Introduction
Judy Brady is an influential feminist writer, especially for her vivid style of writing and for many of her works that critique the norms of gender. Early influences on Brady include a priest she met at an elementary school where she moved because of a poor section in San Francisco. She did not attend college until after many years of marriage. She eventually earned her associate degree and also interned for a magazine. In this essay, Brady extends her criticism to marriage and its expected duties. The feminist movement of the 1970s considered how a married woman should have a job. Brady's essay is an unvarnished portrayal of what domestic life was like for a woman in her day, when women were either at home or at work and were treated as second-class workers making significantly less than men. Just as she is able to use satire through her own lens as a married person, her critics argue that she is unable to take on a narrow vision of the subject. She suggests that every reader, including men, turn the essay on themselves to better understand it.
In Judy Brady’s essay, she beautifully uses satirical irony to show what being a wife means to women through the viewpoint of a wife. In contrast, society considers marriage the highest achievement of a woman. In other words, it suggests that marriage defines women. She further goes on to write that a marriage is similar to a host and a parasite in society. She continues her argument by asking for a wife of her own by using queer language. A marriage is not only a gift but also a concession for women in the male-dominated society. She uses these strategies to show the real value of women in society and their invisible roles in the eyes of men.
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Key Themes and Arguments
Why I Want a Wife is a satirical essay that explores the theme of gender. Gender often determines the different roles individuals play in society. The essay highlights how gender determines what is expected of a husband and a wife. This exploration of the theme is used in a satirical manner to heighten and critique societal expectations. The essay provides readers with a satirical plea for a woman whose wife has left for another wife. The characterization of a woman makes her a machine or property, something easily replaceable. However, this woman multitasks in caring for the couple’s children, providing for them financially, and also pursuing a college education. An ironic tone is used to voice how a male chauvinist husband would benefit from having such a caring and "dutiful" wife. This wife is capable of meeting his insatiable sexual needs and is able to meet his perfunctory and punctual lifestyle. The essay served as satire in the 1970s in that women were viewed by a chauvinist society. In essence, it exemplifies how women continue to be unpaid laborers; in their lifetime, women work all day cooking and cleaning (some even working and doing these tasks). Often, they have to skip breakfast for the sake of others, and the reflection they see in the mirror is unclear and deemphasized.
The essay explains that women go through their lifetime being criticized for their multiple roles since the day they are born. It uses this sentiment in a way that focuses on how chauvinistic society looks at women. The essay emphasizes the often-unseen heroic labor women engage in daily, which parallels the life of a typical male chauvinist. Late in the essay, the audience is brought back to reality. It explains the lack of recognition a woman receives for her good deeds. Although she needs reassurance, helpful words, and companionship, it explains the apathy and lack of care. Feminist criticism investigates multiple deconstructive points of view concerning social, cultural, and political issues. The rhetoric about this patriarchy contains much irony, scorn, and mockery. This body of work encourages the reader to look critically at the role society plays in affecting girlhood and womanhood and empathize with the challenges women face.
Essay’s Impact Today
Judy Brady wrote this satirical essay in 1971, when feminism was a more radical idea than it is today and men’s greater societal resource accumulation and control still went unchallenged. As men are still disproportionately accumulating society’s resources and controlling society’s institutions, it’s not hard for many women and gender scholars to see the relevance between the text’s contorted definitions of why a wife is needed and the accepted punitive laws for women convicted of prostitution arising in recent years.
"Why I Want a Wife" continues to find its way onto the reading lists of writing and women’s studies classes and is still frequently referenced in discussions about women’s issues. Years after its publication, the essay can invoke both laughter and disgust and can cause arguments that oppose patriarchy to erupt among family members and friends who find themselves for the first time talking about what really goes on between husbands and wives behind closed doors. Unfortunately, many women today may still relate to some of the tasks of wives Brady lists—helping a man remember what’s important and managing sexual relations—however tongue-in-cheek. Brady’s essay thus evokes a sentiment of "plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose" in her readers. Brady’s argument, namely, that a wife serves her husband and what that service ought to look like, has the impact of making empathy between married partners seem not just lackluster but impossible, an impact that regardless of what one believes about the essay’s specific argument is constructive in pushing the cause of egalitarian or sane relationships forward.
Critical Reception and Interpretations
When 'Why I Want a Wife' was initially published in Ms. magazine in 1972, it was indeed celebrated as timely and important. The response to the piece was "immediately favorable." It continues, "In fact, 'Why I Want a Wife' brilliantly encapsulates many of the topics discussed here and serves as a foundational feminist text. It is insightful, bitingly humorous, and resonant." However, in the almost fifty years since the piece was first published, it is the sincerity and intention behind the work that critics keep returning to. Just as the initial critical responses to Brady's piece were markedly succinct, the essay itself is decidedly divisive. Critics and scholars since 'Why I Want a Wife' first appeared in print have had—and continue to have—plenty to say about this short, sardonic essay and the way it works to subtly and effectively contribute to the broader conversation about the plight of women—and the plight of men—in society and in the home, and the ways that culture can and does help to perpetuate the gap between the two.
Many critics agree that the essay's emancipatory effect is its most valuable component. For instance, the essay's inclusion in a freshman composition reader was criticized by an educator, who wrote, "I simply couldn't share something that was so dismissive of a movement. I would never read an op-ed as secular commentary—funny, but not writing important enough for this kind of publication. The inclusion of 'Why I Want a Wife' is unconscionable." Very few sources seem to point out the fact that the essay is intentionally satirical, and most people reading it are inclined to take its statements at face value. Despite the fact that it cannot be approached in any other way than as a satire, it may be seen as evidence that mainstream culture does not benefit, at least in part, from explicit commentary on its conventions. Regardless of intent, it works best as a call to sway women toward the supports of women's liberation.
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