Gabrielle Reece Tries To Clarify Submissive Wife Statement But Ends Up Sticking That Glass Slipper In Her Mouth Again
I feel bad for Gabrielle Reece at this point. She’s out there just trying to promote her new book My Foot Is Too Big for the Glass Slipper but she just keeps sticking that glass slipper-clad foot in her mouth. After her comment last week to the effect of “all women should be submissive to their husbands,” she took to the late night show circuit to continue pimping her book — I mean, to clarify that statement. The pro volleyball star attempted to explain herself further on “Chelsea Lately” with Chelsea Handler to no avail.
“What I said…was that I was choosing to take on this service or submissive role,” Reece, 43, explained of the message in her book. “And the feminists got up in arms. Because they took it out of context. And Laird said to me — he started laughing — he goes, ‘Really, did you tell them you think that but you don’t actually do that at home?'”
So does this mean she’s not submissive? That it’s some sort of joke? Or maybe she really wants to be submissive because that’s what a wife should be, but she’s not in reality because her husband Laird Hamilton laughed at her statement? I’m so confused.
“I’m just saying I think that it’s nice if one person takes on the female [role] and one person takes on the male [role],” she clarified.
“Clarified” was their word, not mine. My tag would have been “Open mouth. Insert glass slipper” because turning her unfortunate book title into the punchline of every joke never gets old for me.
After that interview, it sounds like Reece went from offending feminists alone to adding in a jab at the LGBT community. Now that I think about it, you can pretty much add anyone in the human race. It’s nice if one person takes the “male role” and one person takes the “female role”? How do you decide which is which? Because if it’s 1928 you probably don’t have Google to help you figure it out.
I started off saying I felt bad for Reece, and part of me still does. As newlyweds my husband and I quickly realized we were trying to merge two alpha personalities into one family unit. It caused a lot of strife to say the least. Like Hamilton and Reece we nearly got divorced after a few years of marriage, so I get the essence of what she’s saying. Relationships work best when the couples compliment each other rather than compete with one another.
It took us a few years to figure out the dynamic that worked for us, but in the end there is no “submissive” partner and a single “dominant” partner. Instead, there is a give and take that allows for balance in the relationship, rather than a constant power struggle. Ebb and flow. Yin and yang. Couldn’t she have used one of these pairs of words rather than antiquated “male role” and “female role”?
Oh Gabby, I hope your ghost writer is better at expressing herself than you are or that book is going to suck.
(photo: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com)
