Pop Culture Primer 2.24.25
Some weird stuff going on in the Twitterverse these days…
Patriarchy Hannah
We’re taking a slightly different turn in today’s primer. Normally, I steer away from the online drama, because there are people (shoutout to Cartoons Hate Her!) who do it much better than I ever could. But this week, I’m making an exception.
For those of you who are not Very Online (and honestly, I envy you), I spent the better part of the past two weeks with my popcorn, watching a very public meltdown happening on the tradwife corner of Twitter.
If you aren’t familiar with said corner, it’s where religious women from across denominations Tweet about their faith journey, talk about childbearing and rearing, and, of course, wade into politics (I’ll let you draw your own conclusions here). This is not what I’m talking about, although I do have a lot of thoughts about the commodification and monetization of this particular lifestyle (this is an Easter egg).
What I am talking about is a relatively “well-known” account on Twitter (X) called Patriarchy Hannah. Hannah was a self-proclaimed tradwife, claiming she had 14 kids who she and her husband, Tony, fostered to adopt. She also said she suffered from Lupus, kidney failure.
Did this woman have the same 24 hours in her day as me? All of the online activity on top of 14 kids, keeping house, and chronic illness?
Hannah didn’t just Tweet. She often chatted with people on Twitter Spaces, had a Discord where she mentored women (lots of young mothers), and was also on several podcasts talking about women, Biblical submission, and opposing feminism.
And then there was her husband, Tony, who was also on Twitter. Tony was an ex-felon who owned a construction business. He built their house and houses for some of their grown children, calling it “Tony Town.” Tony would sometimes pop on and tweet too. Cute.
Some of Hannah's followers discovered that she was a fake. They realized that some of Hannah’s stories didn’t add up. One of the tipping points was that the reflection on a jar of sourdough starter came back on a Google photo reverse search as a woman named Jennifer.
When they dug into more of the photos Hannah had shared with her group, they discovered the photos she shared of her and Tony’s houses were built by a builder who was most definitely not Tony. After that, the floodgates opened, and more damning evidence was collected.
The big reveal? Hannah was actually a single 37-year old woman with a criminal record from Arkansas. It was all pretend. It was so pretend that the prevailing theory about her husband’s Twitter account is that this woman, Jennifer, was also running “Tony’s” account.
People, understandably, felt duped. Really duped. They had opened up to Hannah about their struggles with conceiving, about trying to adopt, about very personal things. She set herself up as an expert as a mother, and in an environment where new moms often take to online to find guidance, many of them flocked to Hannah. They had no reason to think Hannah was anyone other than who she said she was, and many of them were reticent to believe she was out here blatantly lying. But now, it’s clear that she was willingly and knowingly trying to trick people.
As of publication, her account is not active, but she’s been bouncing back and forth between activating and deactivating. Hannah apologized to the people she lied to, but doesn’t seem particularly repentant.
Why would someone do this? Internet clout, money, mental illness, satire gone too far? Who knows, and there are plenty of theories about all of the above.
But one thing I do know? This whole thing would make a very good book.
