Adding my own speculation in the comments, it could be a gendered inversion of the phrase "trophy wife?" Taxidermy is also referred to trophies. So when Colonel Sassacre was taxidermied, maybe it reflected on the Condense's view of only seeing him as a trophy husband, or object? She does have a previous instance of treating a man as an object: the Psiioniic.

I can see an innocent young Jake Harley or John Crocker not seeing how insidious the origins of this tradition is, and just thinking that thats what you do to the people you love. So they continued the Condense's actions.