Are Trad Wives Missing the Point of Tate McRae’s New Song?

TikTok creators seem to be misconstruing the Canadian singer's empowered single

Tate McRae just wants to make a lot of money — and be her own housewife. At least, that’s what she sings on the catchy hook of her shiny new pop hit. But in a world of TikTok trends and trad wives, the meaning behind her empowered song is getting lost.

“Housewife” has quickly become a hit since it was first released on Oct. 18, and even marks McRae’s highest-charting song as a lead artist on the Hot 100 after she nabbed the Number Two slot. The song has also been trending on TikTok, thanks, in part, to many creators on the platform who are using the song to soundtrack their videos idealizing more traditional gender roles when it comes to marriage and family. Some users even changed the lyrics to “Be my man’s housewife,” so that they reflect their own married-life realities.

One video shows a woman dancing in the mirror to the song that used the song’s original lyrics as text on top but adds a pointed parenthetical. It reads, “I just wanna be a stay at home mom, raise godly kids & serve my husband.”

Another video from a woman named Sadie, a self-described “lifestyle and content creator” notched nearly 300,000 thousand views using the song atop a clip of her hugging her husband with text that reshaped McRae’s lyrics to read, “I just want to spend all of his money be his cute housewife.”

In a comment on the video, the creator addressed “haters” and defended her song choice as a “joke,” writing, “To all the haters coming for me over this song choice, please understand im making a little joke and a fun twist on a great song! i have so much respect for women in the workforce and women who provide for themselves. i understand hard work because ive done it and will continue to do it, just in the way that i choose and in a way that may look different then you. my dream has always been to live the classic housewife life, have a husband who provides for our family and stay home to raise my future babies. if that’s not your dream that’s totally okay! every woman deserves to choose her own path! but heaven forbid i have a little fun with a song!!”

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Another video shows a creator who posts about her “housewife life” doing chores to McRae’s song as text atop reads, “I just want to stay at home, be my man’s housewife” with a caption that says, “Housewife life is the life for me.” One commenter on the video pointed out that the video “completely lost the plot of the song,” to which the creator responded, “That was the whole point sis.”

Since its release, plenty of other women have also leaned into the song’s intended message in TikTok clips. Olivia Dunne posted her own video using “Housewife” atop a picture of her achievements as a gymnast and a model. “I love this song & standing on business,” Dunne wrote in the caption of her post. Another user posted a clip of herself dancing to the track as text overtop the clip read, “Tate made this for the tradie ladies,” referencing her job in the trades. Another user decided to still focus on her marriage but in a cheeky way when she posted a video of herself in her wedding dress with a message that read, “How this song feels getting married and not posting a single thing with my husband from our wedding.”

As the “trad wife” version of the trend has grown on TikTok, some creators have voiced their opinions against it, noting the irony of co-opting the feminist message of “Housewife” in this way. One woman posted a video where she’s side-eyeing off-camera with text atop the clip that reads, “so who’s gonna tell the tradwives this song there lip syncing [sic] to by Tate McRae means the exact opposite of what they think. Girlies it’s okay to sit out on this one.”

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One compilation video read “In a world of this” over various clips of women reimagining “Housewife” juxtaposed it with other videos of women embracing the original song’s lyrics and text that said “BE THIS!!”

“She’s talking about not being dependent on a man,” one creator said in a video that garnered over a million views. “She’s not centering her life around a man. To top it off, the album cover is literally a picture of her pushing around a baby stroller full of cash. What about that is screaming trad wife?”