I want a wife
-Judy Brady
Judy Brady was born in 1937 in
San Francisco, California. In 1962 she graduated from the University of Iowa
and earned a bachelor's degree in painting.
The essay "I Want a Wife" was written by American feminist writer and women activist Judy Brady. The essay was first appeared in the premiere issue of the feminist Ms. magazine in 1972. The essay has written in a satirical key and has reflected the lifestyle of a typical wife during the 1970s and was a very radical and fresh point of view for that time. Later, in 1990, the article was reprinted with a title “Why I Still Want a Wife”.
Summary
The essay “I Want a Wife” by Judy
Brady is designed to demonstrate the demands and pressure put on married women
by their husbands and the society. The author shows what men want to see in a
good wife. She writes, “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 my
children, a wife who will pick up after me” (Brady, par. 4). The author
skillfully employs the device of repetition in order to emphasize all the
multiple duties a wife has.
Brady’s writing shows the
one-sided perspective on the structure of the household and family life. By
means of rhetorical strategies such as repetition, complex sentences and
definition, the author delivers her point of view on the male way of thinking.
Using satire, Brady shows how unrealistic husband’s expectations of a perfect
wife can be. She writes, “I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling
complaints… But I want a wife who will listen to me” (Brady, par. 5). The author
portrays a family life as a very unfair and uneven relationship, where a woman
has to take care of her children, her house, her work, her husband and all of
his needs and desires.
Brady’s essay is built in a way
that, basically, makes a husband look like another child a woman is to tend to,
he is shown as a person who cannot or will not take care of himself because
this is not his duty. Brady’s essay matches the duties of the husband against
the duties of the wife showing that a woman’s everyday life is cluttered with a
large range of obligations, rules and limitations in order to fit into the
image of a good wife.
The essay “I Want A Wife” is
about how a wife should conduct herself in the eyes of a male figure. When the
essay was written, it had a great impact on the feminist movement of the early
1970’s. Many male figures of the time heckled and despised her essay, but for
the women of the 1970’s it was a huge step towards their own freedom from what,
at the time, was considered the norm.
Conclusion:
Judy Brady’s essay is certainly a
very powerful work presenting a new for that time perspective on the duties of
men and women in the society. “I Want a Wife” is written from the point of view
of a woman overloaded with responsibilities, housework and her job. This woman
states how convenient it is to have a wife that is to eagerly make sure that
you are all the time happy, rested, comfortable and satisfied. The author notes
that under these circumstances she would like to have a wife too. Brady
appropriately employs the rhetorical strategy of repetition to emphasize the
never-ending to-do list of a wife. The enumeration of a woman’s duties is given
from the male point of view satirically noticing how spoiled and picky some men
became provided with all the freedom and power of being a husband and a man in
the society.
Work
Cited:
Brady, J.
(1972). I want a wife. In L.G. Kriszner, & S. R. Mandell (Eds.),
Pattern for College Writing (pp.255-258).
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