. Her anger grows as her actions fail to produce the results she expected, increasing her isolation. The novel’s inspiration comes from TikTok content consumed over two months in 2024. Research includes how peasantry functioned in the 19th century, religious extremism such as Christian fundamentalism, and influencer camps that charge thousands to gain followers. The “tradwife” concept is framed as a fantasy built from layered fiction originating in incel chat rooms.
"In 2024, I downloaded TikTok and was flooded with this type of content, which I consumed for two months, and it was my inspiration."
"I studied how the peasantry functioned in the 19th century, I researched religious extremism, particularly Christian fundamentalism, and I looked at influencer camps where you pay thousands of dollars to be told how to get more followers."
"Natalie is a questionable person, but she's simply living out what she was taught from childhood to be a good Christian, wife, and mother and the turbocapitalist mandate to monetize your personal brand. Exactly. The way she operates involves a contradiction, and her anger grows proportionally as she discovers that everything she was told to do isn't producing the results she expected. This fuels her feeling of isolation from the world."
"What they're selling is a fantasy. The term tradwife originated in incel chat rooms when they were talking about what their ideal woman would be like. And layers of fiction have been superimposed on it closely tied to this idea of the simple life of the America"
Read at english.elpais.com
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