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‘Rent-a-Wife’ Business Should Get a New Name

Photo: Tom Kelley Archive/Getty Images

An L.A.-based business, Rent-a-Wife offers wives for $40 an hour! What does that mean? Do you get to test-drive marriage before committing? Can you order a woman from a catalogue to accompany you to couples’ dinner parties or an ex’s wedding? Is it like a Craigslist ad that will get you murdered? Nah. Juliette Bresnahan’s business offers services for those of us who are just too busy to get stuff done — and it doesn’t include sex. Clients can chose from packages ranging from the “Starter Wife” to the “Trophy Wife,” who offer monthly assistance with “running errands,” “organizing households,” or “contract negotiations.” Oh, wait. Like a personal assistant! Design Taxi points out that most of the clients are actually really busy women, not lonely-hearted men, so it seems like a worthwhile business and not a prostitution front. Perhaps (even though Fox Business said the name was really clever) Bresnahan should reconsider what she’s calling this service, because it both conjures up some kind of perverted domestic fantasy and equates being a wife to being a servant/personal assistant with great skill in negotiating a contract. Some alternate name suggestions: “Rent-a-Temp” or “Rent-a-Situtational-Personal-Assistant.” That last one has a nice ring to it.

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