I’ve found this thread very interesting, the views of both husbands and wives, and the obviously happy marriages represented here. But I’d like to point out (for consideration), that research suggests there are more unhappy marriages than happy ones, and in the U.S. Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Violence against Women: A National Crime Victimization Survey Report, nearly 2 in 3 female victims of violence were related to or knew their attacker. And that “almost 6 times as many women were victimized by intimates as those victimized by strangers, and did not report their violent victimization to police because they feared reprisal from the offender.”
In late 2008, Human Rights Watch reported that a “new government report showing huge increases in the incidences of domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault over a two-year period in the United States deserves immediate attention from lawmakers and the incoming administration. The statistics show a 42-percent increase in reported domestic violence and a 25-percent increase in the reported incidence of rape and sexual assault.”
“The National Crime Victimization Survey, based on projections from a national sample survey, says that at least 248,300 women were raped or sexually assaulted in 2007, up from 190,600 in 2005, the last year the survey was conducted. The study surveyed 73,600 women in 41,500 households. Among all violent crimes, domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault showed the largest increases.”
So if I could extend this question to those who answered positively about this word and a woman’s position in it, where is the American outrage and demand for protection of battered, raped or murdered wives? Where’s even the acknowledgment that all these answers, including mine, represent only a minuscule part of ‘the wife’ story and the value with which a wife is treated in our society?