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Wife guy

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On social media, a wife guy is a man whose fame is owed to the content he posts about his wife.[1] The term has been applied more broadly to men who use their wife to upgrade their social standing or public persona.[2][3]

History

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An old style realistic painting. In the center, as if in a spotlight, a woman in a flowing white dress, and a grey wig, of the sort British nobility wear. She leans against her husband, a nondescript nobleman who is at a desk writing. He looks up at her longingly.
18th-century French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, noted as an early wife guy, with his spouse Marie-Anne

The term was first coined for Internet memes about wives, notably a much-parodied "Email to my girlfriend's husband"[4] circulating in 2016.[5] Robbie Tripp, an American rapper/internet personality whose Instagram post of himself with his wife went viral in 2017, was dubbed the "curvy wife guy" by the media.[1][6][3][7][8] The concept became more widely known in 2019 following the release of Tripp's debut single and music video "Chubby Sexy", after which several leading U.S. media outlets published articles about the terms effect on internet culture.[1][9][10][11][12][13][14]

The phenomenon has been traced back to before the term was coined. Many media outlets identify dril, a Weird Twitter account, as pioneering the trope online.[1][5][9] Dril is noted for making posts relating various things his fictional wife does that make him seem pathetic, like withholding his inhaler or keeping him from purchasing a harp.[1] In a chapter of his book Dril Official "Mr. Ten Years" Anniversary Collection called "Wife", he details various ruses to thwart his ex-wife.[5]

Meghan Roberts in Slate argued that Antoine Lavoisier was a wife guy, especially due to the notable portrait of him and his wife, where his wife Marie-Anne is the focus of the painting. His wife promoted his research above his competitors, and lent a public face to his work, which could be difficult to explain to a general audience. It is argued that Lavoisier was using his wife's image to build his personal brand.[2] The New Yorker identifies post-women's liberation literary fiction as perpetuating it as a trope, with titles like The Time Traveler's Wife and The Zookeeper's Wife, books that were later made into films in the 21st century. The article identifies these titles and the meme itself as a being a form of erasure, where the nature of the wife guy erases the wife he derives his fame from.[3]

In 2013, a Reddit post of a garage tagged in red spray-paint with "Don't e-mail my wife!!!" emerged on the Internet. The obscurity of the wife was noted as being similar to the wife guy trope in retrospect.[9]

Assessments

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The New York Times compared wife guys to incels, who define themselves by their inability to find a partner, in that wife guys define themselves by having found one, and expect to be congratulated for it. The paper also considered the "wife guy" phenomenon to reflect the changed status of marriage from societal default to personal achievement.[1] Similarly, MEL Magazine wrote that wife guys treated their wives as "legitimizing for a male web celebrity", and as "a measure of the husband’s influence".[15] Some outlets have argued that public figures and politicians often seek to be seen as a wife guy, in order to be seen as trustworthy and non-threatening.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Hess, Amanda (5 June 2019). "The Age of the Internet 'Wife Guy'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 June 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Roberts, Meghan (2022-02-14). "How Enlightenment Wife Guys Paved the Way for Instagram PDA". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on 2022-07-25. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
  3. ^ a b c Tolentino, Jia (5 June 2019). "Please, My Wife, She's Very Online". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  4. ^ "Email to my girlfriend's husband". 6 August 2019 [5 April 2016]. Archived from the original on 10 October 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Whyman, Tom (14 May 2019). "Anatomy of the Wife Guy". The Outline. Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  6. ^ Harel, Monica Corcoran (2017-09-30). "'Faux' Male Feminists Draw Ire in Hollywood". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
  7. ^ Weiner, Jennifer (2017-08-11). "Opinion | Skinny Women Who Eat Cheeseburgers in Magazines". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
  8. ^ "Man's post about his 'curvy wife' divides social media; NRA ad targets The New York Times". Washington Post. 2021-12-23. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2024-07-10.
  9. ^ a b c Schwedel, Heather (10 June 2019). "What Is the "Wife Guy"? At Least Five New Articles Have Answers for You!". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  10. ^ Jennings, Rebecca (2019-05-24). "Two days with Curvy Wife Guy, the most controversial man in body positivity". Vox. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
  11. ^ Cherelus, Gina (2024-05-31). "Whirlwind Romances Are Not Reserved for Thin Women". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
  12. ^ "What Would You Pay to Become a Better Man?". Men's Health. 2019-09-03. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
  13. ^ GQ (2019-12-18). "The Good, Bad, and WTF Moments That Defined 2019". GQ. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
  14. ^ Brown, Dalvin. "Rise of the 'Wife Guy': Men who post about their partners at the center of a viral trend". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2024-07-10.
  15. ^ Klee, Miles (10 May 2019). "The Never-Ending Saga of the Online Wife". MEL Magazine. Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
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