Reclaiming

You know, I’m not often disappointed in APW. It happens occasionally, but not often.

Today, though, I am.

I know that sentiment may be unpopular, but hear me out.

In today’s post we have a woman who has trouble with calling her partner “husband”.* For her, the word invokes the old stereotypical husband and wife roles, and she wants no part in it. No problem, that’s fair.

The problem I have is in the resolution of the issue. We just won’t use the word husband! See? Problem solved!

Except that the name of the damn site is RECLAIMING Wife. The intro flat-out says “we’ve talked a lot on APW about making, and not making, that word our own”. So, why are we reclaiming WIFE, but abandoning HUSBAND?

It just … cheapens the whole thing for me.  For all of the effort to really make “wife” into something we’re comfortable with and even proud of, we just throw away husband? Why is it any less worthy of reclaiming, reestablishing, reshaping into something worth keeping around?

To have the same women who comment so hard on making “wife” what they want it to be chiming in with “Yah! Me, too! What’s with that stupid word anyway?!” just irks me beyond belief.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but this whole “I’m only going to fight for it if it’s about ME” attitude really pisses me off.

 

* This is not a rant at the post author. She doesn’t like wife either, and that is totally fair. This rant is about everything else, NOT HER. Promise. =)

** File this under “Rawr Rawr Rawr, Get Off My Lawn!”