Wife-as-property functions as display of the husband’s status

Evidence

Deprived of her magic weapons by nuptial rites, economically and socially dependent on her husband, the “good wife” is man’s most precious treasure. She belongs to him so profoundly that she shares the same nature with him: “Ubi tu Gaius, ego Gaia”; she has his name and his gods, and she is his responsibility: he calls her his other half. He takes pride in his wife as in his home, his land, his flocks, and his wealth, and sometimes even more; through her he displays his power to the rest of the world: she is his yardstick and his earthly share. For Orientals, a wife should be fat: everyone sees that she is well fed and brings respect to her master. A Muslim is all the more respected if he possesses a large number of flourishing wives. In bourgeois society, one of woman’s assigned roles is to represent: her beauty, her charm, her intelligence, and her elegance are outward signs of her husband’s fortune, as is the body of his car. If he is rich, he covers her with furs and jewels. If he is poorer, he boasts of her moral qualities and her housekeeping talents; most deprived, he feels he owns something earthly if he has a wife to serve him; the hero of The Taming of the Shrew summons all his neighbors to show them his authority in taming his wife. A sort of King Candaules resides in all men: he exhibits his wife because he believes she displays his own worth. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 375

Categorization

• XREF: The wife-as-yardstick/display logic connects to Thorstein Veblen’s ‘conspicuous consumption’ theory of status display, and to the dress/status moral-panic article about how women’s bodies signal class and identity. — connects to: Marriage annexes women to the husband’s universe — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1109; Marriage makes woman contingent while man mediates her to the universe — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1196; Marriage confirms masculine existence but constitutes feminine existence itself — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1108 (+3 more)
• ADDENDUM: Directly parallels the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ piece — both treat women’s bodies and adornment as status-signaling surfaces for their husbands’ or families’ standing.

Broader Connections

• Domesticity is an alibi for conflating person with property #expands (0.88) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 124
• Marriage annexes women to the husband’s universe #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1109
• Marriage makes woman contingent while man mediates her to the universe #corroborates (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1196
• Marriage confirms masculine existence but constitutes feminine existence itself #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1108
• Marriage is structured as an economic exchange where the bride’s body is purchased #corroborates (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1110
• The institution of inheritance causally produced woman’s subordination to man’s property #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 182