Talk:Trophy wife

Fred Thompson
Given that the guy is running for president, it seems kinda in bad taste to put him up as an example of a guy with a trophy wife, joking or not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.99.228.80 (talk) 03:01, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Effect of economic considerations
On reflection I am not sure the references to "wrongdoing" or first marriages are entirely relevant. If the women gets what she wants, the man gets what he wants, and no one is harmed - hard to see "wrongdoing" (except as a cultural/economic bias?). If a rich older male acquires an unusually attractive younger first wife, is she not a "trophy wife?

Seems the distinction that earns this label is simply a rich older man married to an attractive younger woman - an unusual combination without his wealth.

This should tie into an article the effective marketplace in courtship - if such an article existed.

Women's motivations
I'm not so sure about the paragraph on women's motivations. It would be nice to have some indication of how many women are motivated this way, and how many are in fact unaware that they're trophy wives. I'm not going to change it without definite information, though. -- Ortonmc 22:16, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC)


 * Motivation? Probably $$$$$
 * JesseG 02:16, July 15, 2005 (UTC)

Examples
Surely there are some famous examples of trophy wives that could be cited. -- Ortonmc 22:16, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Vulgar Reference

A trophy wife is not a display of success, the reference is more vulgar. A trophy is a deer(dear), with large antlers(a big rack), you hang(mount) in the den.

With the "vulgar reference" - women who are trophy wives are not treated too much better than the deer hanged in the den.

JesseG 03:45, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC)

Only Western Culture?
Why the assumption this is only a pattern of behavior in "Western" cultures? Seems likely that older successful men acquiring younger more attractive wives is not driven by culture. Surely there are equivalent patterns in other cultures. To be more meaningful we need examples of equivalents patterns in other cultures. --pbannister 21:56, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Political correctness most likely. I have seen/heard of the trophy wife phenomenon also in Hong Kong. In fact the whole Western Culture label is of limited use outside politically correct exercises, as say Finnish and Italian cultures differ enormously.

The definition repeatedly suggests that the man's purpose is to enhance his status. A wealthly successful man does not marry a young model to enhance his status, but to enhance his sex life! The woman gets money and security in return. Rather like a prostitute really. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.197.15.138 (talk) 22:03, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Age
An age limit is given in the article. But, there is no reference or data to back it up. Age isn't the only feature of a trophy wife, and I don't think we should limit the age. See reference #2 in the article.Mwinog2777 05:41, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I removed the silly math formula for determining the age below which one is a trophy wife. Unless there is a very well known person who popularized this formula it doesn't belong in the article. Rhobite 03:36, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
 * ThanksMwinog2777 06:02, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Removed "examples"
I have removed the examples section, which was entirely drawn from pop culture. The section constituted original research. Chick Bowen 22:14, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

"... but that seems incorrect."
Some sources claim the term was coined earlier (for example the Online Etymology Dictionary cites 1984 [4]) but that seems incorrect.

This part in bold is informal/non-neutral. Can we remove it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nate1208 (talk • contribs) 16:15, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Accomplished?
if the original definition included 'accomplished in her own right', that part of the meaning has certainly been lost, unless you want to include the effort, etc involved at the gym, surgeon's office and so on.Toyokuni3 (talk) 14:43, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Coined in 1989?
How reliable is the Safire reference (note 1)? It says the term was coined in 1989... I'd swear it was around a lot longer than that, even if I haven't the foggiest idea of where I could find confirmation. Anybody know better? --Svartalf (talk) 10:08, 23 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, there's certainly internal conflict here, as American Graffiti suggests the term was known in the sixties. --Renaissongsman (talk) 17:21, 22 March 2013 (UTC)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.116.252.2 (talk)

Citations, please
The references to pre-1989 usages need proper cites, or they're worthless. -- The Anome (talk) 10:54, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Asian women = trophy wives
I removed the section stating that Asian women = trophy wives. While provocative, this is not how the term "trophy wife" is used by the mainstream or any discernible minority group. An encyclopedic entry should not include one author's recontextualization of the term for shock value. Perhaps the cited article would find a good place in the "interracial marriage" entry. However, a critique of race relations does nothing to explain what the term "trophy wife" means and, for those truly unsure of what the term means, will probably end up confusing them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.104.102.56 (talk) 20:39, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Trophy secretaries
I havent found any reliable sources as yet but it seems likely that the the phenomina of powerful business men having young pretty secretaries seems related to trophy wives as narcissistic supply to a narcissist. --Penbat (talk) 13:02, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

The Lucas Cranach picture
I honestly don't think this image accurately represents the content of the article. Why? Well, if she is supposed to portray the "trophy wife" in this painting, then I gotta say that she isn't really that physically attractive. Are there any other images of the same theme available somewhere? Comments? OscarLake (talk) 13:48, 29 December 2013 (UTC)

Conceptions of beauty change almost every decade, and to look at a 16th-century painting with 21st-century eyes isn't very helpful. 121.163.188.1 (talk) 11:56, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

This should be a mere entry in a slang dictionary, not a Wikipedia article!
This should be an entry in UrbanDictionary.com, something like that. Stupid trash like this debases Wikipedia. The mere presence of this "article" constitutes vandalism IMNSFHO. --CousinJohn (talk) 04:27, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

Removed my NPR citation
Here's a better link to t Elizabeth McClintock's survey study, where she uses a "nationally representative sample of young couples" to disprove that old guys have young trophy wives. o_O — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.223.123.242 (talk) 13:05, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

"According to one survey, this phenomenon is very rare."
I propose this absurd line be removed. Not only is it inaccurate (the "survey" is barely cited only in passing within the NPR source), but the assertion is itself incorrect. Whoever says that "1 in 1,000 couples" will be a hot young wife with a rich old guy has obviously never been to a major metropolitan area in the United States (Los Angeles, Miami, and New York come to mind) and likely most cities in the world (Rome, Paris, Shanghai, Moscow anybody?). I welcome any valid dissent.192.231.86.253 (talk) 18:08, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

NPV?
I made one edit to remove the suggestion that "trophy wife" was equivalent to "sugar daddy" (after the she and he are unscrambled).

But reading the rest of the first section, I'm struck by the censorious slant of the prose. Indeed, the term may say something about the character of both parties...or it may not. It may be used by a third party who is jealous of one or both of the couple, or it may be applied as a tagline when the circumstances of the marriage are unknown or clearly not those where the term is accurate. 121.163.188.1 (talk) 12:14, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

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"The Trophy Wife" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect The Trophy Wife. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 August 7 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. 1234qwer1234qwer4 (talk) 20:20, 7 August 2020 (UTC)