Enormous Maids Analysis

The Hispanic Nannies of Beverly Hills

In June 2013, The Huffington Post came out with the article, “Devious Maids is not as bad as we thought,” in which the Latina community gave some positive feedback on the Lifetime remake of the Mexican novella “Devious Maids” (Erazo). The Hispanic community agreed that this show is highly important because it sets the stage for further discussion and critical thought on what it means to be a Hispanic, immigrant woman working as a domestic in the United States. Furthermore, the question rises, “Why are these women in these jobs in the first place?” The answer is gendered wages and lack of employment opportunity in 3rd world countries, which forces women to migrate to 1st world countries in order to fill
Her character is depicted as hyper-sexualized as she is shown having an affair with her male employer, Adrian. In the scene where the female employer confronts Flora, we can grasp the tension in the household as she threatens to deport Flora if the affair continues. Afterwards, Flora writes a letter explaining that she was raped but before the audience can learn the truth about those claims, she is murdered. The abuse of power by Flora’s employers depicts the household relations between the employer and employee. By threatening to deport Flora, her female employer uses lack of citizenship as leverage to get what she wants, highlighting the inequality of their residency status. Without legal protection, immigrants like Flora depend on their employers for security and protection and are vulnerable to abuse (Hochschild, 104). Another example of the abuse of power is the husband’s relationship with Flora. He see’s Flora as a sexual object and justifies taking advantage of her because of his pre-conceived notion of her as inferior as a woman of color and lower status. With no alternate source of security and income, immigrant female domestics are subject to sexual abuse and are extremely
Government’s of 3rd world countries are the macro-structures that engage in globalization by opening up to competitive markets with cheap goods and labor. The direct result of this trend is the perpetuation of the “Care Drain”, which forces women to leave 3rd world countries seeking high-demand jobs as domestics in 1st world countries. Aspiring for a better future, these women “work in private households, where they are socially isolated, with little potential for collective voice and few prospects for job mobility” (Hochschild, 73). With no ensured job security, they have no choice but to love the children of their employers as if they were their own and tolerate the mental and physical abuse from their employers because they are trapped in these types of hierarchical