The headline over this New York Times op-ed is “Marriage Is Hard. Just Ask Tom and Gisele.”
I’ve never been so prepared to hate something. So much so that I almost didn’t read it at all.
But the piece actually makes some very good points about marriage and the expectations within it of women and work. Even when you’re famous enough to go by one name:
For women like Ms. Bündchen in marriages where both partners have interests outside of the marriage and household, roles often shift based on availability, income, health and whatever they agreed to in the partnership. They also shift according to societal expectations, and even wealthy women like Ms. Bündchen, who can afford child care and outside help and has more control over her time than a lot of working women, are still subject to the old biases — that their role is essentially supportive and their own ambitions secondary.
They are, in video game lingo, “non-player characters,” or characters who have no meaningful narrative or agency outside of the role they play in allowing the players of the game to achieve victory. They cannot meaningfully win themselves.
If it was never going to be her turn, I don’t blame Ms. Bündchen for opting out of the game entirely.
Good piece. Read the rest.
FWIW, I’ve always thought Tom Brady, as talented as he is at football, would be a terrible husband. Just too self-involved and right-wing.
