| Description |
xiv, 336 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Ch. 1. The wife gap -- Ch. 2. The heart of whiteness -- Ch. 3. Mystique chic -- Ch. 4. Sex and the married woman -- Ch. 5. Love hurts : the abused wife as icon -- Ch. 6. Gear us roar : the real first wives' club -- Ch. 7. The unwife -- Ch. 8. What's a wife worth? -- Ch. 9. The wife axis |
| Summary |
"The confusion over the role of wife and the way this uncertainty has impacted women of all generations is at the heart of Anne Kingston's The Meaning of Wife." |
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"Delving into the complex, troubling, and sometimes humorous contradictions, illusions, and realities of wifehood today, Kingston takes the reader on a journey into the wedding-industrial complex, which elevates the bride to a potent consumer icon by fanning the flames of "wife lust"; through the recent romanticization of domesticity; and across the conflicted terrain of wifely sexuality. Conversely, Kingston explores "wife backlash": the glorification of single women in the culture, as no better evidenced than by the wild success of Sex and the City; the apotheosis of the abused wife; and the perverse celebration of wives who kill their husbands |
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Along the way, Kingston muses on why Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart - two of the world's wealthiest and most influential women - are both non-wives whose success hinged on their understanding of wives; how the role of wife remains to this day a method of keeping women in check; and why ultimately the definition of wife should be the battleground for our next social revolution."--BOOK JACKET |
| Notes |
Originally published: Toronto : HarperCollins, 2004 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-322) and index |
| Subject |
Wives.
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Women -- Identity.
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Women -- Social conditions.
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| LC no. |
2004050621 |
| ISBN |
0374205108 |
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