When I first read the script of TRADWIFE, I had only a general notion of what that word referred to: a movement of women harkening back to the ‘good old days’ when men were breadwinners and women were homemakers.

But as I researched the tradwife influencer phenomenon more deeply, I discovered this trend is just the most recent manifestation of a much older political project. Over and over, from the 50s to the 80s to the early 2000s, women have been told they’ll be happier if they just stay at home. Now they’re being sold that idea again.

The timelessness of this issue is why Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is such a big part of TRADWIFE. Even though the play is almost 150 years old, its story about a woman making the radical choice to prioritize herself over her husband and children feels so timely, and in direct conversation with our current moment.

Right now, questioning traditional gender roles feels more controversial and dangerous than it has at any point in my lifetime. But as a queer man, my entire existence is a rejection of traditional gender roles. And my personal journey has been one of asking myself again and again, ‘how can I belong to me and not to the expectations I think others have of who I’m meant to be?’

I hope this film inspires audiences to ask that question of themselves, because for me, TRADWIFE is a call for empathy in a turbulent, divided time. Amidst the noise and judgments of social media and internet culture, we can often feel like we’re playing to some ‘audience’ we have to keep happy. But too often in these online spaces, nuance is flattened and people are reduced—or reduce themselves—to stereotypes.

TRADWIFE is about breaking free of those shackles. It’s about recognizing that while we are all, in a way, performers on the stages that are our lives, we can choose to prioritize the only audience that truly matters: our inner selves.