Readers,
I'll come clean right off the bat - this is not a real book title. I made it up. But let's just imagine, for a moment, that The Girl and The Wife is a real novel. The premise might go something like this: a single, independent, slightly edgy, grown woman (aka THE GIRL) and a well-educated, fully formed, albeit slightly depressed, and somewhat bored, married woman (aka THE WIFE) meet and strike up a friendship. THE GIRL is conniving. THE WIFE, a new mother, is hopelessly frustrated while staying home with her newly born son. There is A MAN that either THE GIRL or THE WIFE, or most likely both, desire. Drama ensures.
Readers, most people who like books will tell you that a title is not all that important. For the most part, I think that's true. Titles rarely change my enjoyment of a book, although a great title (The Sun Also Rises, The Sound and the Fury) might enhance a good book and will almost certainly improve my chances of picking it up in the first place. But, here's the thing: the humble title's relative lack of importance within the context of a single work is not indicative of its absolute responsibility within the cannon of literature, to which it represents (for any idle passerby), the whole of what is contained beneath its banner.
Titles matter in the context of popular and literary culture because they are the most public representative of their story. What a title says about its own story will shape that narrative and people's perception of it, perhaps subtly, but nonetheless, undeniably.
All of which is to say - if The Girl and The Wife were a real book, I would not read it. We have to stop referring to grown, independent, fully formed female characters as "Girls," or as side-kicks to their more interesting husbands. In isolation, a title that uses these words to refer to female characters isn't that damaging. But I think we're past that point. It's not a good enough excuse anymore. Popular literature is in the midst of an epidemic, with no end in sight.
Don't believe me? How about: Gone Girl, Girl on a Train, Pretty Girls, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Windup Girl, The Girl Before, The Good Girl, The Silent Wife, The Zookeeper's Wife, The Time Traveller's Wife, The Pearler's Wife, The Astronauts Wife, The Birdman's Wife, The Wife Between Us. And that's just off the top of my head.
When we, as a popular and literary culture, not only accept books with these titles, but revel in them, we are allowing women to be repeatedly infantilized or referred to in a way that suggests they are only interesting literary subjects because of their proximity to more interesting men. I cannot stand for that. When books like this become overnight bestsellers, we tell the publishing industry that we like this way of talking about women, that we're okay with this way of describing female characters. I don't like it. I'm not okay with it.
Readers, I know a few of you are going to read this and think "She's taking this awfully seriously" or "But I really liked The Girl on the Train!" or "I thought this was supposed to be a review." To that I say: maybe I am; I liked it too; and, fair enough. But let me ask you this - why can't it be The Woman on the Train. Is it just because it doesn't sound right? Doesn't sound as fun? And if not, then why not? What does that say about us, as readers? The runaway success of certain titles has been used by the publishing industry to justify a trend which has now overtaken every airport bookstore and Amazon eBook bestseller list.
So, I won't be reading any books that refer to adult women as girls or wives. Words matter. In popular culture - where they turn into Hollywood movie titles or are consumed by highschoolers - they matter especially. These are easy words to get right. So I say we give it a shot.