This Insight offers a close reading of Sally Rooney's Beautiful World, Where Are You? (2021) in light of contemporary tradwife culture. It argues that the novel channels tradwife sensibility through its aesthetic framework, advocates a solution to contemporary social ills comparable to that put forward by tradwife content, and attributes responsibility for these ills to the same scapegoat. In so doing, the novel misdirects otherwise valid social critique and forecloses more imaginative solutions to the problems of our time.
Acknowledging the mixed reception the novel has elicited, this Insight concludes by lamenting the possibility that even the critical outrage it has generated may only serve to underscore the appeal of its central message.