Are We Leashing Our Wives As Well As Our Pets?

Ever been at home after your spouse left for work and felt that someone was keeping tabs on you? How would you feel if he had bought you this, a ring so tight that it brands the word "marriage" into your skin? Obviously, when this ring is your wedding band, you should not feel the need to remove it. Still, is marking your body with the promise of this eternal bond a bit much, almost as if there is doubt as to your commitment to that bond?

Despite America’s reputation as a culture of privacy rights, concern over loss of privacy has been increasing for a number of years now. This violation of one’s space has arisen noticeably when it comes to married couples, where trust plays a primary role. After all, a branding ring is not the only instrument available to track a spouse. Catherine Zang’s husband would leave microphones around their house and use computer software to spy on her e-mails while he spent the day at work. But what does this type of "surveillance" indicate about a relationship itself? Quite obviously, a spouse should not only respect his or her privacy but also trust a partner enough to do so. Such signs of distrust, even within one’s own household, reveals immense lack of faith in a spouse.

Finally, is it always necessarily that the wife who stays at home is more prone to infidelity? Recent statistics on infidelity between married couples living in the U.S. show that more men tend to stray than women. Such a fact makes sense when you consider the ample opportunities for a man to cheat while away from his wife at the office or on a business trip.  After all, it is not so simple for a wife to track her husband away from home as it is for her husband to keep watch on her in the couple’s own house.

Yet the final issue still stands: If you have to watch her that closely, you clearly don’t trust her very much. So perhaps try talking out things with her rather than compromising her right to privacy in her own home. Indeed, if anything would prompt a wife to cheat on her husband, it might just be the aggravating paranoia he shows concerning her actions, as if she is an irresponsible dog that needs to be leashed rather than a human being.