Empowered to submit. How toxic femininity radicalises by reinforcing what it resists

Since 2018, the femosphere has united communities such as femcels and tradwives. These online subcultures reject liberal feminist ideas associated with girlboss culture, criticising their emphasis on career, sexual liberation and bodily autonomy. Instead, they promote traditional gender roles, domesticity and female submission as empowering alternatives. Rather than resisting gender inequality, they reframe it as an aesthetic lifestyle choice, concealing the realities of economic dependency and patriarchal control. While the manosphere has been widely studied in relation to misogyny, the role of women in disseminating extremist discourse remains underexplored. Drawing on a narrative literature review, this paper explores how femcels and tradwives redefine feminine success in terms of heterosexual desirability. Algorithms and echo chambers reinforce existing beliefs and provide a sense of belonging and identity among individuals who perceive femininity as under threat. Shared grievances of anger, fear, or insecurity are mobilised to justify the restoration of traditional gender roles. In doing so, the femosphere facilitates a cognitive radicalisation as a relational process of constructing meaning and identity. Although not necessarily violent, tradwives and femcels can be seen both as victims and agents of misogyny: subjected to patriarchal norms while simultaneously reinforcing them