Wifeswap and Society

Wife Swap

Until this assignment, I had never been assigned to watch a show and not sat through the entire thing, no matter how boring or uninterested I was. This show however was very interesting but when it got to the point where you question if it is possible that there are such people in the world, it becomes unbearable and I turned it off about ten minutes before it ended. From the class I learned that some progress was made in both families, but I do not regret missing that in exchange for a few minutes less of spoiled Barbie.

The two families in the show, like all in the series, are polar opposites. One family consists of strictly feminist parents with children who are well educated (via home school) and are taught everything to be an independent female. The other family consists of one parent who is actually the child, but runs her two parents as if they were the children. Before the swap, we got to see a little bit into the lives of both families.

In the feminist household, the mother is very determined to make sure her daughters grow up to be self sufficient and dependent from men. Like many radical families, the girls are home schooled so that they are not influenced by common society’s beliefs. The girls are not allowed to wear makeup, wear certain clothes, or do anything that is not considered enriching for their minds. They are taught how to cook and have to provide meals for the family on certain days of the week. Their father takes them outside and teaches them the mechanics of cars so that they will always know how to fix that flat tire or change engine fluids.

In complete contrast is the other family, consisted of two “adults” and their only child, a daughter who is known to her and her only friends, her parents, as a princess. This family is all about “sparkling” and everything is about appearances, putting the girl into every beauty pageant she can be in. The girl is not responsible for anything other than looking “good” and her parents do everything for her. She does not have to do any housework and her parents even do all her homework for her so that she has time for herself. They have a Christmas tree that the parents use to give the girl a present every single day of the year to see how loved and appreciated she is.

When the wives get swapped, both women go into homes that are not very welcome to their opposing views. Both women get kicked out of the other household at least once. The feminist household does not like being told they should be wearing makeup