[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by SebC

The wife thing isn't about gender. It's about class/social status, and not like hereditary status, but the kind of bourgeois status that you can buy your way into with money. It is only about gender so much as we give male professional athletes very high social status (and even that is sport-dependent, but I digress).

When Mike Fisher moves to Nashville because Carrie Underwood wants him to, nobody thinks that's crazy. Instead, the jokes are of the "ha ha his wife has higher status than he does" vein.

But Meredith Gaudreau may not have the same social status as Johnny Gaudreau (which we ascertain through earnings and for women especially, beauty) and thus to some, he deserves a bigger say in their decisions, as she is the "lucky" one who is "marrying up". And it's not unreasonable. If I were married and having a kid with a supermodel (which is about the female equivalent of a male pro athlete), I might see it as fair enough that she gets to decide where she's gonna work, and thus where we're gonna live.

Now, the counterargument is that perhaps when you marry someone and have a kid with them your social status equalizes. That nobody should be a second-class citizen in their own marriage. And that's a compelling argument too. It may also be a bit naif, and what should be is not always what is. Some partners formalize that they keep their individual status through separate finances and a pre-nup, so it is certainly not universal.

And finally, Johnny's perception of Meredith may be different from ours. Perhaps, to him, her beauty, brains, kindness or whatever make him the lucky one, and thus it is her greater status which lends her a greater say in their decision. But then if we think he's not being objective there, then that's when you'd call him "whipped".

Oh, this is interesting

Equivalent?

List supermodels until you run out

List pro athletes until you run out