Gender Roles In Bre Van De Kamp's The Real Housewife
Desperate Housewives In many television shows, the role of a character can cause the character to be portrayed a stereotypical way that promotes gender roles and what is expected from someone based off of gender. The television series The Real Housewives is based off of rich, beautiful women who put their everyday lives on television. Being a reality show, these women show the world how luxurious and easy it is to be a housewife. Parties, friends, family and drama, these women live a life that every working woman wishes they could have. The image these housewives portray, make the role of a housewife look like a piece of cake. Their life is a party and everything is handed to them by their hard working husbands. However, in the television
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drama, Desperate Housewives, this show follows the daily struggles and roles of four women. Each of these women can relate to everyday women un like the “Real” Housewives. Although Desperate Housewives is publicized as a dramatic sitcom, it relates to its viewers by the roles of the women and their daily struggles in life. Desperate Housewives is a series that follows the lives of four friends which is told from the point of view of their dead neighbor who committed suicide in the first episode. Gaby Solis, Bre Van de Kamp, Susan Delfino, and Lynette Scavo all struggle with the loss of their friend, but soon discover the reason behind her suicide. Determined to get to the bottom of it, these women face struggles and events that shape their entire lives. Wisteria Lane, seemingly perfect suburban neighborhood, has more secrets and crimes than the vertical boards on its white picket fences. The characters each of these women play throughout the series, shape the views of the gender roles of women in todays society. Bre Van de Kamp is the typical, conservative, Martha Stewart housewife.
Her house is spotless, her hair is always in place, and her family is picture perfect. She is very active in her church and is always willing to help out others in order to better her reputation. Bre is known for her amazing cooking and her ability to be a leader. Everyone loves Bre and knows she is capable of doing anything. From baking perfect pies for new neighbors, lending money to those in need and having a successful cookbook, Bre seems to have it all. Her image is flawless and she is the definition of perfection, but to Bre, there is more hidden behind the fame of her picture perfect life. Bre’s greatest strength is hiding the imperfect things in her life. Inside her beautiful victorian home, she struggles to keep her cheating husband content and from walking out. Her 1940’s wardrobe and perfect hair hides her homosexual son and his hatred towards her. The baking and successful cookbook pays for her rebellious daughters careless mistakes and reputation. Her church attendance covers up her strong, personal relationship with alcohol. Bre’s role in the show is a character that relates to those who battle to save their marriage, struggle to keep their kids in line and those who fight to try and keep their life in one piece. In the end, Bre’s character found happiness in her “perfect” life. She cared less about her image and more about what she could do to better for her family and life. The role of Bre’s character speaks to those women who try too hard to meet certain requirements to have a perfect
life. Gabrielle Solis is seen as the sexiest character in the show. Being a former model from New York City, Gaby finds herself struggling to fit in on Wisteria Lane. Gaby lives a life of luxury. She is glamorous, seductive, mysterious and extremely manipulative. Her role is to look good by her husbands side. Gaby is viewed as a sex object. She takes advantage of her outstanding looks in order to get what she wants. Handed everything to her by her husband, Gaby is never satisfied. Carlos, her loving husband, is never home and spends most of his nights at the office. Gaby, being the center of attention and always wanting more, finds herself very unhappy. Gaby’s actions toward being lonely at home, result in having an affair on her husband with her 17 year old gardener. Gaby is always looking for attention and happiness, but soon realizes that she is looking in all the wrong places. After fixing her marriage, Gaby agrees to start a family. Going from a materialistic woman to a mom was a huge transition for her. She started to notice the meaningful things in life, rather than the temporary items that brought her happiness. She becomes less self absorbed and more grateful of the life that she has. Her character becomes more humble and meaningful. Her role which was seen at first as every mans dream wife, changes and is viewed in a more respectful way. She is taken more seriously and is not just seen for her good looks. The message her character portrays is that there is more to life than material things. Gaby finds happiness in the memories she makes with the people she is surrounded by and becomes more aware with the real world around her. Beauty fades overtime and possessions will not always bring joy. Susan Delfino is seen as the sweet and emotional housewife. Her character plays the role that many women can relate to. Thinking she was happily married, Susan struggles to cope with her husband leaving her for a young, blond, woman. Her perfect world quickly changed to an “all so real” world. From married to now divorced, Susan becomes the typical emotional woman that is always looking for love. She finds herself feeling hopeless without a man in her life and feels as if a male role in her life is necessary. Fearful of her future, Susan begins to worry if she is capable of being a good single mother for her daughter. Susan then becomes determined to find love. She is capable of going to any lengths to find “Mr. Right”. Susan becomes more determined to find love than being a mother. She is so caught up in finding a man, that she quickly forgets that she has a job of being a mother. The role that Susan’s character plays can relate to many women who have been in her situation. She faces many scares that single mothers have or will have to face. Mistake after mistake, Susan realizes that she has to get her life back on track. Faced with new obstacles and tasks in her life, Susan has to learn to balance her life. She now has to find ways to be a mother, friend, employee and set time aside for her love life all at the same time. Balancing and making time to get her life on track puts a major emotional effect on Susan, which many women today can relate to. The last housewife is Lynette Scavo. The role of Lynette’s character is the most realistic character of all. The events that take place in her life, represent the struggles of modern day women. Having a very successful job, Lynette saw herself retiring later on in life. She loved what she did and enjoyed working. She never thought that she would leaver her job for another. After having twins and two more children, Lynette found it difficult to juggle back and forth. From successful business woman to a stay-at-home mother of four, Lynette struggled to decide if she is supposed to be a “career woman” or mother. She did not want to miss out on watching her children grow up, but she also was not ready to give up her job and let go of everything she worked for. Lynette saw that if she quit her job to be a mother, she failed in being successful. Knowing that she was not capable of doing both, Lynette sacrifices everything she earned and quit her job. At first, Lynette did not fit the role of being a mother. She hated staying at home and felt that her time was being wasted. Her boys drove her crazy and she could not handle the screaming of the baby. Lynette did not have the patience for being a mother anymore and quickly went back to work. Having her husband fill in her place, Lynette was happy back at work. Realizing what all she was missing out on, she soon did not feel right being away from the kids. Lynette finally quit her job for good and was permanently a stay at home mom. She got to see her kids grow up and make her proud and that was her biggest accomplishment. Lynette’s decisions and sacrifices made throughout her life give a better understanding of a stay-at-home mom. She gives up everything to keep her family together and healthy. Lynette’s role relates to many women and shows a realistic picture of what motherhood is. In conclusion, the roles of these four women are pretty accurate of what the average woman deals with daily. Unlike the Real Housewives where only the glitz and glamour is seen, the show Desperate Housewives digs deeper into the lives of everyday women. The struggles, sacrifices, challenges and changes these women face, show a more realistic image of the modern day woman. Some may disagree and say that the characters of Desperate Housewives play stereo typical roles of women, but I believe the series gives a clear description of what women face everyday.
Works Cited
Beeden, A & Bruin, J 2009, ‘The Office : Articulations of National Identity in Television Format Adaptation’, Television & New Media, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 3-19, SAGE
Bonner Johnny, August 5, 2010, Portrayal of Gender Roles in Desperate Housewives, Arts and Entertainment: Movies TV
Kendal, Shari and Deborah Tannen: “Discourse and Gender” in: The Handbook of discourse analysis, ed. By Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen and Heidi Hamilton, Blackwell Publishing, Ltd. 2003
drama, Desperate Housewives, this show follows the daily struggles and roles of four women. Each of these women can relate to everyday women un like the “Real” Housewives. Although Desperate Housewives is publicized as a dramatic sitcom, it relates to its viewers by the roles of the women and their daily struggles in life. Desperate Housewives is a series that follows the lives of four friends which is told from the point of view of their dead neighbor who committed suicide in the first episode. Gaby Solis, Bre Van de Kamp, Susan Delfino, and Lynette Scavo all struggle with the loss of their friend, but soon discover the reason behind her suicide. Determined to get to the bottom of it, these women face struggles and events that shape their entire lives. Wisteria Lane, seemingly perfect suburban neighborhood, has more secrets and crimes than the vertical boards on its white picket fences. The characters each of these women play throughout the series, shape the views of the gender roles of women in todays society. Bre Van de Kamp is the typical, conservative, Martha Stewart housewife.
Her house is spotless, her hair is always in place, and her family is picture perfect. She is very active in her church and is always willing to help out others in order to better her reputation. Bre is known for her amazing cooking and her ability to be a leader. Everyone loves Bre and knows she is capable of doing anything. From baking perfect pies for new neighbors, lending money to those in need and having a successful cookbook, Bre seems to have it all. Her image is flawless and she is the definition of perfection, but to Bre, there is more hidden behind the fame of her picture perfect life. Bre’s greatest strength is hiding the imperfect things in her life. Inside her beautiful victorian home, she struggles to keep her cheating husband content and from walking out. Her 1940’s wardrobe and perfect hair hides her homosexual son and his hatred towards her. The baking and successful cookbook pays for her rebellious daughters careless mistakes and reputation. Her church attendance covers up her strong, personal relationship with alcohol. Bre’s role in the show is a character that relates to those who battle to save their marriage, struggle to keep their kids in line and those who fight to try and keep their life in one piece. In the end, Bre’s character found happiness in her “perfect” life. She cared less about her image and more about what she could do to better for her family and life. The role of Bre’s character speaks to those women who try too hard to meet certain requirements to have a perfect
life. Gabrielle Solis is seen as the sexiest character in the show. Being a former model from New York City, Gaby finds herself struggling to fit in on Wisteria Lane. Gaby lives a life of luxury. She is glamorous, seductive, mysterious and extremely manipulative. Her role is to look good by her husbands side. Gaby is viewed as a sex object. She takes advantage of her outstanding looks in order to get what she wants. Handed everything to her by her husband, Gaby is never satisfied. Carlos, her loving husband, is never home and spends most of his nights at the office. Gaby, being the center of attention and always wanting more, finds herself very unhappy. Gaby’s actions toward being lonely at home, result in having an affair on her husband with her 17 year old gardener. Gaby is always looking for attention and happiness, but soon realizes that she is looking in all the wrong places. After fixing her marriage, Gaby agrees to start a family. Going from a materialistic woman to a mom was a huge transition for her. She started to notice the meaningful things in life, rather than the temporary items that brought her happiness. She becomes less self absorbed and more grateful of the life that she has. Her character becomes more humble and meaningful. Her role which was seen at first as every mans dream wife, changes and is viewed in a more respectful way. She is taken more seriously and is not just seen for her good looks. The message her character portrays is that there is more to life than material things. Gaby finds happiness in the memories she makes with the people she is surrounded by and becomes more aware with the real world around her. Beauty fades overtime and possessions will not always bring joy. Susan Delfino is seen as the sweet and emotional housewife. Her character plays the role that many women can relate to. Thinking she was happily married, Susan struggles to cope with her husband leaving her for a young, blond, woman. Her perfect world quickly changed to an “all so real” world. From married to now divorced, Susan becomes the typical emotional woman that is always looking for love. She finds herself feeling hopeless without a man in her life and feels as if a male role in her life is necessary. Fearful of her future, Susan begins to worry if she is capable of being a good single mother for her daughter. Susan then becomes determined to find love. She is capable of going to any lengths to find “Mr. Right”. Susan becomes more determined to find love than being a mother. She is so caught up in finding a man, that she quickly forgets that she has a job of being a mother. The role that Susan’s character plays can relate to many women who have been in her situation. She faces many scares that single mothers have or will have to face. Mistake after mistake, Susan realizes that she has to get her life back on track. Faced with new obstacles and tasks in her life, Susan has to learn to balance her life. She now has to find ways to be a mother, friend, employee and set time aside for her love life all at the same time. Balancing and making time to get her life on track puts a major emotional effect on Susan, which many women today can relate to. The last housewife is Lynette Scavo. The role of Lynette’s character is the most realistic character of all. The events that take place in her life, represent the struggles of modern day women. Having a very successful job, Lynette saw herself retiring later on in life. She loved what she did and enjoyed working. She never thought that she would leaver her job for another. After having twins and two more children, Lynette found it difficult to juggle back and forth. From successful business woman to a stay-at-home mother of four, Lynette struggled to decide if she is supposed to be a “career woman” or mother. She did not want to miss out on watching her children grow up, but she also was not ready to give up her job and let go of everything she worked for. Lynette saw that if she quit her job to be a mother, she failed in being successful. Knowing that she was not capable of doing both, Lynette sacrifices everything she earned and quit her job. At first, Lynette did not fit the role of being a mother. She hated staying at home and felt that her time was being wasted. Her boys drove her crazy and she could not handle the screaming of the baby. Lynette did not have the patience for being a mother anymore and quickly went back to work. Having her husband fill in her place, Lynette was happy back at work. Realizing what all she was missing out on, she soon did not feel right being away from the kids. Lynette finally quit her job for good and was permanently a stay at home mom. She got to see her kids grow up and make her proud and that was her biggest accomplishment. Lynette’s decisions and sacrifices made throughout her life give a better understanding of a stay-at-home mom. She gives up everything to keep her family together and healthy. Lynette’s role relates to many women and shows a realistic picture of what motherhood is. In conclusion, the roles of these four women are pretty accurate of what the average woman deals with daily. Unlike the Real Housewives where only the glitz and glamour is seen, the show Desperate Housewives digs deeper into the lives of everyday women. The struggles, sacrifices, challenges and changes these women face, show a more realistic image of the modern day woman. Some may disagree and say that the characters of Desperate Housewives play stereo typical roles of women, but I believe the series gives a clear description of what women face everyday.
Works Cited
Beeden, A & Bruin, J 2009, ‘The Office : Articulations of National Identity in Television Format Adaptation’, Television & New Media, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 3-19, SAGE
Bonner Johnny, August 5, 2010, Portrayal of Gender Roles in Desperate Housewives, Arts and Entertainment: Movies TV
Kendal, Shari and Deborah Tannen: “Discourse and Gender” in: The Handbook of discourse analysis, ed. By Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen and Heidi Hamilton, Blackwell Publishing, Ltd. 2003