Desperate Housewives

Media today gives us gender stereotypes. From movies to television to even music videos, the entertainment industry gives people the image that males are more dominate over females by showing females as the foremost parental figure, homemakers, and sex objects. However, ABC’s new hit show Desperate Housewives quickly made a dent in American pop culture not for these gender stereotypes, but the truth behind the most dominant female stereotype of housewives.

Desperate Housewives goes behind the scenes into the secret lives of housewives in a perfect suburb. From the outside, everything looks perfect: perfect family houses with the white picket fence, well-kept yards, and happy families. The show tells the story of a group of girlfriends in the 40s and their lives. They all follow the rules of their gender by taking care of their families and husbands as the job of a typical housewife. The husbands, while the show isn’t featured on them, have most power over the household, while the wives work under them. On the show, there is Lynette (Felicity Huffman), who quit her high powered job to stay home to take care of her children, even though she was making more than her husband. Bree (Marcia Cross), another stay at home mom, is a duplicate of Martha Stewart and known for her perfectionism. Susan (Teri Hatcher) is a divorced mother and shares custody of her daughter with her ex. Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) is an ex-model with a rich husband and really nice house and stays home while her husband works and has control of her. Their main roles follow the gender descriptions that the public is used to. However, once you get past the image, it is another story.

Past the closed door, after normal hours, there is a life that these women have that no one else knows about. This makes this show different than the others out there that put down the female figure, by doing it in a different way of showing their problems more than just making them a powerless figure. Instead of showing all the women as June Cleaver clones, they show the reality of the stress housewives go through trying to keep their image intact. Susan is just desperate for love, and is a big klutz when it comes to it, the leading cause for all her mistakes. Gabrielle, while having the life of her dreams, is having an affair with the 17 year-old that mows her lawn and most recently is trying to find ways to keep her mother-in-law from telling her husband. Bree’s perfectionism is the cause of all her problems. She tries her best to keep her perfect image of the perfect family up, but it is what is driving her husband away. She’s such a perfectionist that she doesn’t want anyone to know that they are in marriage counseling. Lynette has become so overwhelmed with the stress of caring for her four kids that she’s become addicted to their ADD medication. She has realized her addiction and has a breakdown when she tries to relax, but her children never give her the chance. After she gets a chance to get away, the other women go looking for her, and in a short scene, Lynette tells them that she is a failure which causes the rest of them to admit their problems.