I’ve only ever seen it as complimentary too!

It exists in the same bucket as “dudes rock” in my brain

with both wife guy and dudes rock - it has an "ok hell yeah buddy lol" tone, where you're into it and not ironically, but you grant there could be a potential downside

OK this is easier to understand thank you

The first time I ever heard it was with the guy that was like "I really love my wife, yeah she's plus sized but I still love her" and he was both really into and also kinda shitting on his wife, so idk now

Hooooboy yeah that’ll do it

Oh wait I figured it out, that guy was CURVY wife guy, that's my bad, I was emPHASIZING the wrong part

He was Twitter main character back in the before times like 2015 or something? I just remember it was like an IG anniversary post and it was brutal

This is also how I've thought of it, fwiw

Also same

I first heard of it in the context of some YouTuber who kept filming after his wife fell over a cliff

www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clau...

In mine too, I have always heard and used it as a compliment

I've seen it used derogatorially before, but usually that context is about "dude who awkwardly, monomaniacally, and performatively makes every conversation about his marriage" rather than "dude who loves his wife"

Gotta be honest, I've never been sure myself.

I saw it as a term to live up to

As a wife guy, how you read the term is like a Rorschach test.

Ahhhh

There is guy who loves his wife, and then there is Wife Guy, man whos brand is "man i love my wife, pay no attention to the other horrible things I've done". It's the straight man version of Ellen.

I just realized I should change my wireless setup at home to "Wifi Guy"

Yeah

The password is “Eric” right

yes but don't tell anyone

Hey fellas

I’ve seen it used as an insult, but like contextually, esp. after that Try Guy was caught cheating

not only did i think of it as a compliment, i also think of it like “ladies is uncles too” as in i am a kind of wife guy

In my experience it started as derogatory (woah look at this dude who just won’t stop talking about his wife) and is now neutral to complimentary.

I’d never before seen it treated as an insult

yeah it's always been a positive

It got twisted into an insult when public-facing wife guys like John Mulaney and Ned from the Try Guys were found to be with other women. A guy who got famous speaking nicely about his wife is now a red flag.

I think that guy should try thinking less

I’ve seen it used derogatorily for John Mulaney and Adam Levine.

TIL Adam Levine was married so maybe I’m the one who’s out of touch

Also Ned from the Try Guys. People who were super vocal about being the married one and made it part of their public identity, but behind the scenes were treating their wives like garbage

Hell no, I’m still a proud wife guy. I dragged her to the Ann Arbor show but the most excited I got was that she got to meet you so y’all could talk fundraising.

I think we moved in pretty quick on that one yeah

Good hustle, coaches

I think it's context. For me it's... Wife Guy (complimentary): Loves his wife and makes sure she knows it. Not performative, but genuine. Wife Guy (derogatory): Uses acts that are at best the bare minimum in a relationship to gain applause and clout.

I truly don’t think I have ever seen the second example in real life, wow

I mean I’ve seen that guy obviously, but not with that descriptor

I think OG wife Guy was that. Made a long post about how much he loves his wife and took three seconds to milkshake duck him as misogynist.

Also completely forgot about Cliff Wife guy but I guess I was viewing “Cliff wife“ as its own discrete entity and not necessarily as a subset of wife guy

I only know "Asian wife guy" being derogatory everything else seems like neutral at worst lol

I always thought of it like being a beastie boy. Something to aim for.