“You All Know the Story of the Other Woman,” by Anne Sexton, is very realistic in the poet’s attitude toward her but unrealistic in the poet’s portrayal of her. Most women who know that their husbands are cheating or have cheated on them comfort themselves by thinking of the “other woman” not as a person but as a mere object.

In the poem, Sexton says that the other woman only knows him for his flesh and the few moments spent together. This rationalization allows her to believe that she is the only woman who knows him the she does. This portrayal is believable because we want it to be and because it does not hurt so much as it would if we thought of her the way that we think of ourselves, and it reassures us that we are the “real” women because he always comes back to us. We try not to remember that he always goes back to her, too.

Although the portrayal is believable, it is neither realistic nor accurate. It gives us, at best, a stereotype, and we all know that when we stereotype someone, we are making assumptions that are false and we know the consequences of that.