Why 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 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

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

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.

Women’s roles throughout history have always been blurred. Different time periods came with different duties. Controversy whether women should get to own land, have a job, vote, or go to college have surrounded women for ages. In the 1970’s women’s rights and feminism took a strong hold in society. Emotions ran high. Authors, and speakers alike, use certain emotions to connect to with their audience. Judy Brady, a writer for Ms. Magazine during the 1970’s, uses a technique called pathos to appeal to the emotions women had in her article, “Why I Want a Wife.”

She essentially discusses how she does all of these things, but doesn’t get much in return. Another example of pathos in this essay is when she talks specifically about the sexual relationship that a wife and husband have. “I want a wife who is sensitive to my sexual needs, a wife who makes love passionately and eagerly when I feel like it, a wife who will not demand sexual attention when I am not in the mood for it.” In this quote, Brady compares the sex that a wife has with her husband to another chore that she does. She shows that there is no mutual emotion or desire between them and that it is more of a duty of a wife rather than a pleasure. Essentially, she compares herself and any other wife to a sex puppet who is just there to service the husband with little to no joy. These two examples make the reader sympathize with Brady and the common housewife because of all of the responsibilities that they have as well as how they get little to no pleasure out of what they have to do. Lastly, Brady’s hasty tone shows her resentment towards divorced men as well as men in general. This allows the audience to understand her feelings on the topic of gender dynamics and it forces the audience to feel that way too.

Brady uses ethos to build credibility with her audience, which consists mostly of women that read Ms. Magazine, and she uses it to appeal to their ethics. In the very first paragraph Brady builds her credibility by stating “I am A Wife. And, not

In paragraphs one and two, the author introduces herself and gives her explanation and reasoning for wanting a wife. Brady demonstrates her credibility in these paragraphs. “I belong to that classification of people known as wives. I am A Wife. And, not altogether incidentally, I am a mother.” Brady introduces herself as A Wife and a mother, showing her empirical knowledge. The author then capitalizes “A Wife” because she wants to emphasize and argue that she is a wife, not a servant or any other job description. By capitalizing these words she is showing that wives are no longer looked at as people, but as objects or as a type of job. She then begins to explain how she came about wanting a wife. “Not too long ago a male friend of mine appeared on the scene fresh from a recent divorce...He is looking for another wife. As I thought about him while I was ironing one evening, it suddenly occurred to me that I, too, would like to have a wife.” She employs irony thourgh this statement. Of course, she was ironing or doing chores because she is A Wife, that is what they are supposed to do. She shows a short glimpse at her job title and her job description.

She is a wife. One of the first things the reader notices is the shortness of the essay is, how it’s simple, straight forward and to the point. Brady convinces the readers why they would want a “wife”. The tone is suitable for the connected audience, mostly feminist women, like wives and mothers because she is too a wife and mother. She states in this essay, “I belong to that classification of people known as wives, I am A Wife,” which makes the readers feel that she has real insight in the actual 70’s American household (263).

Considering the prompt, one is to assume that the explanatory essay that is assigned is supposed to be satirical due to the fact that the prompt is inspired by Judy Brady’s “Why I Want a Wife”. However, in order to form similar satirical and relatable quips on the subject of ‘Why I Want a Husband”, one must actually think that they want to have a husband someday – whereas I do not. Nevertheless, for the sake of this graded essay, I am prepared to share what I might want in a potentially long-term male companion; although, be warned that my outlandish opinions will most definitely not be nearly as amusing or relatable as my other classmates.

She begins the essay with a personal story of her recently divorced friend searching for a new wife. When a male is done with one wife he ought to look for another one, “...I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one” (979). Brady devotes a paragraph to each specific aspects of a wife’s duty. One of the wife’s duties that Brady describes is a wife’s social duties. Brady writes that a wife needs to maintain the family’s appointments, “I want a wife to keep track of the children’s doctor and dentist appointments.

Throughout the years, women have been seen as someone to have children, someone to cook, someone to clean, and someone who does not deserve rights. In the essay "I Want A Wife," Judy Brady points out the different roles of a "wife" according to society at that time. I believe that Brady is sarcastically describing the ideal wife every man dreams of. Even though, women have been fighting for their rights for a long time now, even today women are still not equal to men in many ways. In today's society women are more respected and are acceptable for many jobs as men are, but still they are not treated equally all the times. Brady is a wife herself, and in her essay she wishes she had a wife that she described. Brady brings out all the

In “I Want a Wife,” Judy Brady shows her audience what it’s like to be a wife in the 1970s. In the situation she sets up, the husband is going back to school while the wife works and cares for the children. By recounting the wife’s many expected duties in a sarcastic tone, Brady is able to show the readers the unfair workload placed on wives at this time. In addition to these detailed responsibilities, Brady’s avoidance of pronouns when it comes to the word wife creates a disconnection from gender, allowing men to see the work as it is, without bias expectations.

During the 1960’s American women were confined to their houses. They were limited in almost every aspect of their lives. Expectations included: marrying young, starting a family, and devoting themselves to housework and their children. Wives had no legal right to their husbands money or property; however a husband could control their wife’s. Treatment of women was discriminatory. Judy Brady, a feminist, spoke out about the issues women were facing through her writing. Brady was inspired to write her “Why I Want a Wife” article after attending a feminist consciousness-raising session. “Why I Want a Wife” was printed in Ms. Magazine in 1970. In “Why I Want a Wife” Brady argues her claim that women’s roles were being underappreciated and the idealistic

“A man without a woman is like a fish without a bicycle” this quote perfectly describes the bias of I Want A Wife by Judy Brady. It is a fairly sarcastic piece that’s focal point is the self-indulgence of men but also has a major implication of feminism. Written during the late twentieth century, the article is appropriate to the era because although women had the right to vote they were still treated as minority. Brady demonstrates to her audience,those oblivious to stereotyping, that the expectations and stereotypes women are subjected to are outrageous and unrealistic. Brady begins her essay by stating her position in which she stands, that is when her sarcasm first comes in to play. She goes on by writing what seems to be a never-ending