{"id":443639,"date":"2026-05-25T00:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/443639\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T00:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:33:10","slug":"aussie-trad-wife-movement-exposed-im-not-looking-for-a-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/443639\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie \u2018trad wife\u2019 movement exposed: \u2018I\u2019m not looking for a dog\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou want to be a good mum, you want to be a good wife, you want to be there for yourself too. And being so time poor \u2026 I couldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AmberAmber Basanovic says “nothing compares to the fulfilment that I feel being at home”. Photo \/ 60 Minutes<\/p>\n

She isn\u2019t the only one caught up in the trend: MAFS contestant Tyson Gordon, who drew controversy in the programme\u2019s 2026 season for saying he sought a wife \u201cthat\u2019s submissive\u201d, told 60 Minutes he is looking for his very own trad wife.<\/p>\n

He claims he had used the wrong word while on MAFS and had meant to say he was looking for a \u201ctraditional\u201d woman rather than a \u201csubmissive\u201d one.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo submissive was the wrong word to use. Traditional is the word I was looking for and traditional is a word I wanted to use,\u201d he told 60 Minutes on Sunday.<\/p>\n

He also told the programme he is not looking for someone to \u201cserve and obey\u201d him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not looking for a dog, I\u2019m not looking to put my wife on a leash at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He wants to be the \u201cprovider and protector\u201d to allow his future wife time to focus on bonding with their children for as long as she wants.<\/p>\n

\"TysonTyson Gordon says he wants to be the “provider and protector” to allow his future wife the time to focus on bonding with their children for as long as she wants. Photo \/ 60 Minutes<\/p>\n

However, Gordon emphasised he would support his future wife regardless of whether she wanted to return to work or stay home.<\/p>\n

Gordon added he wants his future wife to \u201chave time for herself\u201d, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t expect to chain her up in the kitchen and say, \u2018Make me a sandwich\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not just going to be locked up in here all day. It\u2019s nothing like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really nothing wrong with wanting a traditional relationship in this, in this day and age. I think if you can financially support it, then why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TysonTyson Gordon told 60 Minutes he is not looking for someone to \u201cserve and obey\u201d him. Photo \/ 60 Minutes<\/p>\n

Director of The Global Institute for Women\u2019s Leadership at London\u2019s Kings College Professor Heejung Chung agreed with Adams that the movement is a \u201cstep backwards for women\u201d, saying it appealed to men who were trying to \u201cclaw back their masculinity\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMen have lost ways of feeling, being a man \u2026 I can\u2019t really be a protector because she\u2019s a strong, empowered woman. So what do I have left?\u201d she told the programme.<\/p>\n

\"DirectorDirector of The Global Institute for Women\u2019s Leadership at London\u2019s Kings College professor Heejung Chung says the trad wife movement is a “step backwards for women”. Photo \/ 60 Minutes<\/p>\n

\u201cSo in a way, this is a way for men to kind of try to claw back their masculinity.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added one of the allures of the movement is \u201cfalse nostalgia\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think one of the dangers of what the trad wives are showing is that what they\u2019re depicting never existed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole idea that, oh, in the 1950s, women were able to be, look pretty and leisurely kind of break bread from scratch never actually existed. There was a lot of housework to be done. There was a lot of drudgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said being a housewife without financial independence could lead to issues with autonomy and spoke of the disturbing attitudes among young men uncovered in her research which found a third of Gen Z men believed women should always obey their husband.<\/p>\n

Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou want to be a good mum, you want to be a good wife, you want to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9092,2937,2741,2562,69658,10039,9219,156,1601,17309,1888,2082,2740,226,31989,19133,9610,226521,3927,111,139,5006,69,5202,18916,226520,226519,29591,8218,1842,24529,1354],"class_list":["post-443639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-against","tag-aussie","tag-claim","tag-claims","tag-contestant","tag-controversial","tag-dog","tag-entertainment","tag-expert","tag-exposed","tag-first","tag-for","tag-former","tag-growing","tag-im","tag-looking","tag-married","tag-misconstrued","tag-movement","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-not","tag-nz","tag-part","tag-sight","tag-submissive","tag-trad","tag-wanting","tag-warns","tag-wife","tag-wishes","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}