Your Way to a Happy Marriage

The article, Yes-Dearing Your Way to a Happy Marriage, by Julie V. Iovine, encourages female readers to surrender to their husbands in order to ensure a happier marriage. The article introduces a novel, The Surrendered Wife, by Laura Doyle, which claims that a woman’s domineering attitude negatively affects her husband. Marital bliss however, can be achieved if a woman allows her husband to be dominant by allowing him to make all the decisions. Thus, her husband will feel more masculine and more powerful. According to the author, the wife should also always look her best and follow all her husband’s instructions and demands. By following these guidelines, an improved relationship with more free time, better sex, and more money is guaranteed. Although Laura Doyle makes a few arguably reasonable points, I believe her suggestions are not only sexist and unfair towards women, but also very unreasonable.

For one, Laura Doyle’s suggestion to allow a husband to be superior and to have complete control over his wife is sexist. Laura Doyle writes that the thirteenth chapter of her book is entitled, “Abandon the Myth of Equality” (Iovine F10). By calling equality a myth, Doyle is stating that egalitarianism is a fictitious idea, which should not be enforced. Doyle believes that a man should be in charge and that a woman should surrender to her husband and allow him to dominate her life. This is offensive to women since gender equality, which implies that men and women should be treated equal, has been around in America since the 1700’s. Thus, Doyle’s recommendation is very discriminant against women.

I also find Doyle’s suggestion, for women to let their husbands be in charge of them, to be extremely unfair. Iovine states, “women gathered to practice saying ‘Whatever you want, dear’ with a straight face” (F10). These women let men decide what they should do and when they should do it without any opposition. This in my opinion is unjust, and a wife shouldn’t have to abide by her husband’s rules. Doyle makes marriage seem as if husbands were kings, and wives were simply there to fulfill their wishes and to make them feel more masculine and powerful, which is why I am against Doyle’s recommendations to allow men to be domineering and to boss their wives around.

According to the article, a wife must always look her best and impress her husband which I believe is ridiculous. Iovine states,