Stephen King Amplifies His Wife, Tabitha’s Voice, As She Calls Out Subtle Patriarchy
American author Stephen King on his Twitter handle justified the annoyance of his author wife, Tabitha King, over news headlines that erased her identity while elevating his. Tabitha was offended by headlines that read: “Stephen King and his wife donate $1.25M to New England Historic Genealogical Society.” after they jointly made a generous donation to a shared legacy.
Turns out even in America the land of freedom, subtle patriarchy is a thing. Recently, the president of Nigeria nominated eight persons, only one of whom will emerge successful to become the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and a headline sparked the anger of feminists after it read:
“Female banker leads eight nominees for Emefiele’s job”
The argument of the feminists been that the woman, Aisha Ahmed who though well-known was not named but identified by sexist captions that referred to her as “female banker”, an inappropriate choice of words because they were not going to say for instance:
“Male banker leads eight nominees for Emefiele’s job”
READ ALSO: Nigerian Male Feminist Lists All He’s Been Accused Of For Pushing For Women’s Rights
After the headlines announced the donation in question in Stephen’s name and roughly swept Tabitha along as ‘wife’, the 70-year-old author took an exception and she wrote a public note to ‘editors’ saying wife is a relation or status and not an identity.
Her husband, Stephen, wholly agrees with her, saying she has every reason to find the headlines offensive. He shared her response to the editors on his Twitter page, and said also that making the donation was Tabitha’s original idea.
His post has gone viral and people applaud the couple for sticking up for each other.
Read post below:
“My wife is rightly pissed by headlines like this: “Stephen King and his wife donate $1.25M to New England Historic Genealogical Society.” The gift was her original idea, and she has a name: TABITHA KING. Her response follows.
Dear Editors (married to a wife or a husband): In recent media coverage of a gift that my husband (ironic usage) and I made to the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, we became Stephen King and his wife. Wife is a relationship or status. It is not an identity.
You could have made other choices. You could have referred to me as OfStephen. Or His Old Lady. Or His-Ball-And-Chain. I have sons. You could have referred to me as Mother-of-Novelists. I have a daughter but wouldn’t it be just silly to refer to me as Mother-of-Clergy?
I’m seventy. I thought I would give you permission, if “OfTabitha” predeceases me, to title my obituary, Relick of Stephen King. In the meantime, you might consider the unconscious condescension in your style book, and give women their names.”
See screenshot below: