Surrendered Wives

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sun May 6 10:17:28 PDT 2001


Rob Schaap wrote:


>Sounds for the most part (the finances bit is a bit dodgy) like a 'good
>spouse', even a 'good friend', checklist. The quest for control is pretty
>well inimical to all human relations, no? So, going on this list, I don't
>think 'surrendered wife' is anything but a marketing ploy to feed on some
>controversy. To the degree that these 'self-improvement' things have any
>efficacy at all, this lot seems pretty harmless - mebbe even a useful
>check-list against which to monitor one's own role in one's relationships
>occasionally.

This interpretation might have some validity if there were a countervailing call for the husband to surrender, but no, the book is all about flattering male vanity. One example: if your husband takes a wrong turn off the freeway (and it's assumed he does the driving, of course), don't say anything, even if you're about to cross the border of a neighboring state.

Doug



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