Ad Feminam, Part 2: Chez-Elle

Do You Want to Make Men OBEY YOU?

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I can't help thinking that there is something missing from the end of ...now her husband comes home at night to help her. Help her what? "...rearrange the furniture"? "...proofread her doctoral dissertation"? "...have an orgasm"?

I'm guessing the missing phrase is "...with the housework". "Chez elle" is French for "at her house", and all manner of things could be going on there, but let's be honest: sex is all well and good, but at the end of the day, wouldn't most women really rather just put up their feet and have a man slavishly vacuum and put things away? (Even if it means she has to suffer through the STRONGEST perfume she ever used.)

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That symbol, by the way, is an actual Chinese word, and they didn't just grab it at random for exoticism; it's the word for "to love", and I never would have found this out without the help of Tian, who has a really terrific blog called Hanzi Smatter, "dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters in Western culture", and who pointed me here.