And in the the real world...
The staring can be bad, but walk past a bus full of builders in any country and you are going to get looked at. Dress accordingly for your situation and you'll be fine in most areas of your life. My wife routinely walks through Satwa with no problems.
The open beach can be a problem but has calmed down over the years as men fined for staring or loitering. Many people know there own 'secret' part of beach and there is the beach park which has life guards keeping roving packs of men away. Both undercover and uniformed police patrol the beach regularly if you feel you are under any threat.
There is a huge gap between rich and poor but there are many 'normal' people in between. There are loads of westerners here that live a 'modest' lifestyle of saving, not living to excess and enjoying a meal out or a drink around payday while stopping in with DVD's at the end of the month.
Driving can be a nightmare but it's confined to certain areas - Dubai-AD and Sharjah Bypass being the worst. You'll get the odd idiot everywhere but going from The Creek to Mall Of Emirates isn't really that bad once you get used to it.
As well as shopping and drinking you can also do scuba diving, golf, camping, dune bashing, jet ski ing, kite flying, boot camp, body toning, gym, spinning, swimming, pilates, tennis, squash, ski ing, snowboarding, cinema, photography, paint, team sports, fish, martial arts or volunteer for a charity.
Prostitution is not everywhere and confined to handful of bars and clubs, everyone knows what ones these are so are easily avoided. Other bars may have one or two working girls in them from time to time while many to not allow any at all.
Customer service is pretty rubbish to be honest but again you persevere, if you're husband speaks Arabic, he will have a much easier time with government run bodies sorting out visas and DEWA.