STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Cricket · Gucci

The Good Wife's Guide-- think it's fixed!

crystal · Kate Spade

RE: The Good Wife's Guide

Cricket · Gucci

RE: The Good Wife's Guide-- think it's fixed!

Metric · Gucci

tee hee..."be a little gay and more interesting for him". I know that's not what they meant but it makes me laugh.

Can you imagine a time when women took this seriously and acted like "a good wife"?

Maddie · Coach

Oooooh I wish I lived in the 50s!

Christine · Coach

Oh. My. Gosh.

!!

I am so glad you posted this! It was very entertaining - it's just so hard to imagine life like that! WOW.

NCshopper · Hermes

Just a little background info on the picture--my brother found that a few months ago and did some looking into it to find that the picture is photoshopped and never existed. I guess that magazine never existed and that it was just done to prove a point about how easy it is to make something look real.

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/goodwife.htm

-- Edited by NCshopper at 21:04, 2005-09-13

laken1 · Hermes

How interesting NCshopper!

My boss once handed this to me & said that he wasn't just my boss, he was a mentor & he felt it was his job to make sure he had "well rounded" employees that excelled in every area of their lives. Although it sounds like an asshole move, he was totally joking since he knew how opposite of that I was. If only he knew that I'm staying home now cleaning house & fixing dinner (nearly) every night! But I refuse to "be a little gay" or "put a ribbon in my hair, well, or even pick up all the clutter for that matter!!!! That would take forever.

small fry · Chanel

oh this is great iam going to try and copy it and send it to all of my independent women friends lol, well I guess iam being a bad wife because i dont even do these things on my DAY OFF OF WORK, SHAME SHAME

KaffeeKlatsch · Marc Jacobs

Aha...I was thinking this must be fake...all those grammatical errors!!!

halleybird · Hermes

BrazenCanadian wrote:

tee hee..."be a little gay and more interesting for him". I know that's not what they meant but it makes me laugh. Can you imagine a time when women took this seriously and acted like "a good wife"?

LOL. I am sure a lot of men would like their wives to be gay and more interesting.

FashionPrincess · Hermes

While I think that is super extreme, I do think there is some validity to it. I find when I put my husband first and go out of my way to make him comfortable, he goes above and beyond to do the same.

poptart · Coach

FashionPrincess wrote:

While I think that is super extreme, I do think there is some validity to it. I find when I put my husband first and go out of my way to make him comfortable, he goes above and beyond to do the same.

I was thinking along similar lines, FP. I had a conversation with some girlfriends the other night where we were talking about how we sometimes feel like we need to escalate our aggressiveness to match the aggressiveness of the men we are dealing with, in order to show that we are not "doormats" - but that we have all noticed that if we bring it down a notch, the men bring it down a notch too, and we can be more productive. Of course, it works the other way as well, and part of me thinks "I shouldn't have to be the one to back down!" or "Will he think he can walk all over me if I back down?" but I guess someone has to start the trend! And at least that way I could feel like I'd done what I thought was best.

Anyway, am I totally off topic? Probably. I just wanted to say it's good to hear your perspective. I'm not married, so no personal experience. Maybe I should file this idea away for future use!

kenzie · Chanel

Even though this article is fake, there were plenty of articles during that time that were pretty similar to this. If anyone has ever read 'anniversary issues' of magazines, they usually include some of the archaic advice from times gone by and it's often very similar to this.

I think that now, in this day and age, with most women working outside of the home, this type of advice is ridiculous! While I think you should want to care for and help your husband, being his dormat and shutting your mouth b/c 'his conversation topics are more important' is the most assanine (sp) thing I've ever heard!

On a side note, I wonder if my bf/ex-bf wrote this, or was, at least, a case study for this fake little article. It sounds like it could be his Bible!!

Andrea Julia · Coach

FashionPrincess wrote:

While I think that is super extreme, I do think there is some validity to it. I find when I put my husband first and go out of my way to make him comfortable, he goes above and beyond to do the same.

I agree with some of the basic principles such as looking nice for your man, not bombarding him with complaints when he gets home, having a dinner prepared (a few times a week at least), and being cheerful and happy when he gets home. I see how some of my friends are when their husband gets home and it makes me feel stressed out. They immediately start yelling and complaining and talking about how bad the kids were. They also will immediately make their husband watch the kids. Who wants to come home to that? I personally need an hour or so to unwind after work so I would be totally annoyed to come home to complaining, yelling, and a bunch of chores. If I were working and had a husband who stayed home with the kids, I would expect the same from him, so I am not saying it is only a woman who should adhere to these policies.

I also don't understand the women who let themselves go once they get married, cut their hair really short and don't wash it for days, wear ripped and sloppy clothes all the time, gain a disgusting amount of weight, stop wearing make-up, stop shaving their legs, etc. and then wonder why their husbands aren't attracted anymore. It takes work to keep someone attracted to you. I'm not saying you have to look like a model, but I think you should take the time to brush and wash your hair, put on a nice outfit, groom yourself, and workout. And, again, I expect the same attention to appearance from a man.

bumblebee · Coach

i think this is a very sweet and realistic way of looking at it.

FashionPrincess wrote:

While I think that is super extreme, I do think there is some validity to it. I find when I put my husband first and go out of my way to make him comfortable, he goes above and beyond to do the same.

blink · Coach

That can't be real, I am glad someone snoped it. I have thumbed through my Grandmother's housewife-type magazines and clippings from the 1930s-1960s after my Grandparents died and while a lot of the advice is outdated and sometimes silly, I never saw anything that took sexism this far.

But I laughed at the part about "take a few minutes to..." wash the children, light a fire, prepare dinner, touch up makeup, keep the house orderly...please, this is only possible to do in a few minutes if you eat hamburger helper, have stepford kids, tattooed eyeliner and lip, no toys or decorations in your house to clean up anyway, and fake fire logs.

Now, to be fair, I do like my husband to come home to a relaxing environment, especially on Fridays because that used to be our "date night" before we had the baby, but to have all these things done every evening would not be worth the work and stress.