Blog Post #6

Responding to Using Comparison - Contrast for a Purpose
Essay Chosen: "The New Trophy Wife" 

1) Compare and/or contrast today's trophy husband with the trophy husband of some time in the past: There aren't a lot of examples of "trophy husband" from the past that I can think of but there are a lot of successful women who might of been in that situation. It seems like women in the past that were VERY successful, never got married. An example could be Louisa May Alcott who was a famous author but never got married. I wonder if success for the female used to be a turn off for the men of different time eras? But now in our culture, many men seem to be marrying "articulate, aggressive women" who might have a higher income then they do. Why is this? Women have been pushing and pushing for generations to be able to vote, get an education and have equal rights as men. Society has had to shift and make way for these powerful women and because of this, "trophy husbands" have been born.

2) Cite another common piece of wisdom that is not borne out by experience and observation, and to inform readers, contrast it with reality. Use examples to support your contrasts: Something that I was thinking about when reading "The New Trophy Wife" was in the sub-heading, "A Confidence Gap." In paragraph 23, it says "If high-aiming women are more marriage-eligible than ever, why don't they seem to know it?" No matter what type of education of experience that women get, they are born with the innate responsibility of being a women. She is a women and those feelings can't be shut down forever. It was interesting about the statistic of high-achieving women that are gaining success are less likely to have children and marry. Another piece of "common knowledge" could be the sentence in paragraph 11 that states, "Many of today's grooms believe that through positive or negative example, their own moms set the stage for a high-octane wife." There is no survey or statistical evidence but it seems to be implied. I agree that men look up to their mothers, but what other role models are out there that have been tainting the views of women throughout all of history?