So, which are you?

I looked at this and started thinking -- first about that old Next song that found itself stuck in everyone's head around my way, and second about how happily women cling to the term "wifey" and how selectively *cough* men sling it around. Personally, I've never been particularly moved by titles, and especially not the title "wifey," but that might be because I'm not a 19-year-old.

The slideshow, which appears on Essence.com, illustrates the difference between a wife and a wifey, likening the difference to that between renting and owning. That's big. Without completely ripping off every single item in the slideshow, I will say this: renting is supposed to be temporary while owning, by definition, is a bit more permanent -- even in this economic climate and with the dismal state of marriage and divorce rates in this country.

When we rent, our landlord remains responsible for most of the incidentals: you don't have to call a plumber or an electrician, in theory, you just hit up the folks who collect the rent and have them send over a Mr. Fix-It and move on with your day. Does this mean when you're wifey someone other than your man supposed to be taking care of your incidentals? And they wonder why we keep a freak on standby most of the time.

When you own, you're coming out of your pockets for things as simple as having trash removed from your property to having running water. Are you really ready for that? In case my analogy lost you, the general idea is that having a wifey isn't nearly as big a responsibility as having a wife is. Not that women are property or anything, but that's not the point that struck me the most anyway, so we'll move on.

Several guys weighed in on the topic, and one said a man who has a wifey -- not a wife -- is basically undervaluing what that woman is probably worth. Well, now we're getting to the good stuff. At first I thought this was a nice way of saying "men throw scraps and women keep happily settling," but now I'm starting to think of the term "wifey" as the proverbial "he's just afraid of commitment" phase, which means the issue is not just men who are throwing scraps it's also women who are making excuses. It's always good, albeit not always easy, to know what you're worth, but how far are we each going to really evaluate that? And once you know, what do you do?

After going through that slideshow, I came to the conclusion that "wifey" is a title a man gives his girlfriend when he doesn't want to hear her mouth about a ring or anything "extra," and as a bonus, said girlfriend, while swearing her title is just as good as that of a Mrs., works even harder toward promotion from "wifey" status. What a wonderful world.

While marriage is not for every man and woman, pretty much everyone wants to be taken seriously at some point, right? So, are you for rent or for sale?