The Feminist Movement: I Want A Wife By Judy Brady

843 Words2 Pages

The purpose of the feminist movement was to respect and equality amongst men and women. Judy Brady's essay "I Want A Wife" first appeared in the Ms. Magazine's inaugural issue in 1971. The genre of the article is a classic piece of feminist humor and is depicted as satirical prose. In this essay Brady aims to convince her readers to look objectively at a man's viewpoints and expectations of a wife. Brady skillfully uses clear arguments, repetition of keywords and stylish language to make her essay strong and convincing.
Judy Brady writes in her essay about the demands that are required from wife. She focuses on comparing the roles of a husband and wife, exposing the unfair expectations that are placed upon a wif. Exhausted by disparities in …show more content…

With her arguments, she is trying to say, "All women stop! You don't have to act this way." She wants women to stop immediately acting as 'slaves.' Her constant phrase "I want a wife to..." rattles up emotions of readers, which in turn, might encourage people to take action. The reason she wants people to read it is because she wants people to understand that the roles of women is demoralizing to them. Brady classifies what a wife is through husband's eyes. Brady connects wit and sarcasm, effective use of language, and rhetoric to make a very strong piece of influential writing with the purpose to show how men see their wives. This piece of rhetoric ultimately implies the husband's selfishness and laziness, and his want to be "left free". This article was made to make the audience to think and …show more content…

She wants people to get angry at the topic. She also wants the men who expect this from women to feel jealous. She does this by first stating who she is. "I belong to that classification of people known as wives." She addresses the stresses of everyday life and exaggerated expectations of a man from their wives. Then she goes on by listing the 'jobs' required by women. After couple pages of 'jobs' she says, "My God, who wouldn't want a wife?" This conclusion is very emotional towards the argument, and the presence of irony in it clearly indicates that women are under too much stress. Brady demonstrates how men treat their wives unfairly and demand too much from them. She wants to discourage men from being selfish and disrespectful towards their wives. Brady also encourages women who are unaware of such negligence to step up and take some actions. Many women are also unaware of what things they are doing wrong. By reading this essay, women can assess their life and find out if their husbands demand too much from them in terms of wives

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