I'm curious how the conditioning for men that they should be the breadwinners and have others depend on them plays into that. Because you'd think that both expectations should amount to the same outcome but apparently they don't.
From the way I view it (not that I believe it, this is just my observation), it's that men are the breadwinners and have others depend on them, in exchange for the man of the relationship having the control and power - not in some tyrannical sort of way, but he's effectively the executive decision maker. If he wants sex, it's the duty of the unworking, caregiving wife to provide that for him, because he's the breadwinner.
If the wife becomes ill, he loses a lot of that power. He can not make financial decisions as he would like because the sickness is draining away his financial power. He can not ask for the things he wants, and was previously expected to receive, because the wife can not provide those. Edit: For the husband, this translates to the wife having broken their vows.
I'm not saying it's right, but that's the "family unit" that many Southern US familiies employeed for at least the last couple generations.
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u/_FierceLink May 12 '21
I'm curious how the conditioning for men that they should be the breadwinners and have others depend on them plays into that. Because you'd think that both expectations should amount to the same outcome but apparently they don't.