You Can ALWAYS Do Better Than Your Husband?

In a widely circulated clip from the Call Her Daddy podcast, host Alex Cooper and actress Sophia Bush told women who are unhappy in their marriages that they can “always do better” and should leave. “Maybe I shouldn’t leave this marriage because can I even get better? And the answer is always yes,” Cooper said. She dismissed the idea that it might be “too late” or that a woman is “too old” to want more as “patriarchy.” The comment has sparked significant backlash, and this episode of Amala Ekpunobi’s show dissects why she believes this advice is not only wrong but destructive.

The Philosophy of “Getting Reps” in Marriage

The core of the argument Cooper and Bush present is that a woman’s personal happiness, desires, and self-actualization should be the primary drivers of her romantic life—even within marriage. Bush, who has been married three times, referred to her past relationships as “reps,” a term usually used for practice sets in a gym. Ekpunobi zeroes in on this language as deeply revealing. “Do you see how that not only trivializes marriage, but it trivializes the other person that you're in a relationship with?” she asks. “If I'm by myself just doing reps, what does that make the other person in the marriage? The prop, the weight that I'm using to get those reps in?”