60 pages • 2 hours read
Chandler BakerThe Husbands: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Genre Context: Feminist Thrillers
The feminist thriller is a recent subgenre of the psychological thriller and focuses on female characters who “exemplify the remarkable strength of mothers, of women in general, who not only survive, but thrive, despite all obstacles” (Murphy, Nora. “A List of Feminist Thrillers.” CrimeReads, 31 May 2022). Their stories acknowledge the social constraints society often places on women, including the expectation that—in addition to pursuing a profession—they are responsible for the household and children.
Showcasing women’s capabilities is a key aspect of the genre. The protagonists may not always be morally “good,” but they are almost always smart, accomplished, and driven. Community is another important element, and the women in feminist thrillers always help each other either openly or in secret, just like the characters in The Husbands. The shared values of the Dynasty Ranch women allow them to reach their personal and professional goals, achieving more than most of their female peers, and making major discoveries in their respective fields. Feminist thrillers always contain an element of social commentary: The Husbands emphasizes the negative effects of persistent gender inequities on its characters’ physical and mental health, which lead them to unethical medical practices and murder. It is a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked patriarchy and the failure to communicate within heterosexual marriages.
Cultural Context: Professional Women and the Stigma of Success
The belief that women can “have it all”—high-powered careers, beautiful homes, and happy marriages that beget well-adjusted children—has endured in Western society for decades. However, this belief does not match many women’s lived experience. In The Guardian, Antoinette Lattouf observes, “‘Having it all’ is now largely weaponised against professional mothers” (Lattouf, Antoinette. “‘Having it all’ is a myth still being used to punish working mothers.” The Guardian, 14, Feb. 2023). Lattouf discusses the stigma attached to high-profile women who get divorced and the assumption that their demanding careers made it impossible for them to succeed at childrearing and marriage. This assumption omits social and structural issues that create double standards for professional women: “[T]he long list of divorced men in the [media] industry wasn’t included, nor was there an examination of the issues women in the public eye unfairly and disproportionately face. […] Or the fact that appearance and age still play such a big role in our employment prospects” (The Guardian). It is certainly these pressures that drive Cornelia White and Thea Jenkins to “deprogram” the men in The Husbands, so that they forget the double standards around family responsibility and career success society has taught them.
The novel presents the inverse of contemporary gender dynamics ad absurdum. Cornelia asks, “Men have been happily regulating our bodies for as long as anyone can remember. How is this any different?” (321). Hayden is a strawman for the kind of husband who pats himself on the back for being more involved in childcare than his friends are without realizing that his wife is still doing the lion’s share of the household work. Nora feels she is supposed to make childcare and housework seem effortless as magic, which she alludes to when she calls herself the “family Rumpelstiltskin.” In the novel’s world, leaving Hayden is not an option for Nora: She must make their life and marriage work to prove that she can “have it all.” The novel’s satirical commentary is that the only way women can free themselves from limiting social constraints is to lobotomize the men, making them more agreeable but depriving them of selfhood in the process.
Literary Context: The Stepford Wives (1972)
The Husbands is an homage to the 1970s satirical novel by Ira Levin The Stepford Wives, which treats similar themes with the characters’ genders reversed. Amid feminism’s second wave and the resultant cultural backlash, Levin’s novel criticized men who were so threatened by their wives’ independence that they went to unconscionable lengths to limit their ability to think and act for themselves. Rather than applaud their spouses’ enjoyment of increased opportunity, the men murder them and create hyperfeminine, large-breasted animatronic versions of them to clean house, serve guests, and rear their children. The horror with which the audience is expected (and encouraged) to respond to the husbands of Stepford provides context for how readers are meant to respond to the Dynasty Ranch wives. While they aren’t murdering their husbands, depriving these men of consciousness and choice is no better. The lack of a middle ground in both novels points to the persisting inability in heteronormative culture to create equitable gender roles for men and women.
The women of Dynasty Ranch offer one another praise and support rather than judgment to counterbalance the impossibly high and often contradictory standards to which they are held in their everyday lives. The novel’s satire critiques even this sisterhood: The women’s compassion for one another seems utopian at first, especially when juxtaposed with Western culture’s tendency to pit powerful women against one another. However, in their desperation to fix gender norms, they only succeed in breaking them differently, becoming as controlling and manipulative as the men whose standards they are trying to reverse.
