Who Gets More Love the Wife or the Wifey?
Early on in the blog marathon (Day 03, actually) I found myself faced with a moral issue. The good folks over at StreetLevel.com asked me to compile a list of the Top 10 Hip-Hop Wifeys. Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t be a big deal, but during Ramadan—where my thoughts are supposed to be positive and non-sexual—the idea of rating a bunch of hot women and compiling curvaceous flicks wasn’t exactly a good way to start my mental fast.
I actually got and accepted the assignment before Ramadan, but I didn’t get to start working on it until after the fast had already started. Being that I have bills to pay and no idea where my next check(s) are coming from I pushed through and completed the article.
CLICK HERE to see the final product and judge for yourself as to whether or not it went against my mental fast. The piece actually got quite a few comments and inspired GlobalGrind.com to do their own hip-hop wifeys list (CLICK HERE).
What I really want to talk about, though, isn’t who the hottest girlfriends in hip-hop are (although you’re welcome to chime in). But what caught my attention was a repeated lack of understanding of what exactly a “wifey” is in the comments.
The very first one read:
“I thought it was Hip Hop wifeys 1/2 these chicks aren’t even married to these men. It should be renamed top 10 hip hop wives & hip hop hoes.” —tazgyrl78
At first I thought this was just one unaware reader, but the same sentiment kept getting reiterated (along with some shocking racism and excessive hate on Amber Rose) over and over again. Apparently some folks can’t read or just don’t know the difference between a wife and a wifey.
Well, for the uninformed I’d like to paint a clearer picture. A wife is a life partner, someone that has actually walked down the aisle with a man that is now her husband, exchanged vows and is one-half of a legally recognized marriage. She’s an owner of a band around her ring finger that symbolizes a lifelong union.
A wifey on the other hand is pure slang. It’s a term reserved for a girlfriend, main chick, down ass chick, primary partner, whatever. Basically, this is a woman that’s almost like a wife (depending on the man) but just not quite one. He can pack up and leave at any moment and she can as well with no legal ramifications.
It is important to note, as it was suggested in the Hip-Hop Wifeys list for StreetLevel, that there are times where a man might call his actual wife a “wifey.” Although that may lead to some confusion with the above, in those cases it’s merely a pet name like “boo,” “honey,” “lover” etc.
Despite the aforementioned overlap, wife and wifey are two exclusively different terms and should be treated as such. The problem is people have so many different terms for relationships and partners that things get lost in translation. What a man means when he calls a woman his wifey, girlfriend, jump-off, main squeeze or whatever, may not always be the same as what she takes it to mean.
At the end of the day if a woman has a ring on her finger and has jumped a broom with that man (or whatever they did to make it legal) she’s his wife first and foremost—end of story. No need to ask or add the “y.”
How do you define a wifey? Do you think that a woman that is an actual wife can be called a wifey as well? Is the whole labeling thing with relationships gone too far and leave too much room for interpretation? What did you think of the Hip-Hop Wifey lists? Do you think having actual wives on the list made things confusing? Do you think what I wrote in that piece went against my mental fast? Do you think Amber Rose deserved to be No. 1 on the list? Why do people hate Amber so much?
Speak your piece…
THE RETURN OF WET WEDNESDAYS!!!!!!
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). Sorry, but that bald head is not attractive at all. I don’t see anything ladylike going on at all- where’s the femininity besides her obvious cup size and backside. SMH.
“Who Gets More Love the Wife or the Wifey?”