The Brief: A genre of TikTok videos features people cooking meals for their husbands or significant others. Videos contain both serious content and satirical takes on traditional gender roles.
DEEP DIVE
On TikTok, women are showcasing the meals they cook for their husbands and boyfriends, filming the cooking process and adding a voice-over about their relationships. At the time of writing, the hashtag #LunchForMyHusband has over 450 million views on the app and similar hashtags also have tens of millions of views.
Many of these videos reflect traditional gender roles where a woman serves her husband through domestic tasks. Such “tradwife” videos typically indicate that women are happy with their housewife duties.
@sulheejessica Take the trash out #fyp #letsmakelunchformykids #letsmakelunchformyhusband #bentobox
@lizastian Today’s lunch for my husband 🍚🥟#foodtiktok #lunchformyhusband #fyp
One particularly popular account that produces this type of content is @cheesedaily, where the creator shares lessons she learned from her grandma about being a housewife and serving her husband. These videos appear to be autobiographical, but some commenters speculate that they’re fictional and/or satirical.
@cheesedaily
Although @cheesedaily typically speaks positively about her husband, she sometimes expresses frustration with his behavior. In this video, she gets back at him for being controlling and ogling other women by adding mustard to his sandwich, which he hates, and making the sandwich with dirty hands.
@cheesedaily
“Food for my husband” videos have inspired parody videos that poke fun at the traditional gender roles portrayed in some #ForMyHusband TikToks. These videos often show wives intentionally sabotaging their husbands’ food as revenge for their disrespectful behavior.
@therealcheesedaily I love my husband💯✝️💛#BRIDGERTON #MyHal #husband#food
@jazmynjw A lovely dinner with fewer carbs I guess #angrywife #guacamole #dinner #relationshipgoals #love #wifey
A subgenre of significant other cooking videos shows people cooking food for their “gamer boyfriend” or “gamer girlfriend.” These snacks often riff off stereotypes of gamers loving energy drinks, Doritos, and other junk foods.
@mikaylanthediamonds