"Schneider's glasses"

Tradwifes

Carolina Tolstik is active on social media as "Malischka".

(Bild: Instagram)

Author Robert Schneider has discovered an influencer who is reviving traditional role models - and fans are falling at the feet of the woman who lovingly takes care of her kitchen, children and husband.

Carolina Tolstik is a successful influencer on TikTok and Instagram. Under the name "Malischka", she posts what the day brings on social media. And it brings a lot, namely a very conventional housewife's life. The 27-year-old former primary school teacher can now afford to live in Mallorca with her boyfriend. The advertising revenue she earns from her posts and videos makes it possible. Everything could not be going better.

"Stay at home girl"
Malischka doesn't call herself a housewife, however, but a "stay at home girl" or "tradwife". In doing so, she is responding to a growing trend towards a return to traditional role models, among younger people of all people. The popularity is huge. The man no longer stays at home and takes care of the children, homework, laundry and cooking, no, he leaves home in the morning, returns dog-tired in the evening and lets his wife spoil him. The web is raging with enthusiasm and comments: "A woman has two questions in her life: What am I going to cook today and what should I wear?"

But the clever influencer also has to put up with a lot of shitstorms. In one of her videos, she explains it like this: "Of course it's polarizing when you've had a hard day, sat in the office for eight hours, driving home in the rain. And then you see someone on the internet in bright sunshine, baking a cake and saying this is what my everyday life looks like." Malischka is simply following a trend that is currently very popular in the USA. There, the traditional role model is defended as God-given on mostly highly religious accounts.

"This is nothing harmless"
Social media expert Theresa Brückner, who works as a Protestant pastor for the church in the digital space, is very skeptical about this trend. In an interview with SWR, she speaks of "a return to anti-feminism. (...) Especially in the USA, it is often linked to the extreme right. It's not something harmless."

The EU elections have shown it. Malischka can also look forward to an ever-growing online following in the future. "It's going like clockwork. What could I spoil you with, my tiger?"