Nostalgia In I Want A Wife By Judy Brady

Nostalgia is defined as an excessively sentimental yearning for return to, or of some sort of past period or irrecoverable condition. Throughout human history, women have had a certain expectation placed onto them when they become a wife and mother. With the steps humanity has made in the right direction to create a better world and society, the stereotypes placed on women have not gone away due to nostalgia of the past. Judy Brady explores this in the article, “I Want A Wife” and she sheds on light on how partners, society, and pop culture all feed into the stereotypes of the gender roles placed onto women. In relationships, women are often expected to be the caretakers of the home, and of the children. They are expected to keep the house …show more content…
Since Americans became so used to the way society was with women staying home and taking care of the house, while the men worked, it became a social norm, and thus was expected of women all over the country from that point on. This was especially prevalent in the 1950’s and 1960’s when this stereotype was in the mind of nearly every American. The husband would go work long hours, while the women was expected to cook, clean the home, and take care of the children’s wants and needs. Women had to do all this while maintaining their personal appearance. They were expected to wear brightly colored dresses that showed off their figures while not showing off too much at the same time. They were expected to have their hair done neat and properly and they were supposed to maintain these while cleaning the house and cooking over a hot stove, and taking care of the messy children. All while smiling and being happy about the responsibility left on them, and not complaining. Judy Brady sustains, “I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complaints about a wife’s duties.”(Brady 503) It was not normal for a wife to complain about how much work the chores were. They were expected to accept their work load happily, while barely getting a choice to do so. Brady writes about how she wants a wife who will not talk back or complain, but let her, or the metaphorical partner, complain all of her problems while keeping the home spotless, and the children happy. Women were, and still are expected to do so much, no matter if they wanted to or not. They were often supposed to act more as a personal slave than someone’s wife. Society pertains the need to keep the home clean and organized at the expense of the needs and desires of the woman. That stereotype has improved over the years, with jokes and memes of demanding women go back to the kitchen