#POPCULTURE | The Death of the Wife Guys
by Pauleen Aquino
Ding dong, the Wife Guy is dead.
From John Mulaney’s alleged cheating affair, Adam Levine’s attempt to name his child after his mistress, to Ned Fulmer cheating with his employee, the internet has had multiple bombshells thrown at them over the last year.
It’s always shocking when someone in a public and loving relationship is revealed to be a cheater. After all, they seemed so happy together — why would they cheat?
This is particularly evident in the cases of Mulaney and Fulmer, where both made their careers off of being a “Wife Guy,” someone whose entire personality centers around loving their wife and family. By merely talking about their wives in a non-derogatory way, people declared them as the standard for men, and they were praised for being one of the “good guys.”
Loving your wife has somehow become a novelty. And now, through the constant oversharing of every detail of their personal lives, Wife Guys have gained a loyal following, eager for more crumbs of this couple’s supposedly perfect life. And he is only too happy to oblige them, showing only the parts he wants others to see.
Wife Guys have managed to capitalize on society’s incredibly low standards for cishet men by giving their wife a little more than the bare minimum and documenting it to the world as if they were a hero. And everyone will eat it up, because seeing a cishet man — a husband — in a happy and healthy relationship is such a rare sight. This is mostly thanks to the “I hate my wife” type of humor which has become so normalized, even expected, from men. No gathering is complete without these types of jokes.
When these types of men get married, they cease to have any personality outside of their wife. They constantly talk about her, how she is doing, and how much they love her. Their wife is the only thing on their mind, as if she were a goddess who blessed their lives the minute they came into it.
While this seems like a good thing, they don’t see their wives as people. They see her as an object. They love the idea of a wife, of having someone they can parade around like a trophy and use to make themselves look good, but they don’t commit to marriage itself.
In turn, their wives bear the burden of tolerating their spouses and becoming a mere spectacle for their husbands’ benefit. If she ever attempts to speak up about the truth about her husband, she most likely wouldn’t be believed and might even be ostracized because “your husband is a good guy”; what reason do they have to believe he’s a cheater?
As such, marriage has become a commodity. It is no longer a sacred vow between two people to spend the rest of their lives together; instead, it has become an object to flaunt in front of the masses.
The Wife Guys have made a mockery not only of the sanctity of marriage, but of their spouses as well. Marriage is supposed to be filled with love and faithfulness, and these men have stepped on what it was supposed to be.
We must stop glorifying these types of men and treating them as heroes. Instead, we must remind them that marriage is not something to be used for Instagram likes or YouTube subscriptions — it requires mutual commitment and respect.
The Wife Guy is dead, for now. But as long as men continue to exploit their spouses for content, the Wife Guy will never truly die.
