It is painful for me whenever I notice the tyranny of a controlling wife. There are men who also play the role of a controlling spouse, but I am especially sensitive to those wives who habitually want their spouses to be different. I am sad to witness the males who buy into this tyranny and surrender control, who yield to the emotional pressure, who capitulate to a social pattern.
I know why this tyranny seldom fails to get my attention. I have experienced what it is like to be close to someone who wants to change me, who wants me to be different. I easily see it in my friends. Sometime it is masked as a form of care, of wanting things to be better for their husbands. But it is still a thinly veiled form of tyrannical control.
I want my male friends to experience acceptance and support. I want them to be out from under the tyranny of spousal control. I want them to be free, but they seem hooked in a bargain that keeps them restricted and restrained, just as their wives want. I am sad that it seems to be a control that continues to be freely given, and not much is likely to change.