'Wife Guy,' Meet Political Spouse Guy
Recall Ted Cruz's elbow to wife Heidi's face at his concession speech
A few articles recently have hilariously explored the internet’s ‘wife guy’ pandemic. These are men who often post glowingly on social media about their wives, in a way that still manages to make themselves the center of attention. NYT’s Amanda Hess wrote that wife guys define themselves “through an overreaction to being married.” Memes ensue.
The only thing the writers failed to mention was the anthropological precursor to wife guy: the political spouse guy. These are politicians, mostly men, who like to prop up their spouses in a way that can feel sometimes genuine, sometimes manipulative, often sappy and frequently performative.
“I love my wife,” declared Anthony Wiener after his online sexting scandal first broke, with Huma Abedin nowhere in sight.
Scandal is sadly the way many political spouses enter the public conscious, but lately I’ve noticed a different sort of political spouse. I call them the “co-equal” spouses.
Take for instance Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox’s announcement for governor.
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