[benhoyt]

Berry's response to that (and similar) letters is quite sharp, but fair, I thought:

> I am also surprised by the meanness with which two of these writers refer to my wife. In order to imply that I am a tyrant, they suggest by both direct statement and innuendo that she is subservient, characterless, and stupid -- a mere "device" easily forced to provide meaningless "free labor." I understand that it is impossible to make an adequate public defense of one's private life, and so I will only point out that there are a number of kinder possibilities that my critics have disdained to imagine: that my wife may do this work because she wants to and likes to; that she may find some use and some meaning in it; that she may not work for nothing. These gentlemen obviously think themselves feminists of the most correct and principled sort, and yet they do not hesitate to stereotype and insult, on the basis of one fact, a woman they do not know. They are audacious and irresponsible gossips.

[etothepii]

I'm not sure it is fair. The tone of the essay to me reads as one written by someone who never thought to ask.

My wife routinely proof reads my work, and she does do it because she loves me, but I am not so foolish as to believe she loves doing it.

[themadturk]

There's nothing in the essay that said he didn't ask, and that she wasn't a willing participant, doing the work because she loves him. (And why wouldn't your wife love proofing your work if she loves you? Just curious if she's told you either way.)

[etothepii]

I would not be so mean as to say for certain he did not ask. The tone reads to me as written by the type who does not ask, or more precisely has ended up in a situation where the default is for his wife to proof read his work.

On its most basic level, it reads that Wife does the boring work while the author does the fun creative work. We can not tell from the article but I am highly doubtful that the author proof reads and types his wife's articles.

I would go so far as to be willing to lay a quarter for a nickel that he has never offered and a dollar for a cent that he has never done so.