South Australian high school trad wife debate question divides
A hot button topic put forward for Year 9 students to discuss during a statewide debate competition has caused a stir online.
Debating SA, a non-profit organisation that runs debating competitions in South Australia, revealed its latest topics ahead of next week's debates. However, it was the topic for round three — 'The 'Trad Wife' movement is good for women' — that has raised eyebrows and sparked fierce discussion.
The 'Trad Wife' movement has been popularised by the likes of influencer Hannah Neeleman, also known as Ballerina Farm, who has more than 10 million followers on Instagram, and Nara Smith, a US-based model and influencer with nearly 5 million followers.
The movement is often rooted in 'traditional' values, based on the idea of a woman looking after the home and children while the woman's husband goes off to work and earn money.
Typically, it is associated with conservative values where the woman is seen as submissive, however defenders say those who follow it, do so as a matter of personal choice.
The topic will start being debated next week as part of the third round of Debating SA's competition, for which all schools in the state are eligible. Picture: Getty Images
Debating SA's topic choice left many questioning whether it was appropriate for Year 9 students to research and discuss, let alone be aware of the phrase 'Trad Wife'.
'Personally I think being able to debate around a topic even one that is clearly terrible is still an important skill,' one social media user said.
'But the point of contention is that tradwife stuff promotes not only staying at home, but actual straight up misogyny. And it would always be controversial to debate 'is it okay to hate women?'.'
Nara Smith is one of the biggest faces in the 'tradwife' movement. Picture: Instagram/Nara Smith
Another said: 'This is a huge misstep by the debating orgs (and I'm saying this as a former high school debater and coach).'
'Sounds like those who champion 'critical thinking, cultural nous and debate' to set this topic have NFI of the current cultural implications of the 'tradwife' movement online, especially its direct pipeline to white supremacy and misogyny,' another added.
But others argued there was no real issue.
'I thought one of the points of debating was arguing for a side you don't necessarily agree with. My son recently was involved with a school debate where the topic was 'Is the current climate change man made?'. I don't see a trad wife debate being much different,' one parent wrote.
Another weighed in: 'Honestly, if the goal is to teach kids how to think critically about the content they're bombarded with online, this isn't the worst topic to explore.
'The tradwife movement is something they'll run into on TikTok or YouTube eventually, so better to unpack it in a guided, moderated classroom than leave them to figure it out through algorithm-fed echo chambers. Context and intent matter. If this was framed as a critical discussion — not an endorsement — then it's literally education doing its job.'
Students are set to debate whether the 'trad wife' movement is 'good for women'.
Following the outrage, Debating SA sent a clarification to schools, saying that students 'must look critically at sources'.
'It goes without saying that any websites that denigrate women (or any person) are not a good source of information and are not relevant to the topic,' the clarification, which also appeared on its website, said.
'To avoid any confusion about the topic, the following definitions for the purpose of the debate apply:
'Tradwife is a portmanteau for 'traditional wife', a woman who embraces traditional gender roles, primarily focusing on home making and family care, while her husband is the primary breadwinner. This can include cooking, cleaning, child-rearing, and maintaining the home. 'This term is intended to be synonymous with the idea of a stay at home parent.'
It caused uproar, and the organisation has since clarified that it meant 'stay at home' mum. Picture: Instagram/@ballerinafarm
'The tradwife movement is therefore a group of people who support a lifestyle such as the above. Note that this does not include any concept of 'submission' as some sources may define.
'Good for women generally refers to something that has a positive impact on women's lives and wellbeing. Note specifically that the definition does not infer 'all women'.'
In a further email provided to news.com.au, Sonja Lowen, the chairman of Debating SA, said: 'The positive response to the topic and our organisation [has] been well expressed by a number of people in the mainstream media.
'The negative response from some of the public has been very illuminating in the way in which they chose to express not only their views. but also the idea that there can be no debate about this subject. It seems that thinking about a subject that they don't agree with has become a radical act. Shutting down discussion is not a good idea and is the antithesis of a free society.'
Ms Lowen said it made her realise debate provides a regulated forum for students to be able to present a case in a measured way, 'something some of the public would do well to emulate'.
'We expect our debaters to present their case with evidence and reasoning. It is very necessary for young people to be able to develop the skills to navigate their way in what is now a very complicated social landscape and those skills are perfected and refined by debating,' she said.
'Debating is an intellectual and academic discipline that allows the participants to examine both sides of a topic regardless of their own personal beliefs. This ability to explore both sides makes us tolerant of other views. Thinking is hard work and we should not surrender our intellectual independence because a topic may be difficult or in this case deemed unacceptable by some of the public.'
But some were not satisfied with the reasoning from Debating SA.
'This isn't moderated in class discussion, it's a discussion topic for a Debating Competition, and the organisers have said that they used trad-wife as a synonym for 'stay at home parent',' one said.
'Honestly, their excuse sounds pretty pathetic – trad-wife is not a synonym for stay at home parent, it's a controversial social movement with significant connections to right-wing politics and influencers.'
Another added: 'They're engaged enough to know the term, but not the context. 'Tradwife' is absolutely not a synonym for 'stay at home parent'. They've gone awry from the outset.'
'The issue is them conflating SAHM with Trad Wife. Trad wife is a social movement. They are vastly not the same thing. And the Trad Wife may not necessarily have children,' another said.
Originally published as High school 'Tradwife' debate topic divides
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Iran's underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility is considered to be out of reach to all but America's "bunker-buster" bombs. Trump said he would put off deciding whether to join Israel's air campaign against Iran for up to two weeks. The war between Israel and Iran erupted June 13, with Israeli air strikes targeting nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group. Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's air defences, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds wounded. Israel's defence minister said on Saturday it killed a commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the 20-month long war in Gaza. Saeed Izadi, who was commander of the Palestine Corps for the elite Iranian Quds Force, was killed in an apartment in the city of Qom. Addressing an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned against attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr. Israel has not targeted Iran's nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country's Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital. Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal with the US, France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the US out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels and restricting access to its nuclear facilities. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel said its warplanes hit dozens of military targets across Iran on Friday, including missile-manufacturing facilities, while an Iranian missile hit Israel's northern city of Haifa, wounding at least 31 people. Iranian state media reported explosions from Israeli strikes in an industrial area of Rasht, along the coast of the Caspian Sea. Israel's military had warned Iranians to leave the area around Rasht's Industrial City, but with Iran's internet shut off - now for more than 48 hours - it's unclear how many people could see the message. The Israeli military believes it has destroyed most of Iran's ballistic missile launchers, contributing to the steady decline in Iranian attacks. But several of the roughly three dozen missiles that Israel said Iran fired on Friday slipped through the country's aerial defences, setting off air-raid sirens across the country and sending shrapnel flying into a residential area in the southern city of Beersheba, where a hospital was hit on Thursday. Talks aimed at de-escalating fighting between Israel and Iran have failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough as the war enters its second week with a fresh round of strikes between the two adversaries. 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Iran's underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility is considered to be out of reach to all but America's "bunker-buster" bombs. Trump said he would put off deciding whether to join Israel's air campaign against Iran for up to two weeks. The war between Israel and Iran erupted June 13, with Israeli air strikes targeting nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group. Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's air defences, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds wounded. Israel's defence minister said on Saturday it killed a commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the 20-month long war in Gaza. Saeed Izadi, who was commander of the Palestine Corps for the elite Iranian Quds Force, was killed in an apartment in the city of Qom. Addressing an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned against attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr. Israel has not targeted Iran's nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country's Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital. Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal with the US, France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the US out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels and restricting access to its nuclear facilities. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel said its warplanes hit dozens of military targets across Iran on Friday, including missile-manufacturing facilities, while an Iranian missile hit Israel's northern city of Haifa, wounding at least 31 people. Iranian state media reported explosions from Israeli strikes in an industrial area of Rasht, along the coast of the Caspian Sea. Israel's military had warned Iranians to leave the area around Rasht's Industrial City, but with Iran's internet shut off - now for more than 48 hours - it's unclear how many people could see the message. The Israeli military believes it has destroyed most of Iran's ballistic missile launchers, contributing to the steady decline in Iranian attacks. But several of the roughly three dozen missiles that Israel said Iran fired on Friday slipped through the country's aerial defences, setting off air-raid sirens across the country and sending shrapnel flying into a residential area in the southern city of Beersheba, where a hospital was hit on Thursday.
