From ‘girlboss’ to #stayathomegirlfriend: The romanticisation of domestic labour on TikTok

Abstract

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, romanticised depictions of domestic work have proliferated on social media sites. In particular, the increasingly popular TikTok platform is replete with images of domestic labour centred on repetitive routines, catharsis and feminine aesthetics. The #stayathomegirlfriend trend exemplifies this phenomenon. Rooted in tradwife ideology, which advocates a ‘return’ to a male breadwinner model of domesticity, the #stayathomegirlfriend aesthetic espouses a romantic ideal of feminine domesticity as an escape from the ‘double shift’ and represents a backlash to popular feminism’s failed injunction to ‘lean in’. Under this trend, domestic labour is romanticised as an aesthetically pleasing self-care practice for a generation who have watched their mothers suffer through the grind of the neoliberal labour market, and who are themselves incited to become a ‘girlboss’ to survive it. Through a thematic analysis of popular videos under this hashtag trend, this article reveals that stay-at-home girlfriends unwittingly mimic the popular feminist doctrine of ‘empowerment’ through their depictions of domestic self-care and channel ‘girlboss’ culture through their work as social media influencers. Thus, despite purporting to reject popular feminism’s celebration of the ‘girlboss’ and repurpose tradwife ideology for Generation Z, stay-at-home girlfriends accomplish neither: subjugating themselves within the ‘double shift’ and denying the value of their own labour on both fronts.