FEMOSPHERE

Having been both an observer and at one time an active participant within the traditional online community, I have been very surprised at its current trajectory. A community that once centered on the value of women’s work within the home, has quickly turned into a modern MLM, going back on their values for a quick buck.

What’s a Tradwife Anyway?

The tradwife, traditional wife, became an archetype of a conservative, Christian woman. Within the tradwife community you will find aesthetic Instagrams filled with posts about chickens, raw milk, childrearing, long modest dresses, and head coverings.

The tradwife movement, if you’ll call it that, promoted women leaving their careers to focus on their children and husbands. You will find a lot of content on how women’s work within the home is as valuable- if not more- than your typical career. Many tradwife influencers showcase recipes, posts about submission and honoring your husband, and living a slow, humble lifestyle.

In a world where overconsumption runs rampant, the traditional community is, or was, the safe haven for these women who were choosing a simpler life. Instead of feeling bad because they couldn’t afford a Stanely cup or spa days, women looked to the traditonal community to remind them of the bigger picture.

In our current economic environment, the idea that a family could consist of multiple kids and be able to survive on one income is unheard of to a lot of people. Socially, independence is a quality that is extremely valued. This combination, relying on the husband to provide the sole income while the wife leaves her career to focus on childrearing, makes the tradwife ideal very controversial.

This description of a tradwife is based on stereotypes with a focus on the financial aspect of traditional values.

Monetizing Their Platforms

While this lifestyle is unheard of to many people, there are also a lot of men and women who live by it. It is not uncommon to see this male-female dynamic in many homes, whether it is conscious or not.

While many discredit these women as being stupid or less than, I would argue that their work is extremely valuable. The picture of a “tradwife” is closer to the average woman than some think which is why these tradwife influencers have garnered a lot of attention and support on online platforms.

Whether hate-watchers or supporters, tradwives garner a lot of attention, followers, and likes. Social media is ever changing, revealing a very interesting shift among tradwife influencers.

Brand deals, shoutouts, and affiliate marketing have always been popular sources of revenue for influencers, traditional and otherwise. Within the tradwife community, something new has quickly boomed: selling courses.

Sex Sells!

Because the traditional and Christian communities have a large overlap, I will be giving one prominent example. One of the biggest creators within this sphere is Bethany Beal. Bethany Beal is known for running the Christian ministry GirlDefined with her sister, Kristen. In the ministry’s prime, GirlDefined produced content aimed towards young Christian women. This content featured topics such as purity, modesty and navigating romantic relationships in a godly way.

What set GirlDefined apart from other women’s ministries is that two different perspectives were offered. Kristen was married, Bethany was single, making the pair relatable to Christian women in either phase of life.

When Beal got married, the content radically shifted. While everything still lead back to God, the women started diving into deeper topics. Being a ministry concerned with purity and virginity, Bethany’s impending marriage raised a lot of questions about waiting for marriage.

GirlDefined started to get “nitty gritty” about sex and being a virgin on the wedding night. Due to sex still being a taboo in many churches, it is not uncommon for Christians to get the impression that sex is bad. It was almost a relief that there was a prominent Christian organization portraying sex within marriage as beautiful and without shame. They were very transparent with their audience about these topics, which led to these women asking intimate questions and getting intimate answers.

Girl Defined wrote the book “Sex, Purity, and the Longings of a Girl’s Heart,” which really ushered in the markedly different content they began to produce, specifically Bethany.

Bethany Beal has since released multiple courses on sex. Covering honeymoons, sex course for married women, and “the ultimate sex course.” She also offers PDF’s with questions to ask to cultivate “deeper intimacy,” along with a sexual mentorship course for single women. These products range from $12-$169. After all, sex sells.

Bethany, once focused on the sanctity of sexuality meant for marriage, quickly turned her content arround post-marriage. Her current Instagram, linked here, goes very deep into the sex topic. Topics such as foreplay, oral sex, and sexual pleasure are very common on her profile.

Big deal, Christians selling sex courses, so what? Apart from intimacy intended to be, well, intimate, Bethany went on to sell other courses. Her new method of monetization? Selling courses on how to sell courses.

You Can Do it Too! Is it That Easy?

Bethany, under the Instagram handle sheworkssmart, teaches women that they can make money from home, just like she has! She posts frequently on how stay at home moms can spend just a few hours creating a digital product, so they can be playing with their kids while watching the money roll in.

I cannot speak to the number of sales that Bethany has amassed with her sex courses because those numbers are not public information. Bethany claims that she has made $40,000 in as little as three weeks.

Something that is not mentioned on her profile, Bethany’s previous work. Girl Defined currently has 72k followers on Instagram, 159k subscribers on YouTube, published several books, reguarly hosts podcasts, and held multiple conferences. This is not brought up in reference to her sales.

Bethany Beal is not a mother turned influencer. She is a influencer turned mother.

Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with Beal selling digital products and monetizing her platform to benefit her family.

What is wrong is telling your average woman, with no social media platform, that, if only she buys this course, she too can spend a few hours on a product and watch the coins roll in.

What is wrong is specifically targeting women with limited monetary resources and selling them the idea that, if only they buy this course, they will be able to contribute to the family income- completely discrediting the years of work, thousands of followers, and noteriety attached to Bethany’s brand.

Given that the majority of Bethany’s online expereince thus far was through her Christian ministry, she was positioned as a leader, a teacher, a role model within the community. Girl Defined was an authority on purity, on modesty, on womanhood. GD will assert that they are simply showing women what the Bible has to say on these subjects, and while this is true, they were still treated as an authority on these subjects. They were someone who young girls went to to ask questions about hemlines and purity.

To have someone who is positioned as an authority figure tell you that you should be making money, that you need to be contributing finanically, combined with the cultural stigma surrounding stay-at-home moms, is a disappointing contradiction.

It’s clear that Bethany is selling to very defined market of women, Christian women, stay-at-home mothers living off of one income, selling them this false reality of passive income with little work.

Almost shaming these mothers, “I make thousands over the weekend while you just scroll on social media!”

The Problem Is Beyond Bethany

I have no doubt that Bethany really does make this much money from her courses. I’ve seen the fruit of her labor through the sudden rise in these traditional women selling courses and digital products.

As mentioned in my opening paragraph, I am someone who once contributed to this traditional community. Everything I’ve said about women being valuable in the home, I believe wholeheartedly. I once was an avid supported of the Girl Defined ministry. I am a devout Christian to this day. This article is not intended to shame anyone who is a part of the traditional community, or even shame anyone who sells courses or digital products. My aim is to highlight how schemeish this new MLM really is.

If you’re not aware, MLM stands for multi-level marketing. Brands like LuLaRoe, Mary Kay, Avon, LimeLife, and HerbaLife are some of the prominent companies that use this MLM tactic. You may recognize these brands because you’ve seen your friends raving about the products on Facebook, or maybe even entering your private messages with a sales pitch.

These companies make their money by selling their products to individuals they’ll often call represenatives. The represenatives not only sell the product for an upcharge, but recruit more sales reps for their “downline.” Sales reps often tell stay-at-home moms they’ll be able to provide passive income while doing something they do every day, posting on Facebook and wearing makeup.

Truth is, 99% of distributers made less than $13USD a week, not even enough to cover operating costs. Maybe you join an MLM because you think you’re selling skincare or makeup, but in reality you are selling the idea of making income from home to other women. This is the biggest way to make profit within these companies, as 84% of all commissions go to the top 1% of distrubitors within the company.

The discourse around digital products, courses, passive income, and marketing within the traditional community is an eerie parallel of the predatory marketing of these scammy corporations.

There has been a boom in courses, but specifically courses on selling courses. What you don’t know is that these courses are being bought by women within the same sphere, and by women who have bought the passive income dream these creators are selling.

The women who are buying courses on courses are making their own courses on selling courses.

This has led to the community becoming incredibly overstaurated. I searched “naptime income” (the title of a popular course and many copycats) in the Instagram searchbar only to reveal tens of accounts of women trying to jumpstart their passive income journey.

They’re implementing the same tactics, selling to the downline, selling to women with limited income, preying off their limited budgets and their respectable desire to stay home with their children.

My issue is with the traditional, Christian women who are selling these courses after having built their platform on the value of being home with your kids and embracing a simpler lifestyle.

I would argue it is borderline predatory to cultivate an audience, to tell them that women’s work within the home is immensely valuable, to quit their jobs because childrearing is so valuable, then turn around and almost belittle them for not monetizing their scrolling.

For most women, they are doing what their favorite influencer, or even someone they believe is a biblical authority, has told them to do.

There are so many ways to make money online, I’m not calling monetization a ponzi scheme. I know it can be done, I’ve seen it done, my own husband has done it. My argument is that especially when representing this ideology- not to mention representing Christ- you should be using your platform wisely, not promising easy money to women and families who are struggling- if only they buy your course.

Especially when your acount is centered around Christianity and biblical advice, you are an authority. You need to be aware that people are looking to you for biblical advice and your word is worth a lot.

To go from showing how to bake sourdough bread and hang your clothes on the line to reduce costs, to flashing four figures and a dollar sign across the screen while proclaiming “you can do this too!” is incredibly disgenious.

This is effectively a bait-and-switch and I’ve seen far too many women mislead by this ideal. Your integrity should be worth more.

Disclaimer:

This article is not intended to shame any of these women, I realize most are trying to establish something while being mislead about the reality of what they’re trying to do. In an attempt not to bring shame to anyone, I have purposefully not named smaller accounts. If you are a smaller creator featured in this article and would like your content removed, I will take it down for you immediately. If you would like credit for any content featured in this article, I will happily include your information. Please send me a message at my Instagram @Femosphere.