June 14th Reading

NYT: Ch. 3. Lewin, Tamar. “A Marriage of Unequal’s.”

· In the chapter titled, “A marriage of unequal’s” the author discusses the issues that a recently married couple encounters with being from different class origins. Ironically the husband, Croteau is lower working class and has to move into her home and largely adapt to her lifestyle. My question is if the situation were reversed and the wife was the one shifting from lower to upper class, would it be as big a adjustment? One common ideology in American society is the acceptance of a woman moving up the social ladder through marriage. The transition did not seem as smooth for Croteau because of his lack of money and ultimately lack of ‘power’ he held in his marriage. Although the couple manages to adjust to their new-shared life together I find it interesting and ironic that money is also associated with gender. Included in this chapter are the details of the adjustment (i.e. their children’s differing levels of awareness of privilege) and it concludes with the husband remarking on how his wife freaks out when she temporarily cant access her money. Whereas she is uneasy with the notion of not being secure, he hasn’t had a ‘safety net’ all his life. Upon completing this chapter, I concluded that it would have been a smoother transition for his wife to move from lower to upper to social class. The association of money and power would be labeled to her husband and the idea of her marrying for ‘love’ would be more plausible to a skeptical view from society as a whole.

Below is an example of my claim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYT12-NQUag