Review: The Wife Between Us

With all the PR and media hype (without teeth or accepting responsibility), women's value has not changed since the beginning of mankind's memory. Women are seen as brood mares or status symbols and not as having a value beyond their ability to produce children.

In those few marriages where children are not wanted--likely because the husband wishes to retain cock of the walk fawned over by all females present--his wishes dictates remain unchallenged once the women learn their place. That place is under constant surveillance and under threat. Nothing and no one she loves are tolerated to ripple the placid waters between then. What follows is either reward and, more often, punishment.

The woman who does not follow the man's dictates and does not respond by changing her attitude and falling into step two or three paces behind him will be cast into outer darkness. Divorced.

For the woman who actively pursues her freedom, often after the death of her favorite companion (a dog purchased for protection when the husband is out of the house), she will look for opportunities to distance herself, gain a modicum of freedom, and inveigle an option, suggesting her husband take advantage of a co-worker's needs and flexibility over her own sickness, urging him, with her permission of course, to take her place.

The problem with such machinations is that the wife is putting some other unsuspecting and undeserving woman her place with the same dangers and well known outcomes since she has begun to figure out how well shackled she was in his prison. It may have looked like heaven, but it was closer to hell, and now that she is finally free of him, she must in good conscience help free the woman she threw into the villain's evil clutches. No one, not even an unsuspecting younger woman falling into the same trap, should be forced to suffer that.

While Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen thought that when they put their heads and experiences and knowledge together to write The Wife Between Us, it was apparent to me their literary skills may have been firmly entrenched in the societal norms of how women are treated by men and, worse, by each other, blaming their comrades in the battle between the sexes and clinging to the man who has been so good to them, and who looks far too good to be true.

There is a vertiginous feeling when beginning the novel. It seems straight forward. A young woman who is a grade school teacher and lives with her friend is giving up her job in order to be with the man who has asked her to marry him. He doesn't want her teaching other children when she will have to teach and care for her own children after they are married. She moves out of town into the suburbs of an exclusive community and gives up her friends and everything she worked for to take a leap up into her brand new husband's rarefied world. She is getting use to dealing with her sister-in-law. She is after all her only in-law and she is so good to her younger and oh so accomplished brother. She even has a solid, strong, and faithful dog to protect her in her stunning suburban home and she doesn't miss her friends or her remaining family member while she tries to fill her time in the palatial and protected suburbs. Except that she cannot get pregnant and is soon cast out of her idyllic wealthy life, divorced, replaced by the other woman she made room for in her husband's life.

But she is free.

She is safe.

Or is she?

She has to clue her replacement in to what she is in for as she gives up her grade school teaching job and is forced to move into the secluded and exclusive life that has been cloned for her. The replacement wife may be luckier than she and may well give her ex-husband the child she could not, but she must be warned before it is too late. Or is it already too late?

Hendricks and Pekkanen deliberately created a situation where the obvious gas lighting and abusive cycle are blurred and the reader is not sure what is going on and who is trying to protect whom. On that level, they succeeded admirably, creating a modern version of Ingrid Bergman's danger at the hands of her unscrupulous husband as he drives her slowly and inexorably insane, questioning her sanity and reality, until at last either Ingrid or Charles Boyer will win and the truth will finally surface or one of them will be dead and broken, ruined.

As a psychological thriller, The Wife Between Us succeeds admirably to the point that the reader is also drawn into the trap and may not survive the ride. That is not too difficult since women are often their own worst enemies when vengeance and men are concerned. I see Hendricks and Pekkanen urging the trapped fox to chew off its own foot in order to be free, except that the fox trapped is not the fox you would expect, but the fox firmly caught in the trap urging the other caught fox to chew off its foot. There is no honor among contestants for the privileged life . . . and, considering the recent falls from grace, there may never be. There never has been.

Women are ornaments, chattel, brood mares, arm candy. As in Islam, so in the enlightened western world. There is no honor among women when men are concerned. Puts a different spin on Stand by Your Man.

Man vs Woman?

Brett Ratner, Hollywood director, is another Harvey Weinstein, except he hasn't been at the predator stage as long as Weinstein. By all accounts, Ratner is a nice guy, a family man, kind, and generous -- with his time. His lawyer supports Ratner's claims that he has done nothing -- NOTHING. I'm sure Weinstein said the same thing even before 30 women came forward to accuse him of preying on him. Hasn't Hollywood claimed that no often means yes? That's what all the guys in high school in the locker room claimed and still claim. After all, a red-blooded American girl often says no many times before she finally says yes. 

Ask Weinstein. Ask the players on the football, basketball, and baseball teams. 

Better yet, ask their lawyers. Their girlfriends. Their mothers. Their neighbors. The clergy - if you can find a minister, pastor, rabbi, priest, or layman. 

Ask the next Muslim man you see or his imam. 

No matter where you go or where you live or have lived, the answer will be the same when it comes to women. 

The closer the woman is to the alleged predator, the louder and more certain she will be about knowing whether or not the predator can possibly be the predator who raped, propositioned, sexually assaulted, harassed, and/or raped the female. 

Go back farther, back when the woman was demonized, after Lillith who wanted to be on top during copulation. Eve, so the codexes say, is the reason for the fall of Adam and thus of mankind. I wonder if Allah, the moon god, sent Gibreel to Muhammad when he chose his prophet to spread his godly words, or if Muhammad figured it out when his mother died when he was 6 years old and abandoned him with her death. 

Islam is very clear about the testimony of women and how many men (FOUR) are needed to verify a woman's story. Is there any wonder that Muslim women are automatically killed because of honor since a woman's honesty is already in question? 

How many women have accused Brett Ratner? Not as many as Harvey Weinstein, but Ratner has not been at is as long. Thirty women have come out and accused Weinstein from exposing himself to rape. In Muhammad's version of the story, 1200 men are needed to speak for every woman's accusations. 

Ratner supposedly masturbated all over magazines in front of the woman on the cover of those mags. Where's a forensic lab when you need a quick lab test to verify the jizz stains on the magazine covers? It's not like anyone would hang the magazines in their closet and produce it to be tested. Magazines tend to mildew and stick together after all that ejaculatory fluid dried on the paper. 

Why is anyone surprised that wealthy and Hollywood powerful men will call their lawyers and pull a Sergeant Schultz? They know nothing. NOTHING. Their word and their families will swear they know nothing and their wives and girlfriends will proudly stand up and call the accusing women sad and poor things who cannot get a date or describe their encounters with the predator. 

The cleaner the predator's background -- and cage -- the less the woman will be believed so long after the fact -- or the assault or the masturbation or the blood and bruises have dried -- not without photographic evidence. 

It doesn't matter how long it took the women to tell their stories. Women have been the target since boys found them attractive and do-able. Not everyone chooses to roofy their victims and few leave a tip even after they have ejaculated their loads on their clothes or magazines. 

Not even the least attractive women have not had to deal with these predators. Hillary called them super predators and she would know since she has been covering for Bill for decades. 

Some predators begin their assault on women, their prey, at an early age and got over the awkward

stage before they figured out the best line of attack proposal/proposition to use, falling back on rape when all else fails or they lose their nerve or strike out. At such times, lies about the prey's sexuality, body, kissing, and/or skills will do. It is what passes for locker room talk where the lies and exaggerations flow as freely as fantasies and fish stories. Fish stories are practice for boasting about one's skill and the size of one's fish lure

We western women have no high ground to speak from when it comes to the treatment of girls and women by Muslims since we are busily standing proudly by our menfolk -- even when we know the men are just as vicious and dishonest. Good thing we have plenty of male judges willing to smack a rapist's wrist instead of ruining his future by sending him to prison or, as Cheech and Chong said in their act, whack his peepee.  Never mind that the future of the woman he raped will be marked forever by fear and scars and the horror of what happened when the college football player raped her. 

Since the time of Eve in the Garden of Eden when she forced Adam to take and eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, women are responsible for all evil. Lillith, Adam's first mate, only demanded to be poked when she was on top. Eve inveigled and tempted Adam with the fruit and that, according to the Good Book, was far worse.  Her perfidy caused mankind to fall and for Yahweh to cast his slaves, the two people he had given so much, out of Eden and bar the entrance with angels wielding fiery swords. 

Forget that most women have been importuned, assaulted, or raped when they were children and their adolescence was pockmarked by admiring young men cruising the streets and cat calling from construction sites in order to make their admiration known publicly. Let's not mention uncles who were too friendly and touchy feely when sitting their favorite niece, daughter, friend of the family on their laps. After all, boys will be boys and men will be men -- boys with more strength and determination to ease a young girl out of her shyness and rectify her inexperience. It's all in the family after all. What better way to keep the secret a secret and the knowledge in the family? If all else fails, telling the young girl she is a slut or a whore or a nasty little girl will do wonders for keeping the secret safe and the road open the next time he's feeling the need for a poke or a kiss. 

In the middle of the 20th century dressing to attract attention was the best way to get attention -- of any kind. Why else would clothing designers and stores make their sweaters and clothes so tight fitting when material was in good supply? Having women teetering on high heels keeps women off balance, which is good since women haven't figured out those spike heels can be weapons that can take out a predator's eye or make a hole in forehead, face, chest, or groin. Too bad if they ever figure that out. 

Women have borne the slights, accusations, name calling, assaults, and rapes for millennia and nothing has changed, except how many women are willing to stand by their man -- or men. If a woman has scaled the heights of wealth and fame, she is not going to willingly admit she knew anything about the predators' preying on other women as long as she has avoided the trap and come out the other end richer, more famous, or at least few bruises, scars, and fractures. Best to keep that info to themselves. It's not like the predator will ever pay for his crimes and the best place to be is not on his hit list. 

No wonder women prefer homosexual males. Gay men accessorize well, enjoy the platonic company of women, and are often willing to lend a shoulder when their gal pals (fag hags) need one because men are shits. 

As much as I enjoyed Netflix's show Medici: Masters of Florence, I often cringed when Madden as Cosimo de Medici called his intelligent (and sharp-tongued, witty, and faithful wife) Contessina woman in order to make her back off and bend to his position as pater familias. Not a surprise since men even in the 21st century remind women they are less important than their husband, brother, boyfriend, colleague, or significant other. The master has spoken and the woman must now be silent and back down. 

If you lived in my family, you would have had my mother reminding you that men are more important and their word is the final word on any subject. Mom taught me that I was to let the guy win in any contest, appear to be dumber than the guy, and obey my husband (on my wedding day) in all things. Telling her that I would follow my own dictates set her back on her heels and she was convinced that when I divorced my first husband it was because I considered myself his equal. Could be because I didn't tell her he had cheated on me with other women -- and men -- or that he raped me, but it didn't really matter because as with Eve all was my fault. Mentioned the broom handle and the damage done to my backside wouldn't have made her more sympathetic to me. She would still have badgered and threatened me to give up my children and make sure that they were safe with him and me out of their lives altogether. If that failed, she had already primed my boys by telling them the only one who loved them was her, their grandmother. Everything else was a lie. 

Women have been denigrated, demonized, devalued, and dragged thru the sewers since Eve, and often by women. Women were born to be second class and, even in modern times, that mentality continues unchallenged no matter what words men say when called out by their prey. Women will not waste time to lend their support to the lies, subterfuge, and degrading, demonizing, denigrating, and mud slinging needed to push women back into the sewer. Women must find a higher step up the hill or climb on top of the women they've shoved into the sewer. 

That is all. Disperse.