Suzanne Leonard - Wife, Inc.: The Business of Marriage in the Twenty-First Century

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Wife, Inc.: The Business of Marriage in the Twenty-First Century

Suzanne Leonard

Suzanne Leonard

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

www.nyupress.org

2018 by New York University

All rights reserved

References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Leonard, Suzanne, author.

Title: Wife, Inc. : the business of marriage in the twenty-first century / Suzanne Leonard.

Description: New York : New York University Press, [2018] | Series: Critical cultural communication | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017037993 | ISBN 9781479874507 (cl : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: MarriageUnited StatesHistory21st century. | WivesUnited States. | Marriage in popular culture.

Classification: LCC HQ536 .L46 2018 | DDC 306.810973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017037993

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For Alan

To passions and aspirations, past, present, and those to come

The premise of FYIs Married at First Sight (2014 ) was stark but simple: agreeing to leave matrimonial decisions up to so-called science, the shows six principals acquiesced to marrying a stranger, sight unseen. Relying on metrics such as in-depth personality profiles, attractiveness rating scales, and home visitsor what the show repeatedly termed sophisticated instrumentsMarried at First Sights experts (a psychologist, a sexologist, a sociologist, and a spiritual adviser) selected mates from the shows contestants. As implied, prospective spouses literally meet at the altar. Rationalizing her appearance on the show, one participant argued that dating is difficult because etiquette has changed. People use text messages or online communication, she lamented, losing that face-to-face connection. Its a serious experiment, confirmed sociologist Dr. Pepper Schwartz. This might be an antidote to a chaotic dating system that is really tiring people out. Performing an end run around the vagaries of choice and intent, as well as sparing participants the awkwardness of failed first dates, Married at First Sight is perhaps the answer for time-crunched professionals weary of dysfunctional dating climates: in short, the show models how one might outsource the process of finding the one.

Married at First Sight provides apt introduction to Wife, Inc., thanks to its reliance on heuristics of efficiency, a supposedly scientific approach to coupling, and a relentless emphasis on the work that participants must undertake to establish their marriages as legitimate. After a month of marriage, spouses decide if they wanted to continue or abandon the arrangement. The show, I assert, is a reminder that American marriage culture has been radically reenvisioned in the twenty-first century, an alteration we can credit in part to the notion that marriage is the sort of business that must be gotten down to, much like one might decide

Theorizing the rationalized understandings of marriage newly embedded in the cultural fabric of twenty-first century America, Wife, Inc. attempts to untangle them via an in-depth analysis of female media culture. Specifically, it attends to popular television, film, and literature, as well as mass-market news, womens magazines, new media, and advice culture in order to understand these developments. While the systems I reference involve both men and women, the position of women vis--vis marital cultures is the more pronounced of the two, particularly as the term wife has gained increased traction. Though the prevalence of the moniker might suggest otherwise, for women especially, the institution of marriage has changed dramatically in the past forty years. For one, the inequities with respect to labor, economics, and domesticity that once bespoke womens disadvantage have given way to a host of social upheavals and liberal progress. The sort of second-class citizen designation that wives once faceda positionality that helped to ignite a feminist critique of the marital institution during both the first and second waveshas receded in a postfeminist era where womens gains are widely touted. Understandings of the need for equality in both the home and in professional spaces have been largely mainstreamed though not, of course, necessarily realized. As a result, nowadays it feels downright anachronistic to suggest that a womans sexual needs could only be met in marriage, that men are necessary for procreation, or that women must do the lions share of the emotional, domestic, or physical work it takes to support a functioning household. Both romantic and practical, American marriages are widely understood to be based on equal partnership, economic solvency, and romantic love, renegotiations that have benefited women in particular.