Since the beginning of time, people have used to word “Wife” to describe what is seen as the woman of the household. Over time, the word has been interpreted in numerous different ways. Some of those ways, however, have begun to completely construe the true meaning of what a wife should be. In Judy Brady’s selection “I Want a Wife,” Judy uses a seemingly sarcastic tone to convey a thought provoking message about the far fetched, demanding expectations of a wife. As it seems, women of today are expected to handle almost every aspect of responsibility in the household. Men have one main expectation set on their shoulders, which is to go to work and make the money. Men sometimes mistake a wife as someone who is there to serve them, make them
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 article “Why I Want a Wife,” Judy Brady writes all the possible reason why a man would want a wife. She uses factual statements and opinions to get her point across. She reaches her readers by publishing her article in the Ms Magazine magazine. Her reader are going to be predominantly women Overall Brady uses logos the most to support her topic.
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
Whether it is the past or the present, there have always been gender roles in society. In most homes, it is the woman’s responsibility to take care of the house. This includes cleaning, meal preparations, raising and taking care of the children as well as the husband. Compared to the men who take care of the more physical activities, such as yard work. It was known throughout many years that it was a woman’s responsibility to stay in the house while the man would go out and look for work to provide money for his family. Although the intensity of gender roles has changed, it still exists.
The author begins by considering her recently divorced male friend, who is looking for a new wife, and how difficult it must be for him to live alone. It causes her to long for a wife herself. Why? By using anaphora, she composes a list of reasons why a wife would come in handy. Almost all her sentences begin with “ I want a wife who…” Through this repetition, Syfers is able to stress all the commitments that a wife has to her husband and his home. For example, “I want a wife who will keep my house clean. I want a wife who will pick up after me.” By taking on a man’s perspective and using the childlike repetition of “I want...I want,” Syfers was able to voice what men required from women, how dependent they were on their wives, and what society deemed to be a good wife
From the early 1960s through the late 1970s, the feminist movement in the United States had sought to transform the way society regarded women. At the height of the feminist movement in 1972, Judy Brady’s essay “I Want a Wife” was published in the premiere issue of the feminist Ms. magazine. Written in a satirical style, Brady intends to convince her audience to take the position of a man and the expectations he places on a wife. She effectively does this by disclosing to the audience her experience as a wife, as well as her vast background knowledge on the topic. Moreover, Brady appeals to the emotions of her audience by exaggerating the responsibilities a man expects of his wife and taking the perspective of a husband. Finally, the author uses repetition of key phrases to emphasize her idea of how men take advantage of their wives. Thus, Brady’s clever use of her own personal experience, emotions, and repetition of key phrases makes her essay strong and convincing to her audience.
Men are generally known for being in charge of a woman, and it became a direct threat to their manhood when he has to depend on his wife. Possibly most men feel inferior and less of a man when they cannot stand up to their responsibilities, and that result in family conflict and shame.
Throughout history, women have been portrayed as the homemakers of most every society. Their primary role is to submit to men, care for children, and maintain a healthy and clean home.
Within a household, women and men, mothers and fathers, have different roles and responsibilities, much of which are based on the person’s gender. Typically, women or mothers are “responsible for the emotional, social, and physical well-being of her family” (Lober 80), “most of the hands-on family work” (Lorber 81), and keep up of the house. The men or fathers are usually seen as the “bread winners” of the family. Due to this and the work they do outside of the house, men usually have little to no responsibilities to the family and within the home. It is not unusual for women to clean the house, make sure the children are well taken care of, and cook while the man, or father, is at work. When he gets back home, after work, it is expected for him to relax and unwind. Although they are a couple with similar obligations, the divide of them is not equally distributed among the two and offer either one different results.
Judy Brady has strong beliefs in regards to societal standards, specifically the unrealistic pressures forced upon women. Within her essay “I Want a Wife”, Brady emphasizes the ridiculousness of the extremely high standards women are expected to follow without resistance. In order to get the point across clearly, she creates a sarcastic tone through diction and repetition.
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
Satire is used throughout many great texts to convince the reader and get the author's message through the work without directly having it pointed out. The article, “I Want a Wife”, by Judy Brady evenly portrays the work expectations done by a wife, focusing on the duties of a wife in the traditional couple, using sarcasm, repetition, and irony to aim toward the unfairness in that relationship. Throughout her work, Brady uses sarcasm. Her use of this sarcastic tone sets up the wives of traditional couples to understand the unfairness in a traditional relationship viewing this .
In “I Want a Wife”, by Judy Brady, the author attentively studies the traditional obligations as a wife, that society demands. Although this essay was written in the 1970s, the paradigm of a wife hasn’t altered much as the duties of a wife still remains the same; to take care of her husband, the children and the household. From the tone of this essay, it appears that Brady opposes men. Accordingly to Brady, the primary and most vital role of a wife is to cater to her husband physically, sexually and emotionally.
I can very much relate to your description of your husband's laid-back nature and you respecting him as the head of household. I am aware that many women would find having a man in charge of a household as sexist, but the culture and subculture I come from designates the man of the family as the leader of the family and gives men a more dominant role to play. Women in my religion are not bound to earn, their main task is to contribute towards the upbringing and nurturing of the children, while it is imperative that men should earn and provide for the family.However, certain aspects of certain norms and values of any culture may adapt to the changing world.so did mine. In this era of gender equality, women of my culture are becoming more independent,
Women’s role within the household has changed considerably over a period of time. In the later days in the United States women were to attend to the children and to the house and not do much more than that. Children are now being raised by stay at home dads instead of the stereotypical stay at home moms. According to Gardner, "Real-life families have changed considerably since 'Mr. Mom ' appeared, with more men sharing child-rearing and household chores." (Gardner 2010) This is occurring because women’s jobs are no longer labeled as being just for women. Men have gotten a lot of criticism for being stay at