Fee Download The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century, by Anne Kingston
The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston. Discovering how to have reading routine resembles discovering how to attempt for consuming something that you really don't really want. It will need more times to help. Furthermore, it will additionally little bit make to offer the food to your mouth and also ingest it. Well, as checking out a book The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston, sometimes, if you must read something for your brand-new tasks, you will really feel so dizzy of it. Also it is a publication like The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston; it will make you feel so bad.
The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century, by Anne Kingston
Fee Download The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century, by Anne Kingston
The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston. Haggling with reviewing practice is no need. Reviewing The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston is not type of something sold that you can take or otherwise. It is a point that will certainly change your life to life much better. It is the thing that will certainly give you several points all over the world as well as this cosmos, in the real world and right here after. As what will certainly be offered by this The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston, just how can you negotiate with the many things that has lots of perks for you?
It can be one of your early morning readings The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston This is a soft data publication that can be managed downloading from online book. As recognized, in this innovative era, technology will certainly alleviate you in doing some activities. Also it is just checking out the existence of book soft data of The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston can be extra feature to open. It is not just to open up and save in the gadget. This time around in the morning and also various other leisure time are to check out the book The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston
The book The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston will certainly consistently make you favorable worth if you do it well. Finishing guide The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston to read will not become the only objective. The objective is by getting the favorable worth from the book up until the end of guide. This is why; you have to discover more while reading this The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston This is not only exactly how quickly you review a publication and also not only has the amount of you completed the books; it has to do with what you have obtained from guides.
Considering the book The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston to check out is also needed. You could pick guide based on the favourite motifs that you such as. It will engage you to like reading other publications The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston It can be likewise about the need that obliges you to check out guide. As this The Meaning Of Wife: A Provocative Look At Women And Marriage In The Twenty-first Century, By Anne Kingston, you could find it as your reading book, even your preferred reading publication. So, locate your favourite book below and get the link to download guide soft file.
"One part The Beauty Myth . . . and one part Backlash"*--a provocative exploration of who and what a wife really is.
There is a wife crisis in North America, a brewing storm of conflicting forces swirling around what it means to be a wife at the beginning of the 21st Century. The word is so fraught with ambiguity that it has become a litmus test, eliciting from women emotions ranging from longing to antipathy, anxiety to derision. This crisis is at the heart of Anne Kingston's The Meaning of Wife.
Delving into the complex, troubling, and sometimes humorous contradictions, illusions, and realities of contemporary wifehood, Kingston takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the wedding industrial complex, which elevates the bride to a potent consumer icon; through the recent romanticization of domesticity; and across the conflicted terrain of wifely sexuality. She looks at "wife backlash," and the new wave of neo-traditionalism that urges women to marry before their "best-before" dates expire; explores the apotheosis of abused wives and the strange celebration of wives who kill; and muses on the fact that Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart, two of the world's wealthiest and most influential women, are both non-wives whose success has hinged on thier understanding of wives. The result is an entertaining mix of social, sexual, historical, and economic commentary that is bound to stir debate even as it reframes our view of both women and marriage.
- Sales Rank: #2453715 in Books
- Published on: 2005-03-01
- Released on: 2005-02-10
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.19" w x 6.00" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 352 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Despite its occasionally academic tone, this encyclopedic examination of wifedom should trump wedding magazines on the list of required reading for prospective brides. Canadian journalist Kingston's behind-the-scenes tour of not-always-holy matrimony begins with a visit to the inner sanctum of Vera Wang's exclusive Madison Avenue bridal boutique and ends with an analysis of how much a wife is worth in economic terms. Along the way, she shines her spotlight on the bedroom, several real-world first wives' clubs, Carrie Bradshaw's single-girl lair and the worlds of women who have killed or maimed abusive husbands. (Naturally, Lorena Bobbitt figures prominently.) While Kingston writes, "For all the crowing that marriage is in crisis, the institution still remains the preferred way to cement love," she also notes that a "strong marriage is an advantageous incubator in which to raise children" and "a source of varying degrees of economic support," and some readers might wonder if they're romantic fools for wondering how true love factors into the equation. But Kingston asks some important questions—How does marriage affect a woman's sense of self? Is it possible to place a dollar value on a mother's work? How is our idea of the wife shaped over the decades?—and challenges a new generation of brides to come up with their own creative answers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Smart and sophisticated . . . Kingston's radar is, as always, acute . . . Here's one title the neighbourhood book clubs absolutely do not want to wait for in paperback." --Toronto Star
"Fascinating . . . With considerable intelligence and objectivity, Kingston provides a historic perspective that elicits anger, sorrow and belly laughs . . . Wife raises important questions.
--Elizabeth Simpson, The Globe and Mail.
"Kingston is a sharp writer with an engaging style, and she smartly avoids both right- and left-wing dogmatism . . . The Meaning of Wife . . . proves through-provoking . . . zoom[ing] in on all the right questions."--Catherine Tunnacliffe, Eye Weekly
"The word 'wife' has defined women for untold generations, but who is defining the word itself? Kingston has amassed a wealth of sociological research and tempered it with a wry wit to produce a compelling analysis of the forces behind the marriage message." --Suzanne Braun Levine, former editor of Ms. and author of Father Courage: What Happens When Men Put Family First and Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood
"Billion dollar wedding industry notwithstanding, it appears that as women get more rights, both women and men need a wife and fewer people want to be one. With insight and humor Anne Kingston analyzes the wife, and reveals the many inequalities that still face women." --Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, co-authors of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future and Grassroots: A Field Guide to Feminist Activism
"Kingston has written that rarest of books--a work of trenchant social analysis that is also compulsively readable and culturally hip." --Letty Cottin Pogrebin, founding editor of Ms. and author of Three Daughters
"Every wife, former wife, and wife-to-be--every woman, period--should read this impeccably researched, important, and enlightening book about what the "w" word means today. Kudos and gratitude to Anne Kingston." --Cathi Hanauer, editor of The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth about Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood and Marriage and author of My Sister's Bones
About the Author
Anne Kingston's writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Saturday Night, Toronto Life and The Chicago Sun-Times Magazine. She is a columnist for the National Post, where she writes on social and cultural issues.
Most helpful customer reviews
52 of 54 people found the following review helpful.
A Change in Perspective
By A. Zenkner
As a newly-wed, always independent female, my first year of marriage has met confusion over new roles, career goals and what my new title of "wife" really implied. I turned somewhat to rebellion - as did my husband in his new title, with all it's implications of "breadwinner" - I do not want the traditional house wife role. I never played that role in the five years we lived together prior to the wedding ring and all of a sudden that ring, which is supposed to represent the unity and fairytale love we are bombarded with daily, became what I had always thought of as a ridiculous metaphor for marriage: a ball and chain. I felt trapped.
The reason I am writing this now, is not because I had some self-awakening and suddenly came into my own as a wifely figure. I did not follow my wild daydream of suddenly, and with no real plan, driving into the sunset toward "liberty." I did not go file for divorce, which is the popular and easy thing to do. I simply read a book. "The Meaning of Wife," by Anne Kingston, is an eye-opening page turner, which confronts social patterns, ideologies, and generalizations of what it means to not only be a wife, but a woman in Western Society.
While reading this book, I was forced to confront some of my own pre-conceived notions of what it means to be a wife, mother, career woman, domestic, caretaker, [...]. It also helped me to realize that in some of my ideals I have been unfair to the person I chose to make my partner for life, and vice versa.
I am amazed by Kingston's ability to present different perspectives and surprised by her ability to resolve many issues. She does not represent a feminist hard-line but takes a logical stance that does not slap either sex across the face with shame. She was able to show all sides of a debate in each chapter, and then resolved with solutions that make the reader think, "Now why didn't I think of that. It is so simple, so obvious."
I strongly believe that this book is not only a read for women, but men as well. As I said before, it is not a feminist manuscript meant to belittle men, but a bold confrontation of the roles assigned both sexes in Western Society. It focuses on the role of the wife, but in doing so, confronts the roles of the Husband.
Believe it or not the only feminist book I have read in my life is, "Communion," by Bell Hooks. This was a book I loved but had contradicting feelings about. It makes grand points of what it means to "Commune" with another, but showed little resolve toward such communion. One of my favorite quotes came from this book, "To exist in a state of communion is to be aware of the nature of existence." (Susan Griffin) However, it was not until reading, "The Meaning of Wife," that I truly began to confront and make peace with my existence as a female and all the roles I play as an individual and as a partner in a communion I chose.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Exceptionally interesting perspective - great book club selection
By Antimony3
I really enjoyed this book. The book explores the role of the wife in society from a historical perspective and does a very good job illustrating how tht role has changed over time. I think I found the book interesting because I was able to compare my views on wifedom and marriage to the views my mom has. I have to say that being a 30 year old woman in 2005 that my perspective on my life as it relates to marriage is dramatically different than the perspective my mother had when she married my father. Back in the 1960's, there weren't the career options that exist today. There were very clearly defined roles and expectations. I think that after having read this book I can still see how society is relucutant to rid itself of those same roles - they are merely masked or contorted so that they appear different. Women today are told they "can have it all" and back then it was "this is all you get". Well, women really can't have it all and that is presenting a host of new issues for them to deal with. The reference material in this book is very good and numerous examples were selected to support each theory presented. A very interesting read for both married and unmarried individuals. I would also recommend this book as a book club selection because I can definitely see women talking about this in depth - from the heart.
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
OK--for the non-average woman
By Sabrina's Mom
Kingston's book begins with a description of Prince Charles' and Princess Di's wedding and sort of stays there. She spends a great deal of time focusing on the upper classes, whether royalty, celebrities, politicians or CEOs. Ignored, or perhaps forgotten, are those whose weddings cost less than $50,000, who do not have a choice about working or staying home, who get married at City Hall, and who cannot squeeze every dime out of the ex--because he doesn't have that much more himself. Ignored also are issues such as the effect of parenthood on a marriage, same-sex marriages (even lesbians do laundry), and the role that religion has played in marriage.
Kingston's book not only focuses on the upper echelons, but the most extreme marraiges. Her chapter on divorce, for example, portrays women who just about break the law getting back at their ex-husbands.
If you are an average woman who took two weeks off her job for her honeymoon, pick something else.
The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century, by Anne Kingston PDF
The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century, by Anne Kingston EPub
The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century, by Anne Kingston Doc
The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century, by Anne Kingston iBooks
The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century, by Anne Kingston rtf
The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century, by Anne Kingston Mobipocket
The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century, by Anne Kingston Kindle
No comments:
Post a Comment