Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Meaning Of Wife
    Unavailable
    The Meaning Of Wife
    Unavailable
    The Meaning Of Wife
    Ebook488 pages12 hours

    The Meaning Of Wife

    By Anne Kingston

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    WHAT DOES "WIFE" MEAN TODAY? It’s a fascinating question that’s been receiving huge media and reader attention, fuelled by Anne Kingston’s provocative book. 

    Traversing the complex landscape of contemporary wifehood, Kingston combines broad-ranging research with her own insights and wit, providing a fresh perspective on being a married woman. From the elevation of the bride to a powerful consumer icon, through the recent romanticization of domesticity, and into the conflicted territory of wifely sexuality, The Meaning of Wife is constantly engaging and often surprising.

    A book that’s tailor-made for book clubs—even the cover provokes discussion—as well as lively chats over a glass of wine, The Meaning of Wife is changing the way we think about women, men and marriage.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 20, 2017
    ISBN9781443455022
    Unavailable
    The Meaning Of Wife
    Author

    Anne Kingston

    ANNE KINGSTON is an award-winning journalist who is currently a columnist for the National Post, where she writes about social and contemporary issues. She is also the bestselling author of The Edible Man: Dave Nichol, President's Choice and the Making of Popular Taste, which won the 1995 Business Book of the Year award.  She has contributed to most major Canadian publications, including The Globe and Mail, Saturday Night and Toronto Life. The Meaning of Wife has sold internationally and will be published in the U.S. by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in spring 2005. Anne Kingston lives in Toronto.

    Related to The Meaning Of Wife

    Related ebooks

    Social Science For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Meaning Of Wife

    3.5/5

    46 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      An astonishingly well-constructed cultural history of the term wife, ending with a hopeful, albeit less than plausible, call for change to our understanding of one of society's oldest roles. I recommend this book highly.
    • 5/5
      In her book The History of the Wife, Marilyn Yalom traces the history and changing roles women have had in marriage from early history through the women’s liberation movement. The Meaning of Wife picks up where that excellent book ends. It is clear from the cover of this book (a woman’s left hand, flipping off the reader-with a perfectly manicured and wedding band-clad ring finger) that this is a book for a generation of women who are both used to confrontation and longing for tradition. It is this dichotomy in their lives that fuels the book.As women are working outside the home more, demanding more equitable treatment, and becoming market forces, they are also struggling to define what being a wife actually means to them. Kingston examines that many facets of wifeliness that seem to prevail: helpmeet, virgin, Cinderella (equally entranced by the wedding dress as she is of scented toilet bowl cleaner), victim of abuse, shrew, spinster (or unwife), or supporting actress. The main struggle for women now isn’t whether or not to get married. Kingston is no Steinem and doesn’t suggest that a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle (though she is unmarried). She acknowledges that women want to be wives and mothers. The problem is that they don’t have role models. They have seen their mothers struggle to get out of the kitchen and are in no great rush to get back into it. Their icons growing up on TV were single women, Superwomen who could do it all by themselves. Popular culture, in the form of advertising, movies, books, news media, and television, is the most common source of clues to how women seek to describe themselves. Their icons now are very different. They see the brides, the yearning for marriage and a fairy tale wedding. Kingston excels and describing the marketing behind this notion (and I love that this industry now has an insidious name: the wedding industrial complex). But once the marriage happens, there are a few very different ideas of what a married woman is. They see the happy homemaker. Though most have absolutely no desire to be homemakers, they still feel the pressure to have a well-kept home. A certain amount of bliss is marketed along with cleaning products. Or they are seen as the victim of love-the battered wife (an excellent chapter on the presentation of domestic abuse is given, including how it both infantilizes women and takes them back to Victorian times when women were seen to only follow their wombs, rather than brains, in decision making).The main theme of this book is that there is not and cannot be one script for how to be a wife, just as there is no one role for husband. This is a well-written, researched, and balanced look at what marriage means now, not just wife. It isn’t a reactionary or staunchly second-wave feminist look at marriage; Kingston respects marriage and the desire to be married.Excellent to read alongside The History of the Wife, The Mommy Myth and Selling Anxiety.
    • 5/5
      I'm getting married in 9 days and my friend gave this to me for my bridal shower. I have not been able to put it down it is so eye opening and informative.
    • 4/5
      Deeply inspired by Friedan, Kingston takes the premises of the Feminine mystique to explain current trends, namely the "Cinderella Syndrome". A few good ideas but not a great deal of originality. Concludes by saying that men and women need to work together; a bit wishy-washy.