I Want A Wife Analysis
My response to the essay “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady is that now I want a wife. In a nutshell she talks about a wife who cooks, cleans, works, and takes care of the children. A wife who's at your beckon call and does anything and everything you ask. I may not a feminist, however, I believe she is. Simply because in Judy’s writing she seems to be frustrated and fed up with the fact wives were treated more like servants instead of equals and I agree with her.
Although, in today’s society it’s not as common, women are and were treated as though they were nothing but child bearers and housekeepers. Judy says, “I want a wife who takes care of the children when they are sick, a wife who arranges to be around when the children need special care, because, of course, I cannot miss classes at school.” When I first read this it angered me because I believe that once you have a child it is both the mother’s and …show more content…
father’s role to do these things for their children. Then I started to think about it, reread it, and realized that is how some men think and how most men in the 70’s thought. I now can see she is just being facetious, not just in this sentence but throughout the whole essay.
She is tired of being a wife and wants to go back to school. She wants to have someone to share the housework with as well as the cleaning and cooking. In this essay Judy says, “I would like to go back to school so that I can become economically independent, support myself, and, if need be, support those dependent upon me. I want a wife who will work and send me to school.” When a couple gets married they become whole. What was then hers is now his and what was his is now hers. The wife shouldn’t be the only one working, paying bills, supporting her family, and sending her husband to school. Some women believe doing that is powering and they want to do this, however, I am not one of those women.
In 1972 I believe women would have felt empowered.
They would have started questioning their husband and where they stand. Wives would have damned that my husband treat them better and more as an equal. My reaction compared to theirs is that I find Judy’s essay funny. For almost all of the paper I laughed simply because I could see her tongue-in-cheek humor. I did not take her essay personal because I have no reason to. In today’s society most men know that women are independent and if a man was to tell a woman that he wanted her to take care of the him, kids, cook, clean, and work, she’d laugh in his face. Men in 1972 may have been angered; her essay makes men seem codependent and selfish. However, some men may have agreed, saying that this is how a woman is supposed to be; she’s supposed to look after the children, clean the house, cook, and take care of him. She wrote this to get women riled up and it worked. This essay made women look around them and acknowledge the fact they were supposed to be treated like an equal to their husband not some
maid/nanny.
Although, in today’s society it’s not as common, women are and were treated as though they were nothing but child bearers and housekeepers. Judy says, “I want a wife who takes care of the children when they are sick, a wife who arranges to be around when the children need special care, because, of course, I cannot miss classes at school.” When I first read this it angered me because I believe that once you have a child it is both the mother’s and …show more content…
father’s role to do these things for their children. Then I started to think about it, reread it, and realized that is how some men think and how most men in the 70’s thought. I now can see she is just being facetious, not just in this sentence but throughout the whole essay.
She is tired of being a wife and wants to go back to school. She wants to have someone to share the housework with as well as the cleaning and cooking. In this essay Judy says, “I would like to go back to school so that I can become economically independent, support myself, and, if need be, support those dependent upon me. I want a wife who will work and send me to school.” When a couple gets married they become whole. What was then hers is now his and what was his is now hers. The wife shouldn’t be the only one working, paying bills, supporting her family, and sending her husband to school. Some women believe doing that is powering and they want to do this, however, I am not one of those women.
In 1972 I believe women would have felt empowered.
They would have started questioning their husband and where they stand. Wives would have damned that my husband treat them better and more as an equal. My reaction compared to theirs is that I find Judy’s essay funny. For almost all of the paper I laughed simply because I could see her tongue-in-cheek humor. I did not take her essay personal because I have no reason to. In today’s society most men know that women are independent and if a man was to tell a woman that he wanted her to take care of the him, kids, cook, clean, and work, she’d laugh in his face. Men in 1972 may have been angered; her essay makes men seem codependent and selfish. However, some men may have agreed, saying that this is how a woman is supposed to be; she’s supposed to look after the children, clean the house, cook, and take care of him. She wrote this to get women riled up and it worked. This essay made women look around them and acknowledge the fact they were supposed to be treated like an equal to their husband not some
maid/nanny.