What's in "I Want a Wife" by Judy Brady?

In her piece "I Want a Wife," Judy Brady satirizes society's view about the role of wifes by using repetition, and organization throughout her writing.

Coming on to repetition first, Brady repeats the phrase "I want a wife" throughout her piece, and lists all the expectations from the wifes. She begins listing expectations by first saying that " I want a wife who will work and send me to school." As she lists her first couple expectations, it does not seem a lot, due to (what it seems like) looking like a normal role of wife in a household. And in the following couple sentences, the article continues to list domestic expectations from a wife, and it does not seem very satirical. But when the piece continues to list what seems incessant duties of a wife, it seems kind of annoying for the reader. That frustration comes from the endless repetition of the phrase "I want a wife." And expectations listed in the article become more extreme as the article continues on. For example, the article talks about a wife leaving her job due to household work, and the casual talk about "replace my present wife with another one." These extreme thoughts make it seem to the reader that Brady is exaggerating society's practices, but when looked upon carefully, it becomes clear that Brady is exaggerating society's practices - by using repetition each time to catalog different practices- in order to correct society's practices with wifes. The repetition of the phrase, and exaggeration makes the society rethink about its views, and thus feel bad. By evoking a feeling of guilt in the readers, Brady aims to change their thinking, thus making the piece satirical.

In addition to repetition, Brady also employs organization techniques in her article to make the effect of satire stronger. She begins her article by displaying what are considered moderate duties of wives in the society. As she advances her article, she begins listing more extreme expectations from the wifes. Her paragraphs get more extreme as they advance, and they cover the following topics in order: domestic expectations, submissive expectations, social life expectations,and sexual expectations from wifes; and finally showing the most radical thought of changing wifes whenever husbands want. This organization has an effect that as the article advances which is that the reader is forced more and more to think about society’s real conditions. And finally when the reader gets to one of the last paragraphs, the reader is set up to change their practices in the society. The organization makes it so that any reader (whether very conservative or liberal) will eventually be shocked by society’s expectations from wifes and thus attempt to change those practices. For some readers, the description of moderate roles might be an exaggeration and force them to change, while for others that realization of change may come from reading the absolute extreme. The ability of the organization to make any reader consider the change in society is what helps make this article by Brady very satirical.