Feminist Critique

Frank Sinatra is arguably one of the most influential and popular musicians of the 20th century. Rivaling The Beatles, Elvis, and Michael Jackson, Sinatra has been able to remain popular despite the dramatic shift in the style, composition, and themes. In his time, he was considered a heart-throb. Someone men longed to be and someone women looked up to as a suave and sophisticated man. Sinatra was able to be a role model for hundreds of youngsters. His crooning voice have covered such hits as "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "New York, New York." But he also sang a less popular song called "Wives and Lovers," on the album It Might As Well Be Swing, in a collaboration with Count Basie released in 1964 and re-copywrighted in 1998. The song, when listening to the music, is another unique sweeping love ballad, listen to the lyrics, and the misogynistic, male-dominated tone comes to light. "Wives and Lovers" is a perfect example from still popular culture to represent the misogynistic idealism of our culture. "Wives and Lovers" promotes male domination, patriarchy, and the wive stereotype through the lyrics, the representation of the male or female singing the song, and in doing so keeps women in the role of a woman and lover.

"Wives and Lovers" begins with the lines "Hey, little girl, comb your hair, do your make-up, soon he will open the door." Not only do the opening lines call a mother a "girl," but it also implies that women are not properly beautiful for their husbands unless they fix their body image, and that men deserve to have a "beautiful" woman at home taking care of the house. The song continues, "don't think because there's a ring on your finger, you needn't try anymore." This lyrics' shortness implies that women are inferior and need to be talked down to, but it also has the opinion that to get "a ring around their finger" they have to try to put in effort, but once they have that ring they can't just sit back and be lazy, without caring about their man. In a relationship, both women and men should put in some effort to assure that the relationship is going smoothly, but this song deeply implies that the man makes the decision of marriage, and immediately proceeding the ceremonies the woman is supposed to get right to the task of being a mother, instead of following their own dreams. The next couple lyrics, "run to his arms the moment he comes to you./I'm warning you," implies that unless a woman comes and is happy to see their spouse, then men have absolutely no obligation to stay with their spouse. "I'm warning you" could imply a lot of things, from abuse to leaving them. The next couple lines are representative of the latter, "day after day/there are girls at the office/and men will always be men/don't send him off with your hair still in curlers/you may not see him again." These lines imply that there are a lot of temptations in the public sphere for men, and that women have no control over men in that area. Additionally, women must be there best at all times for they spouse because if not a man will be unfaithful to his wife unless those circumstances are met. Perversely, by dismissing the actions of men, the song asks women to forgive and be faithful despite sinful temptations. The song continues in the same vain as before, repeating the lines "run into his arms" along with dressing appropriately to go to the city, but the end of the song is some other new atrocity, "time to get ready for love/it's time to get ready, kick off your shoes, baby." The ending of the song implies that women have to try to get prepared to be loved, and that there is a definite time for love, and that that time is determined by the man.

The song, sung by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Jack Jones (who won the Grammy for Best Vocal performance for his recording of "Wives and Lovers"), is one of the systemic problems with the song. When sung by someone like Frank Sinatra or Jack Jones, the song inadvertently promotes men to view woman as only objects to please men, and to take care of them in times of trouble-to put in effort even when the man in the relationship doesn't. It is more likely to cause this problem because people look up to Jack Jones and Frank Sinatra. Husbands listened to this song, and those husbands respected people like Sinatra. They were being told that it was acceptable-important- for a woman to get ready for the man to come home, and help out in any way possible to keep the men happy after a long day at the office. Sung by a woman, like Ella Fitzgerald, and the song turns a powerful, respected, and exemplar into a woman condoning being completely subservient to the man's desires and wishes. Sung by Fitzgerald and those women who look up to her think it is the right thing to get dressed up and do everything for the man.      

One last thing that is wrong about the way that the song portrays society is that it is representative of the time period, and yet there are still people living who pushed the values of these songs on their children, so it is still completely relevant. Women remain stagnant because men do not value their agency, and it promotes things akin to abuse with the line "I'm warning you." The song creates an air of immobility.

"Wives and Lovers" is an important document that represents how society used to view women. It represents the leaps and bounds we've made, but it also reminds us of the place we've come from. It can allow us to view what progress we still have to make.