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MindHacks links to an article about a marital rating chart from the 1930s. Note that only the Wife's Scale exists. The image reproduced from it shows only the first 12 of 50 Merits and Demerits, and I note that when I tally up the points from them for myself, I score an impressive -2.* It would be ~~higher~~ [ETA: lower, I mean], but I do not currently wear red nail polish and the only time I warm my cold feet on someone, it's because I'm doing the "See how cold I am?! TURN THE HEAT UP!" thing.**

I sort of want to find the full scale now, to see how I rate with the full test.

* I am assuming that if I wore hose with seams, they would always be crooked, because things just do that on me.

** Or revenging myself on someone who's stolen the blanket.

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Oh wow. I am a complete fail. This gives me some perspective on what my grandmother must have had to put up with. Just wow.

Well, I'm married, and I score a -5. He's the one who cooks and (supposedly) keeps house, so I don't get any points there. I do put my feet on him, but not because they are cold. I also assumed I'd have crooked hose seams because I HATE hose and have almost never worn them.

This was hilarious - thanks for sharing!

If I were a wife in the 30s, I would have been so fired.

Ha! I score -11, and I suspect if I took the full thing, my score would sink through the floor even more.

Joe, on the other hand, would probably make someone a passable wife.

My positive elements seem to be self-serving at heart. Of course I would let a husband sleep late on Sundays and holidays. Because I'd be right there beside him, snoozing away. XD

Ditto - that's why I gave myself that point!

Yeah, that's why I got that point as well.

But of course!

I don't understand what they mean by this "dressed for breakfast" thing, though. I mean, why would I bother taking pj's off before settling in on the couch with a bowl of cold cereal balanced in my lap? That would be very uncomfortable. Oh well, to each hir own kink.

Same here. Sure honey, go ahead and sleep, but you better not expect that I'll be awake. XD

Oh i so would never even have reached a position to be rated lol. xD At least i have never worn red nail polish? >: *dies*

Hilariously enough it just makes me think of my Crack!tastic guy, the gay Russian general guy who likes to wear women's lingerie. Apart from lacking Merits #8 and #10, his only Demerits are #10 and #12. Which amuses me to no end since it is certainly helluva better rating than me. xD

Ha! Well, at least he'll make someone a good wife, huh? XD

Indeed. Apart from the 'no humour and not so jolly but rather homicidal' part. But hey, I bet he irons them clothes to fucking PERFECTION. One can't have everything. u.u/

Wow. I so fail. I'm at -17.....er -16, apparently I also can't add as well as not wear red nail polish or like children.

I don't think I know anyone who's got a positive score yet. XD

I get a score of 2, unless you count my unwillingness to be pregnant and bear children myself (as opposed to adopting, which I'm perfectly willing to do) as "not liking children", which it probably does, so that's a -3 for me.

I'm a minus 8! And I gave myself points for being religious, even though I'm not a Christian.

I got a -3.

I'm endlessly amused that there's a merit for going to church - you certainly wouldn't see that in any politically correct scoring method now. Not that rating your wife is a very PC thing to be doing in the first place, at least not without a 'rate your husband' companion to it.

I love the subtle as well as the blatant here--"has meals on time," for instance, contemplates no meaning other than "presents," even though I could give myself a point for it if it meant "showed up to eat."

(-4, I think.)

-5 for me. I took off points for "wears ragged or soiled dresses and aprons" even though I don't wear dresses or aprons, because I am currently wearing jeans cut off and frayed at ankle length instead of hemmed, and sometimes pair them with a thrift store cashmere sweater purchased for only $1 because of the holes but ooooh so soft still. And because of the lack of apron, getting them 'soiled' is only a matter of time and luck. ~_^

I got a 1, and given the nature of the test, I feel like that's almost an accomplishment! (Though not one I'm particularly proud of. Hooray, I'd make a good wife in a highly sexist setting! That's lovely to know.)

I had to adapt some of the questions to fit me, though. I took off points for 'slow in coming to bed' because I am a night owl, and for 'wears ragged dresses, etc, around the house', because when I'm at home, I live in my old PJs. I also wear red nail polish (horrors!) and while I don't wear hose, I'm sure that if I did the seams would be crooked. Also, I'm a backseat driver.

This is such a bizarre set of guidelines. I mean, really. Nail polish? Crooked hems? Surely these are not things that have the potential to destroy a marriage? Sheesh. It would funny if not for the fact that someone actually created the list in absolute seriousness. That just makes it icky.

You're the first person I know who's got a positive score! Congratulations! :D

I got a 1, and given the nature of the test, I feel like that's almost an accomplishment! (Though not one I'm particularly proud of. Hooray, I'd make a good wife in a highly sexist setting! That's lovely to know.)

No, no, if you score under 24 you're still a failure as a wife! (They didn't seem to think negative scores were possible. Or at least the bottom range starts at zero.)

I just took the full test, and got a 25, which pushes me just into the range for 'Poor' rather then 'Very Poor'. Joy!

I suspect that one of the reasons you haven't seen anybody getting a positive score is that no men have been responding. Looking through your comments, at least a few of the women who've responded here appear to have SOs who would get positive scores.

Me? Positive. No surprise there. Only a 1, but that's still positive. It'd be much more impressively positive if I'd taken it a few years ago, while I was actively attending church and still bullyragging the boys into going to Sunday School (at their, different, church), and/or if I weren't such an inveterate flirt (which is, of course, less demeritous in my poly environment).

I'd kind of like to see the full test, too. (And I suspect that there *was* a "husband" version of the test, even if it hasn't been preserved. The guy parleyed this into a matchmaking service, after all....)

Edit: you were right.

http://flickr.com/photos/tiabla/sets/72157605047200616/

There was also the fact that the boldly-titled "Marital Rating Scale" was subtitled "Wife's Chart". That structure implies that he also had at least one other "Marital Rating Scale" with some other subtitle--probably a subtitle complementary to "Wife's Chart".

That's actually probably a bigger reason for my conclusion than the reasons originally stated, but I neglected to mention it. *blush* That's what I get for whipping off a quickie response just before heading out the door....

Well, I did manage a 2 on the wife test, so I'd still be a failure as a 30s wife, but I'd have been a decent husband! LOL

Somehow I got an 8 on the first page. Mostly for getting 5 points for never going to bed angry. Plus I got a merit for consulting my husband on major purchases (he consults me too). I should do the whole test but with the language demerits I think I'm already doomed!

Edit: And I thought cold feet in the bed was one of the privileges of marriage!

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