Preview

Judy Brady's 'I Want A Wife'

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
275 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Judy Brady's 'I Want A Wife'
In Judy Brady's "I Want a Wife", she is writing from the point of view of a wife and mother. Because of that, she has certain expectations, assumptions, and views about the world. She wants people to see what a wife REALLY does. Through her satire, she suggests that SHE would like to have a wife to do all of the things for her that she is doing for her family. She gives many instances of what life would be like if she could take the role of the husband and have a wife "who will work and send me to school"(p. 427). Through this role-reversal, she explains what it is like to be a wife who takes care of the physical and mental needs of her family before her own needs. Overall, I think she has a good idea for what the context of the essay
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Why I Want A Wife Summary
    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Why I Want A Wife Summary

    The following essay, “Why I Want a Wife,” appeared in Ms. Magazine in 1972 during the feminist movement in the United States. In this essay, Brady takes a satirical and humorous look at what it means to be a wife and mother. Brady was thinking of a longtime friend who appeared on the scene, fresh from a recent divorce and was looking for another wife (263). It was in that moment it occurred to Brady, as a wife and mother, which she also would like to have a wife. She first starts out by saying, “Why do I want a wife?” (263). She lists most of the duties, expectations and demands of the husband and society that are unfairly unjust to women and it is underappreciated and unrecognized.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Synthesis: Gender Role and Mercury Reader
    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Synthesis: Gender Role and Mercury Reader

    Brady, Judy. "Why I Want a Wife." 1970. Mercury Reader. N.p.: Pearson, 2013. 74-78. Print.…

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Lion's Bride - Gwen Harwood
    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Lion's Bride - Gwen Harwood

    Gwen Harwood’s work frequently focuses on woman being demoralised by society’s practices that reduce her to a lesser being. A common worldwide value that Harwood rejects as the normality in life with her poems. Harwood battles against the traditions that she believes support this downgrading by continually returning to the issue. Due to Harwood’s existence in a time where women of Australia still fought to vote and for a pay check to match a man’s, Harwood too displays her support. “The Lions Bride” is centred on the subject of marriage and entails the ugliness of the situations that are specific to women. This remains relevant to the modern world because of the ongoing struggle for equality. By using a wedding as a platform to highlight societies imposed traditions on females she seeks to shock the conventional expectations by demonising the widely romantisied event. Harwood extends this and questions treatment of women in the world before any vows are made.…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Drake the Rapper
    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Drake the Rapper

    In the reading from Rosie to Lucy the ?author points out the stereotypical society that existed within that era “?stereotype" of women being ?nothing more than a mere house wife in the 1950s. Within the reading it explains that “?the media lavished their praise on women who devoted themselves to family and home”?. ? ?Now day’?s ?women of this ?present era ?highly disregard such a claim. With what society ?claim to be ?a "proper social standing for women". Betty Friedan was one woman who "resented the wide A great difference between the idealized image society held of them as housewives and mothers and the realities of their daily routines"). She seemingly questioned her motives and wonder about ?her purpose as a woman, if being a housewife was ?all their is to , ?was being a house wife something she was destined to live, why did she want more out of life? ?…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Judy Brady's Essay 'I Want A Wife'
    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Judy Brady's Essay 'I Want A Wife'

    Many wives sometimes feel unappreciated, neglected, and often used; which sometimes may lead to speaking out loud for themselves. This was the case with a woman in the 70s named Judy Brady. In 1971, Judy Brady’s essay “I Want a Wife” was in the first edition of Ms. Magazine; which targeted the inequality that was promised to women at this time. Being as the 70s was a time when women constantly struggled for equality and rights, Brady has some very interesting views on the term “wife.” Brady begins her thought process after hearing from a male friend who has recently become divorced. With him being single, and looking for a new wife; it occurred to Brady that she too wanted a wife of her own.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Housewife Fatigue In Friedan's Cases
    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Housewife Fatigue In Friedan's Cases

    The cases Friedan brought up in the first chapter confirms how unhappy women are, pointing towards feminine fulfillment being met early, lack of energy, and “housewife fatigue.”2 The goals women were expected to make were to marry early, have children, and act as a modern housewife. Per Friedan’s observations, most women typically didn’t have the time or experience to set their own personal goals. With goals as a woman having been sorted out incredibly early into a woman’s timeline, it’s difficult to find a source of satisfaction for the next decade or more without setting any new goals aside from what society has expected. In addition, housewives are being taxed daily. With many husbands working a 9-5, their wives are left to sort out the…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Why I Want A Wife
    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Why I Want A Wife

    In the 1970’s, the fight for women’s suffrage was a major highlighted impact amongst the nation as women everywhere fought for their equality with men. Within this time, women were considered to be obligated to take of the family and the home without any gratitude. Judy Brady effectively points this out to the readers of Ms. Magazine in 1972, where she publishes an article that opens eyes across the nation. In her article, “Why I Want a wife,” Brady uses techniques such as pathos to discuss her duties as a wife and to show the unfairness and inequality that her position upholds.…

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Lamb To The Slaughter Argument
    • 2282 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Lamb To The Slaughter Argument

    Friedan points out that the average age of marriage was dropping and the birthrate was increasing for women throughout the 1950s, yet the widespread unhappiness of women persisted, although American culture insisted that fulfillment for women could be found in marriage and housewifery; this chapter concludes by declaring "We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: 'I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.'…

    • 2282 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why I Want A Wife Analysis
    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Why I Want A Wife Analysis

    The United States in the 1970s was a jumbled place to live in, the feminist movement was just getting underway and would became one of the most influential feminists movement to this day. Judy Brady wrote “Why I Want a Wife” in 1972 and published it to Ms.Magazine. This was a monumental step towards women's rights; however, women would not get the rights they wanted till later. In “Why I Want a Wife”, Judy Brady uses pathos, emotional appeal, to relate to the audience on a emotional level and show them the ignorance men were showing towards their rights.…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Powerlessness
    • 1550 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God Powerlessness

    Everyone has heard the stories of a woman doing anything for love or enduring anything to keep the man she feels she is in love with. Although this still does happen now, this was happening way more in the 1900s, when women was really dependent on men for mostly everything. During that time, men lead the household making all the decisions in the relationship. They were dominant over their wives and their was no questions asked. Women took a backseat to their men because they were blinded by love and powerless by male dominance. Men loved the fact that they could control their wives. In Zora Neale Hurston, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Janie is the character that is blinded by her wanting love. In the critical essay, “ I Love the Way Janie Crawford Left Her Husbands,” Washington talks about how Janie is “made powerless by her three husbands” and this essay will talk about the extent of this in reference to Tea Cake, her third husband.…

    • 1550 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Matriarchal Misrepresentation
    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Matriarchal Misrepresentation

    Judy Brady’s essay, “I Want a Wife” was first published in Ms. Magazine in 1971 in support of the feminist movement; initially the essay was written in the hopes that it would create public awareness of the unfair expectations created by the wife stereotype. During the 1970’s American popular culture, women seemed to have no identity besides that of being a family caretaker. In fact, the mere idea of a woman procuring a career was seen as a radical notion throughout the course of history. In addition to being the family caretaker, the wife was generally expected that after a woman had earned her desired education she was to marry, have children and become a loyal servant to her family. Moreover, this expectation was engrained in the minds of the American public by way of popular television shows like “Leave it to Beaver”, which projected the prototypical image of what a wife was expected to be inside the living room of every home. Along with the wife being expected to be the loyal servant, she was also anticipated to be sensitive to the husband's sexual needs. For example, the wife was expected to have sex with her husband even if she was tired or not in the mood. These projections became the accepted norm of how a woman should represent herself once she became a wife/mother. That is, society thinks that the responsibilities of raising children and maintaining a stable home are often solely placed upon the wife; however this kind of stability can only be upheld with the help of the husband and wife together.…

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Tv's Gender Roles
    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Tv's Gender Roles

    In the 21st century, women must have a career and job to support a family compared to the 1950’s when women had the choice to be a stay at home mother or have a career. Spigel states, “Like Donna Reed, who sacrificed her nursing career for life with Dr. Alex Stone […]” (Spigel 224), the author is indicating that most women during the 1950’s decided to be a homemaker because that was what society expected of them. Television emphasizes and values the role of the ideal wife and a homemaker. Furthermore, The Donna Reed Show illustrated wives to be marginal at home and central to the economy. Haralovich states, “In her value to the economy, the homemaker was at once central and marginal” (Haralovich 70). Basically, women’s labor in the home was highly valued and was given social satisfaction by consuming products to live the suburban American dream. However, women roles from today have changed due to the shift in gender roles in the American society. The “Study Date” episode of Good Luck Charlie is a perfect illustration of an ideal wife and women in today’s society. For example, Amy has to work, take care of her family, by cooking and cleaning. There is now a huge pressure for women to go to college, get a career, and to get married and raise a family. Some women now are breadwinners and some men are stay at home dads. Due to economic pressures from society, both spouses have to work to maintain…

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Awakening Synthesis Essay
    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Awakening Synthesis Essay

    From birthing a child to taking care of cooking and cleaning, it is hard to imagine what life would be like if a woman was not held to generic standards. Judy Brady’s essay, “I Want a Wife,” shows complete satire of what a perfect, model wife would be like in the eyes of a man. She presents an image of someone who gets no breaks and succumbs to her husband’s every word. This someone, the model wife, is unrealistic but desired by some. The societal expectations of women in the 1970’s, when this essay was originally published, has influenced the rights of women today. There has definitely been improvement in women having more freedom to do whatever they choose to do, but generally speaking, women are still expected to be a wife who does everything for her children and…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why I Want A Wife
    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Why I Want A Wife

    When I think of a person who is doing all the chores and tasks, such as laundry, cooking and cleaning that person no other than a wife. In my perspective, the idea of a partner is different to what Brady’s description. In Brady’s essay “I Want a Wife”, she describes the duties of the typical wife would have to do for the family. She explains that the wife is expected to take care of the house, the children and keeping husband satisfied in life such as; dealing with physical, mental, social and sexual needs (636). Compare to Brady’ description of a wife instead, the wife has to do all of the housework, my idea of a spouse is when taking care of housework, both husband and wife should help each others. Unlike to Brady’s wife, my type of wife should…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Personal Narrative: I Want A Baby
    • 1798 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Personal Narrative: I Want A Baby

    She wrote an essay on her thoughts of men to hopefully make a change in another woman’s life and I wrote my thoughts about a baby in the role of a teacher and how it changed her. Brady’s long list mentions, “I want a wife who will take care of my physical needs. I want a wife who will keep my house clean. A wife who will pick up after me,” all showing how selfish and traditional thinking men are, opening the eyes of all wives and in the end helping them (Brady, 58). I took that same long list feature and imitated it by using, “I want a baby who will depend on me and I on them. I want a baby that will be waiting for me at home. A baby that will be waiting for love,” which all changes how the teacher felt about babies and how at the end she realizes how much she wants a baby. I also mimicked her ironic and goal orientated tone she used in “I Want a Wife” to help make my “I Want a Baby” parody essay. In Brady’s essay she was really ironic in the way she claimed to be a wife yet wrote about how she wanted a wife. Not only that, but also wrote on how good wives are and at the same time was protesting it. I also incorporated that into my essay by adding how the teacher already had “too many kids” but still wanted one of her own. I also shared the same goal-oriented style Brady used to get what she wanted. Brady used hers to focus on spreading her feminist views and I used mine to get a teachers baby fever thoughts…

    • 1798 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics