I Want A Wife, By Judy Brady

In Judy Brady’s essay, “I Want a Wife,” she examines why she would like to have a wife. Brady believes that a wife performs all house chores and the husband does nothing, but to expect the wife to do everything for him. Brady tries to persuade the reader to look at a husband viewpoint of what a wife should be. The essay was written during the early 1960’s, during the second wave of the feminist movement in America. Brady is pushed by certain reasons to write, “I Want a Wife” to show the humanist humor.

In the 1970’s the average family had a wife that would take care of all of the cooking, the cleaning, everything concerning their kids, and even caring for her husband too. They did all of this without complaining, while their husband was at work. In those times nothing less was expected from them. In the article “Why I Want a Wife” Brady uses ethos, logos, and pathos to illustrate her opinion of what a wife do in a marriage, in which she infers that wives do too much for their families.

In paragraphs three through seven, Brady provides the reader with what she desires in a wife. Through repetition and tone, she shows the reader the unrealistic roles of a wife.

To quote Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, an influential modern feminist, in her song ‘Flawless’ she defines a feminist as “a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes”

In Judy (Syfers) Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, she expresses her opinions in a satirical commentary that offers hypothetical criteria for an ideal wife, with an underlying message that deals with how people should be grateful for all of the deeds and chores that women do. Brady utilizes the strategy of

And, of course, I want a wife who will not demand sexual attention when I am not in the mood for it” (Brady, 1971, p.2). It is as if she takes on the role of the husband without the title of it; she is still described as a wife but she is a wife taking on another wife for

Judy Brady's essay illustrates how women are viewed in the eyes of men and what men think wives purpose is and their duties and responsibilities are. She uses a sarcastic and humorous approach. Her purpose is to show how women are stereotyped by men that men more or less think women are their slaves and need to answer to their every need. The author uses repetition and concrete words. She uses repetition throughout her essay with the words I need a wife. She is writing a descriptive narrative essay as a second person point of view to grab the attention of her readers also to make a point to them illustrating how men think women are meant to fulfill and serve all their needs even sexually. The descriptive writing pattern is used well by the

Prior to describing what a man will expect from a wife, Judy Brady establishes her credibility within the first couple sentences of her essay. Brady states “I belong to that classification of people known as wives. I am A Wife. And, not altogether incidentally, I am a mother” (1). This quote is significant since Brady makes it clear in the beginning of her article that she has firsthand experience of being a wife and a mother. Her experience allows her to have a vast amount of knowledge on the

The title “wife” was the inevitable fate that defined the female gender. It meant to be taken advantage of through household duties and sexual pleasures. It meant to be positioned where one’s own desires were insignificant. It meant to be erased and brushed away when a more alluring woman walked by. Unequivocally, Judy Brady mockingly berates both society’s impractical expectation of women, and their unappreciative partners.

What a man wants, not needs. Taking on a male persona throughout the article, Brady explains when a husband comes home and is in a bad mood they expect to be left alone; however when they want to complain about their jobs or classes, the wife must give her undivided attention. If he and his wife are invited out, the husband “... I want a wife who will take care of the babysitting arrangements¨ (229). Husbands of the 1970s wanted to come home with friends and have a meal on the table. They expected their wives to dedicate their entire day to make sure their husband could entertain his friends, “... I want a wife who will have the house clean, will prepare a special meal, serve it to me and my friends”

Notoriously, the 1970’s is accredited with a famous fight for freedom and the rights of many women through the women's rights movement. This battle for equality struck the hearts of many and offered a passionate cause to fight for and like many, Judy Brady voices her opinion in an article written for Ms. Magazine, titled “ Why I Want a Wife.” She offers an inside look into what a wife’s expectations in the home life are like and gets very personal in her article. By getting so emotionally close and letting her readers take a step into her shoes, Brady uses pathos along side a sarcastic tone to provide a great text representing her emotions at such an important time in our history.

In 1972 an article was posted in Ms. Magazine titled “Why I Want A Wife.” It explains all the things wives have to do on a daily bases and how Brady would like a wife. This article was written because a friend of hers had recently gotten divorced. In 1990 the article was reprinted in Ms. Magazine with the title “Why I [Still] Want A Wife.” In Brady’s essay “Why I Want A Wife” she uses real life experiences, examples, and pathos to explain her case.

Judy Brady, an typical wife states reasons as to why she she would want a wife in her speech “Why I Want a Wife” (1972). She begins by introducing herself and stating her inspiration as to why she claims she wants a wife. Then she goes on into describing the daily life of a wife and explains what`s expected of them by explaining it from a male's point of view. Her purpose is to open the minds of men to get them to understand what these women they consider as wives do for them. Adopting a very sarcastic and unmindful tone, these tones effectively express the norm expected from these wives and the typical male mindset.

In Judy Brady’s article “I Want A Wife”, she uses repetition greatly in her essay to make her point, why wouldn’t anyone want a wife. Judy Brady was born in 1937 in San Francisco and got a B.A at the University of Iowa in 1962. Brady’s article first appeared in the feminist magazine Ms., which was in Arlington County, Virginia in 1972. The author’s main idea was to show the amount of work that a wife is expected to do. She does this by strategically listing out what she looks for in a wife. She constantly says, “I want a wife”, to signify that she wants someone to do these things for her as she has done for her husband. In today’s society, the wife is seen as the caretaker and doer of all businesses, while still catering to a

In her essay titled “Why I [Still] Want a Wife”, Judy Brady argues that wives are automatically assigned the role of primary caretaker and homemaker in a traditional marriage. Brady states that in her marriage, she is expected to earn an income while her husband pursues a higher education, she is expected to perform all parental duties exclusively, tend to all housework, her husband’s sexual needs and desires with no regard to her own, and be a hostess while keeping quiet and doing all the above pleasantly. In her style of writing, Brady appears to be hostile and her entire piece comes across as one sided and unfair. While I agree that marriage should be based around inherent equality, I disagree with the way Brady chooses to present her argument as she presents the conditions of her marriage as universally applicable. I do not consider her argument as effective as it could be if Brady chose to be less biased and contradictory in her presentation. If Brady wanted her argument to appear more persuasive, she should have refrained from telling the reader that she does not like being exploited while at the same time telling the reader that she wants to have someone to exploit. Brady presents the conditions of her loveless marriage that is lacking basic respect as universally applicable which is unjust. With her style of writing, Judy Brady leaves her essay open to disagreement. She could have prevented this simply by being less biased and generic with her references to what it