RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31677, 13 May 1968, Page 17

RANDOM REMINDER

BACK TRACK

If it bad been designed to create a rift between man and wife, the survey in McCall’s magazine of wbat women American men marry could not have been better. On the reasonable assumption that New Zealand women readers of the survey’s findings associate themselves with their American cousins, the housewife is now in possession of the following unpalatable facts: She is not the most beautiful girl-friend her husband had. She practises a sort of restrained aggression in sex.

She Is not as intelligent as her husband. She is free to express herself in fields of art and music, or in any field in which her husband does not care to compete. McCall's magazine is not likely to win many friends or subscriptions with this devastating intelligence. It is all very well for the man in the street, his anonymity preserved, to proffer his views; but the damage he has done is enormous. In thousands of homes, husbands will have to spend mDnths convincing their wives that they

would have given different views to the survey promoters had they been approached, that they did marry the most beautiful girl-friend they ever had; that their wives are really extremely intelligent; and that it would be only natural for their wives to outshine them in any field of activity In which the wives cared to compete. Even worse, this prefabricated premise for nuptial bliss has to be supported by a lavish expenditure on chocolates, flowers, fur coats, etc. It’s clear, in fact, that it’s best for a man to marry a woman who can’t read.