First Paragraph
Firstly, one of the representations in Desperate Housewives represents women as an 'image'. Laura Mulvey's theory of the 'male gaze' can support this where men do the looking and women are to be looked at. The 'male gaze' pervades over Gabrielle as she is seen as the 'sexiest' character. Gabrielle is almost always dressed in tight fitting clothes, usually dresses and high heels. Also, her make up consists of heavy eye make up and dark red lipstick to show that she is aroused. She also dresses to fulfil the male fantasy as she once dressed up in a kinky nurses outfit which consisted of a nurses hat, white bra and skirt and red suspenders. This is obviously to attract the opposite sex which she does successfully. During Season one of Desperate Housewives Gabrielle gets bored of her husband and finds satisfaction with her seventeen-year-old gardener. This supports the 'male gaze' because teenagers would watch this programme and envy John because they would want to be in his position, as she did once tell him that all her teenage fantasies had come true. This represents Gabrielle as extremely 'desperate' because she is having sex with someone who is not even legal. Overall, this represents women as sexually frustrated and in need of constant attention. In one clip she tries to act maternal when John hurts his finger and she slowly and seductively kisses it better. Here the finger can be seen as a phallic symbol representing the lack of action/attention Gabrielle is receiving from her husband, Carlos. Greer quotes: "every woman knows that regardless of her other achievements, she is a failure if she is not beautiful." Gabrielle takes advantage of her good looks and her irresistible model figure when John tries to get out of the situation of having sex with her but cannot seem to resist when she undoes her blouse. Here, she uses her looks to get what she wants, as does Carlos for business purposes: "If he wants to grab your arse, you let him." Carlos says this with a snigger after Gabrielle complains to him that a businessman whom he makes a lot of money from is constantly trying to "grab her arse". Again, this supports Laura Mulvey's theory that women are represented as 'objects' and passive.
secpnd paragraph...
Edie is also a character who can be seen as a 'spectacle'. Edie=promiscuous is constantly trying to seduce men, in order to do this she wears very revealing tops which show a lot of cleavage, for example when she was washing her car she wore short shorts and a shirt with only a few buttons done which meant most of her stomach was on show and a lot of cleavange . can be seen as 'man-devouring monster; because she tries it with everyone, like Gabi once did with Tom (season 2)( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7xsptPexJ0&feature=related ). This is the idealistic view men have of women washing cars, for example in the song 'My neck my back' by Khia(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd4PtXKPH04 )and one of Jessica Simpson's video too. This is for the obvious reason that the woman is doing a lot of bending over. Also, Edie is a blonde and fits into the stereotype of a blonde= obsessed with sex. This could be linked to Fatal Attraction, Alex=blonde, single and obsessive(bunny boiler). Another link is that the rest of the women feel intimidated by Edie, like Alex. Edie goes with Susan's ex and Gabrielle's ex. She could also be seen as similar to Samantha from 'Sex and the City' who is also blonde, single and the most sexual out of all of them, when she meets a nun she is horrified: "So you haven't had sex? Never had sex?...have you ever masturbated?"
Sunday, 6 January 2008
Tuesday, 1 January 2008
Essay plan:
Representation of women in Desperate Housewives.
My hypothesis: Is DH just another example of feminist backlash and cultural sexism?
Here is what my paragraphs will be about, not in proper order yet:
Genre:
DH fuses the generic conventions of comedy and drama to convey the paradoxical relationship of feminism and patriarchy, and how this impacts upon the experience of modern American womanhood in the new millenium.
Mulvey and the male gaze
Gabrielle is always dressed wearing sexy outfits, this links to the 'male gaze' because she is shown as the sexiest out of all of them. “the controlling male gaze”, presenting “woman as image” (or ‘spectacle’) and man as “bearer of the look”. Men do the looking; women are there to be looked at. Gabrielle is an example of this because she uses her looks to get what she wants. An example of this is when she seduces young boys, for example John ( .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VICGlYcJrBE&feature=related ). This representation is completely DESPERATE!the finger that she kisses/sucks in this clip is a phallic symbol (penis). This could be seen as supporting the male gaze because young boys would probably lovee to be in Johns position. A quote from Greer which supports this: "every woman knows that regardless of her other achievments, she is a failur if she is not beautiful." >>used to be a model. Carlos uses Gabi for business purposes "If he wants to grab your arse, you let him."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WOwlk4kzZw&feature=related
Edie is also a character who can be seen as a 'spectacle'. Edie is constantly trying to seduce men, in order to do this she wears very revealing tops which show a lot of cleavage, for example when she was washing her car she wore short shorts and a shirt with only a few buttons done which meant most of her stomach was on show and a lot of cleavange ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7xsptPexJ0&feature=related ). This is the idealistic view men have of women washing cars, for example in the song 'My neck my back' by Khia(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd4PtXKPH04 )and one of Jessica Simpson's video too. This is for the obvious reason that the woman is doing a lot of bending over. Also, Edie is a blonde and fits into the stereotype of a blonde= obsessed with sex. This could be linked to Fatal Attraction, Alex=blonde, single and obsessive(bunny boiler). Another link is that the rest of the women feel intimidated by Edie, like Alex. Edie goes with Susan's ex and Gabrielle's ex. She could also be seen as similar to Samantha from 'Sex and the City' who is also blonde, single and the most sexual out of all of them, when she meets a nun she is horrified: "So you haven't had sex? Never had sex?...have you ever masturbated?"
However, this 'to-be-looked-at-ness' is also present towards men in DH. Brian Singleton develops such a notion to argue that male to-be-looked-at-ness is caught in perpetual cycle of female desire and disappointent. Hegemonic hetrosexual masculinity only to perpetuate the fantasy promised by the spectacle of the male body.
The 'Typical Housewife' (links with representation of women in the past)
The most obvious character who is the 'typical housewife' is Bree she is an obsessive compulsive housewife. She "She was preppy-lovely, if a bit of an ice queen...Her life was neat, her china polished, her designer ensembles perfectly pressed."( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9242816/ ) She tries to be the best mother by using rediculous punishments on her children. She thinks it teaches them good lessons. When at home she is always cleaning, or cooking perfect home made meals for her family. She is constantly taking food around to other peoples houses in baskets (such an old fashioned view of a woman). Her hair is always immaculate. She puts on a brave front infront of everyone, she even tries to hide her daughters pregnancy by pretending she is pregnant to people at home and hiding Danielle so people wont know that the baby is really hers when they return home= does not want a bad reputation.( http://www.boxxet.com/Desperate_Housewives/Video_Desperate_Housewives_4x05_part_2_BREE.19ov9u.d ). Bree is a stereotypical woman . This kitchen/cleaning role was a typical role seen from women since the 70's, especially in adverts. Susan even goes to Bree to ask her to cook a meal when Susan's boyfriend is bringing his parents around because she wants to set the 'perfect' impression and Bree of course is 'perfect'.
Lynette also fits into this stereotype. “Even as they languish in their retrograde cul-de-sac, the women of Wisteria Lane resonate with the history of the last 50 years — feminism, the sexual revolution, the struggle to balance family and career.”( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYhmiAnr6f8&feature=related )She is at home and looks after the kids. Though she did work before her youngest child came along. She works in the same place as her husband and he cannot take it because she is better than him at the job and in general she is more successful and thinks of the better ideas, this frustrates him "I'm not gonna hide behind my wifes skirt."= ashamed, should be bigger and better, be a man! She is seen always in chaos at home, drained ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLXDZ15uNt8&NR=1). Similarly to Bree she does the cooking and cleaning in the house like a proper housewife should. Lynettes clothes are always baggy and she does not look like she has taken ages to get ready unlike Bree who comes across as the perfect 'wifey material'=cooks, cleans and fit. a little about 'wifey material'...http://www.ajc.com/lving/content/custom/blogs/dating/entries/2004/11/30/wifey_material.html
I will link this to 'Wife Swap' which is always a test to see which housewife is best suited, the man never swaps = the wife is being tested to see if she does her job properly or not as a 'housewife' or not. Always two opposites, one working mum and the other is a housewife. I will talk about how this is an objectifying representation because the message is basically 2'is she a good wife or not?' And at this time in society it is hard to define the word 'wife' because some people might still relate it to housewife=looking after the house, kids and husband-making food, whereas some see it as just husband and wife. This is always what the arguements are about in Wife Swap.
Penny Blyth runs two beauty salons and for her, life is all about image. She doesn't do menial jobs such as cooking or cleaning and her non-stop life style leaves little time to spend with her son Harvey. Penny Roberts is far too busy to worry about appearance, with 5 cats, 3 kids, a husband, dog, rabbit and a goldfish to look after and who strongly believes a mother's role is to stay at home with the kids.What happens when they Wife Swap?
"She did no cleaning, the place was disgusting and my family was fed up of microwave meals"-as if it was her responsibility.
media, gender and identity, an introduction.
"gender roles on television became increasingly equal and non -stereotyped." pg 58
"women usually got to be love interests and helpers." pg 64
"the 1992-1993 study found that only 3 per cent of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation." pg 58
"women usually got to be love interests and helpers." pg 64
"the 1992-1993 study found that only 3 per cent of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation." pg 58
Sharon Sharp leads with her study of televisions latest fixation with the housewive and domesticity. The reality TV shows subvert the television rule that women should never express dissatisfaction with housewifery and motherhood. What DH exposes, she argues, is what these shows desperately try to keep hidden, namely our cultures deep ambivalence and contradictory attitudes towards housewifery and the homemaker.
Love
Susan in particular best fits into this paragraph. She is represented as not being able to live without a man. This shows them as not independent without a man and that they are vital in their lives otherwise its chaos.( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKDyH6EUBa4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbfGGOkDFZM) can compare Susan to.
feminism, femininty and popular culture:
"romantic love is pathological, she argued:it is love corrupted by the unequal relationship between the sexes and is used to reproduce patriachy...first, love becomes a woman's vacation, diverting her energies from other pursuits. second, a woman's sense of identity and self-esteem depends on a man's valuation of her as worthy of being loved. third, because romantic love makes women economically dependent on men, it is not about mutual vulnerability but female vulnerability, leaving women open to abuse" Shulamith Firestone thought this pg 73
"the romantic narrative also deals with a basic conflict that Modleski claims faces all women-women's goal in life is meant to be getting a husband, but they must not let it appear to be a goal which is consciously or calculatedly pursued." pg 76
Desperate Housewives Issues and Debates:
housewife roles, feminist attack was because of this. At a time when women are allegedly more empowered, more liberated than at any other time in our history, we seem as DESPERATE as ever.
Sex is the familiar battleground and it was not long before DH enraged family values compaigners. Jessica Anderson of Concerned Women for America describes the show as 'treating infidelity as comedy and sex as gratuitous" (2005). She adds that women are 'allowing themselves to be "attacked" by the toxic immorality DH glorifies'.
President of the PTC (Parents Television Council), Brent Bozell, condemns further the assault of the series on American morality; "DH really should have an even more obvious title, like Cynical Suburban Sluts. It's juts the lastes in a long series of shows that aims to pulverize the cartoonish 1950s black-and-white stereotype of 'Leave It To Beaver', creating in its ancient wake a catty, snarky, amoral cesspool" (2004).
the PTC ralied tens of thousands of its supporters to target the show's sponsors with letters and emails requesting they withdraw their advertising from the show. Companies including Kellogs, Yum! Brands (corporation behind Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell), Lowe's Home Improvement and Tyson Foods kowtowed to the pressure; Tyson, issuing the following statement, said the show was 'not consistent with our core values' . But ABC had little difficulty in replacing lost advertisers. other companies quickly lined up to buy the recently vacated spots and prices leapt from $160,000 to $300,000 for 30 secs (Guthrie 2004). This shows that it is still a popular programme and advertisers are deperate to advertise during the programme because they know a lot of people watch it.
the controversy continues with the now infamous opening on ABC's 'Monday Night Football'. The scripted intro featured Edie Britt in a towel flirting with Philadelphia Eagles receiver Terrell Owens in an emprty locker room. Asking Owens to forgo the game, Edie gets no response until she drops her towel. with a huge smile on his face, Owen says; 'Ah hell, the team's going to have to win this one without me.' Edie leaps into his arms, This made viewers angryand 112 viewers among an audience of 10 million saying it was an exaggeration(Kitman 2004). The damage was done. and The National Football League (NFL) immediately issued a statement distancing themselves from the stunt; the Philadelphia Eagles released a statement saying they wished it had never been aired; and ABC apologised to its viewers saying its promotion was "inappropriate and unsuitable for our 'Monday Night Football' audience" (Flint 2004).
Friday, 21 December 2007
Historical texts i will be looking at:
Fatal Attraction
Dynasty
Dallas
Dynasty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcdhdzfbR_o
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired from 1981 to 1989. The series revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado.
Analysis: This clip is hilarious! Two women: Alexis (yellow) and Krystle (pink) fighting over a man. Alexis is obviously the baddy, she comes across as bitchy (like Edie from DH). She is constantly trying to aggravate Kyrstle. The names themselves reflect the characters, Kyrstle=angelic like. Alexis=conniving. This scene is set in a clothing factory/studio. Alexis is a fashion designer (im guessing). Kyrstle comes along to ask her if she can have a broach that Alexis bought which was in fact Kyrstles. This broach is of sentimental value because it was given to Kyrstle by a...MAN. Alexis tells her it is sobby and she got rid of it. Kyrstle then asks her "aren't you woman enough to understand that?" (the sentimental value). This connotes that women should know how precious a gift from a man is and what it means to a woman. In Kyrstle's case, it obviously means a lot as she starts a fight by grabbing her hair and chucking sequins over her! This fight is over a man, shows woman as man obsessed. Alexis gets to Kyrstle by making her feel jealous about a certain man. At the beginning of the clip, Alexis tells Kyrstle to stop 'gloating' (A feeling of great, often malicious, pleasure or self-satisfaction)=shows they are contstantly trying to compete with eachother.. They are obviously rivals, and here is some information i got on the two characters from the net:
Krystle and Alexis
The rivalry between Blake Carrington's current and former wives became a driver for the melodrama. Alexis resented Krystle's supplanting of her position as mistress of the Carrington household and tried to undermine her at every opportunity.
Alexis caused Krystle's miscarriage and tried repeatedly to ruin her marriage, most notably by finding Krystle's former husband (Samuel) Mark Jennings and proving that their divorce was never finalized (and that, consequently, Krystle's marriage to Blake was invalid).
They had many verbal confrontations. On one occasion Krystle overheard Alexis gossiping about her in an adjoining cubicle at the beauty parlour. Krystle appeared and announced that she too could "throw mud", and tossed a bowl of face mud over Alexis.
There are a handful of trademark catfights, beginning with one in Alexis' art studio on the Carrington estate (in which Krystle won soundly, destroying Alexis's art studio and a painting of Blake in the process. Another in the lily pond, one in a mud pool in a park and a final spat (in Dynasty: The Reunion) in a fashion studio. The verbal spars between Krystle and Alexis also marked one of the first times the word "bitch" was used on US television.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynasty_(TV_series)
From this description, it shows how all the women cared about was the man, he was the object they all wanted and so faught over him. it says it was the first time the word 'bitch' was used on US television. This word is often used as a synonym for "woman". . It is a very offensive word because it dehumanises the woman by referring to her as a female dog.
http://www.saidit.org/archives/jun06/article4.html
Fatal Attraction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYpeKbHKVbU (trailer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZmbXN_pcjI (tormenting the man)
Fatal Attraction is a 1987 thriller about a married man who has a weekend affair with a woman who refuses to allow it to end and who becomes obsessed with him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_Attraction
After reading the synopsis of this film (which i will soon be watching to get a better idea of the rep of women) it totally represents the woman as 'mad', 'crazy', 'man obsessed', 'whore', 'conniving' and many more objectifying words which i can not think of at this present moment.
I have now watched the movie. This movie is where the phrase 'bunny boiler' came from. I now understand. Out of all the women from Desperate Housewives, the one who most relates to Alex is probably Susan because she is the most obsessive. Also Edie can be compared to her, she is single and blonde and comes across as calouss at times, like Alex.
Dallas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3X90dCJAOQ&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvylYy8ccGc&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NhG78xcNWo&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL2GwhyZgSg&NR=1
In all of these clips the women are shown as :
objects to look at "couldn't look that good on a hanger". A guy talking about a dress a woman is wearing, saying that her body makes it look good (pervert).
Present to make the man feel good about himself.
Act as a maternal figure (packing the man's clothes).
Monday, 5 November 2007
Blog buddies
Tanya:
Tanya is my blog buddy from out of my class. Tanya is doing the representation of women in Eastenders. Both our study talks about Laura Mulvey. She also has some books which she has researched, and because we are both doing our independent studies on rep of women i can also research those books.
Zainab
my blog buddie from my class. Zainab is doing representation of women in the crime genre. I think this would help with my coursework because in Desperate housewives the women are not as independent as women would be in the crime genre, so it would be a good comparison.
Comparison of texts
i will be comparing my coursework to 'Sex and the City' because they have similar themes, eg, relationships, romance, friendship...Also, the narrative is similar, a bunch of women who get together and discuss their relationship problems etc. To help me build this comparison, i looked at a previous year thirteen media students blog on Sex and the City. I am also going to research the reality TV programme 'Wife Swap', i have chosen Wife Swap because in each episode there are two different families. In one household the woman is shown as a traditional 'housewife' who stays at home, cooks, cleans and looks after the children. In the opposing household, the wife has a job and does not do as much housework a 'housewife' should. Overall, this show portrays that without a woman the household goes chaotic, which is why the show is called 'wife swap' to entertain the public and show what goes wrong and how the families cope. Again, the stereotype is reinforced in this programme.
Here is some useful info i found:
LETTER: Sex and the City women broke boundaries
some information i have on Desperate housewives:
Desperate Housewives also offers a variety of female characters who range from the perfect mother to the trophy wife.
Housewife WarsThe cultural conversation behind the hedges of Wisteria Lane by Catherine Orenstein
A few years back, Cosmopolitan ran an article titled “Meet the New Housewife Wanna-Bes,” in which young professional women described their desire to marry, quit their jobs and pursue “the new domestic dream.” Erica, a 23-year-old investment banker, wanted nothing more than to “marry that cute associate two cubicles down and embark on a full-time stint as his housefrau.” This was back in the days of Sex and the City, when marriage was still a lovely fallback fantasy on television. If only Erica had known. Right now we’re inundated with dramas about the married woman, and “domestic dream” is hardly the vibe. If yesterday’s hit show Sex and the City was about single women who seemed to want desperately to be married, ABC’s current Sunday-night smash Desperate Housewives is about married women who would, by all appearances, be better off single. Trapped behind the hedges of affluent suburban Wisteria Lane, the five female leads experience life and marriage through a haze of infidelity, loneliness, thwarted ambition, sexual dysfunction and drug addiction. Gabrielle cheats on her husband with the teenage gardener. Bree terrorizes her family with her perfectionism. Susan sets slutty Edie’s house on fire in the course of their competition over a man, and Lynette, who opted out of her high-powered career but cannot seem to keep up the pace as a housewife, steals her children’s ADD pills. The show is posthumously narrated by a sixth neighbor, Mary Alice, who shot herself in the pilot episode, leaving behind a secret buried beneath her swimming pool and a stubborn bloodstain on her nicely lacquered floors. “I performed my chores. I completed my projects. I ran my errands,” Mary Alice says by way of explanation, in a voice-over that perfectly captures the show’s cheery, neo-Stepfordian fatalism. “In truth, I spent the day as I spent every other day, quietly polishing my life until it gleamed with perfection.”
The plotlines of Desperate Housewives unfold with such camp, glamour and gleeful bad taste (a nosy neighbor discovers Mary Alice’s body, then rushes home to peel her name off of a borrowed blender; let no one say there’s not a bright side to suicide!) that one might be inclined to dismiss the show’s portrait of domestic dystopia — if not for the fact that it is echoed by the current crop of “reality” TV shows that also explore the plight of the housewife. Take ABC’s Wife Swap and FOX’s Trading Spouses, in which two wives from different backgrounds swap places and problems (the shows are so alike that ABC has sued FOX for copyright infringement). The camera follows each woman as she performs her counterpart’s routine, exposing the dirty laundry (literally) and zooming in on quirky behavior, small cruelties and moments of quiet despair. Because the entertainment hinges on conflicts that emerge from pairing and swapping contradictory characters, both shows tend to reduce the women and their families to types, pitting slobs against control freaks, spendthrifts against killjoys, and hardworking Cinderellas against spoiled heiresses. Although the “characters” follow carefully edited narrative arcs in which they supposedly come to better understand themselves and appreciate their spouses, both shows’ allure — like that of the sudsy Housewives — lies in showing us the hysteria behind the hedges. As on Desperate Housewives, the “new” wives take us inside private spaces, inevitably turning households upside down in revealing and sometimes dismaying ways. In one episode of Wife Swap, Wife No. 2 forced her counterpart’s “house husband” to burn his would-be actor résumé and seek work as a janitor. In another episode, a stay-at-home wife who took the place of a spoiled heiress dismissed the household’s multiple nannies. Husband No. 1 inquired — seemingly in earnest — whether they would be taking the children with them. Meanwhile, two new reality shows, ABC’s Supernanny and FOX’s Nanny 911, bring in British child-care “experts” to instruct the poor American housewife in parenting. Supernanny’s website sums up the zeitgeist: “Are your kids driving you nuts? Is your house a zoo?” “These days, with the political emphasis on family values and the so-called opt-out revolution making headlines, there’s a ‘send women back to the home’ vibe,” says Deborah Siegel, director of special projects at The National Council for Research on Women, a coalition of women’s research and policy groups. “Only, as the TV shows seem to be telling us, once you open up the doors and take a closer look, life inside that house is not always so great.”
With such matrimonial exposés dominating the airwaves, only one mystery remains: Why would anyone want to buy into this mess in the first place? In fact, the one group that does want to buy in — gays and lesbians, whose right to marry was recently denied by voters in 11 states — spotlights a reason for our current fascination with marriage: The American family is changing, dramatically, right beneath our noses. In recent decades, we’ve redefined family in enormous ways. The so-called traditional family — married heterosexual parents with children, which policy-makers have long held up as the ideal — is quickly becoming a relic of the past. According to the most recent U.S. census, just over half of American households consist of married couples, and less than a fourth of American households are made up of nuclear families (down from 39 percent in 1990). More than half of American marriages will end in divorce (52 percent), the number of single mothers has shot up, and the number of children born out of wedlock has reached 33 percent — up from just 4 percent in 1950. Women now marry on average five years later than they did in the mid-20th century (now it’s at age 25) and, in part because of delayed marriage, over a quarter of households now consist of singles living alone. Finally, between 1990 and 2000, the number of unmarried couples — straight and same-sex — living together out of wedlock rose by 72 percent. Conservatives have framed these statistics as a crisis of moral values, with modern beliefs clashing against and threatening to destroy the traditional American family. In essence, this is what Desperate Housewives captures so well: The drama takes place not so much between the five women as between time periods and conflicting generational ideas of marriage. The main characters are 21st-century women, with 21st-century wardrobes and attitudes, but they’re dropped into 1950s suburbia, or at least into the Hollywood sets of 1950s TV shows about suburbia (the dozen or so houses on Wisteria Lane are repurposed facades; Beaver Cleaver’s actual TV house now belongs to Mary Alice’s family). Even as they languish in their retrograde cul-de-sac, the women of Wisteria Lane resonate with the history of the last 50 years — feminism, the sexual revolution, the struggle to balance family and career, even the impact of Martha Stewart.
Sly juxtapositions, along with the show’s many product placements, remind us of the telescoped time frame: Bree seduces her husband wearing nothing but a bra and panties under a fur coat, recalling Liz Taylor’s get-up in Butterfield 8, circa 1960, only now the underwear is La Perla. Even the show’s title, Desperate Housewives, recalls the subjects of Betty Friedan, while at the same time sounding a campy, erotic tone. It’s as if we’re watching a hypothetical experiment: How would June and Ward and Ozzie and Harriet have fared under today’s terms of matrimony? Or, more generally (and conservatively) stated: Are modern values destroying the traditional American marriage? It’s been reported, in tones of mystification, that Desperate Housewives is rated first and fourth, respectively, in red-state Bush bastions Atlanta and Salt Lake City, where “moral values” are supposedly of greater concern — but should this be surprising? Shouldn’t red-state viewers be all the more inclined to watch a show that dramatizes a conservative argument? Of course, the drama playing out on our television screens, like the greater ongoing national debate on marriage, is more of a clash of mythologies than of historical truths. As Stephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (Basic Books, 1992), points out, the happy 1950s household represented by Ozzie and Harriet or the Cleavers — male breadwinner, stay-at-home mom — was neither traditional nor accurate. It was a relatively new domestic arrangement, and the Father Knows Best facade was just that: a cover-up for a quite different reality. In fact, 50s families often had two standards of living — one for male household heads and another for wives and children. Wife-beating was tolerated by authorities and spousal rape was legal through the 1970s. Drug use was widespread, as was prostitution, and the virtuous chastity of the times is widely misunderstood: Terms like “going steady” and “petting” described not innocence but sexual exploration by teens. Plenty of unmarried girls became pregnant, but they were sent away and came back “rehabilitated” virgins, or felt compelled to marry (the number of pregnant brides skyrocketed mid-20th century). Above all, marriage in this era was hardly ideal for women because they were economically and reproductively dependent upon men. “It’s these women,” says Coontz, “who were the truly desperate housewives.” If we’ve mythologized the past, we’re equally apt to misinterpret the present. Our high divorce rate, for example, may indicate that indeed marriage is failing more people. Or, as Nancy Cott, author of Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation (Harvard University Press, 2000), points out, it may simply reflect the fact that people live longer now than in previous centuries. A few hundred years ago, when people died (or were widowed) in their 40s, divorce was less of an issue. And those spouses who did part ways were less likely to bother with divorce. If conservatives see American families as being in a state of crisis, it’s equally possible to see the changing marriage statistics as signs of opportunity — the result of economic and cultural shifts that have made marriage less mandatory, less desirable even. Feminism, the sexual revolution and the Pill — along with new ideas about family in general — have given us additional ways to organize our lives and families. My grandmother, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa, often spoke of getting her “Mrs.” degree; today she might have chosen to go to graduate school as well. Gays and lesbians who might once have spent a lifetime in the closet now have the possibility — in Massachusetts , Vermont and Canada , at least — of official recognition, and the myriad rights and responsibilities that come with it. “Marriage has changed more in the last 30 years than in the last 3,000,” says Coontz, whose forthcoming book explores the institution’s changes (Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage, Viking Adult, 2005). The biggest change is that we now have much higher expectations. Only in the last century have we come to expect emotional and sexual fulfillment from marriage (love used to be viewed as a potential impediment), and only in the last 30 years have women enjoyed a degree of independence from their husbands. “Marriage is harder today,” Coontz adds, “because it’s more optional. There are more choices. The very things that make it better also make it more difficult, and vice versa. It’s precisely because marriage can be more fulfilling today that it’s more of a struggle.” So Housewife Wanna-Bes be warned: Wisteria Lane may be just the tip of the iceberg.
http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2005/housewifewars.asp
Desperate to be thin? Cult show blamed for middle-age anorexia
SHAN ROSS
AN INCREASING number of middle-aged women are suffering from potentially life-threatening eating disorders as they strive to emulate the characters of Desperate Housewives, the cult American television series, according to a leading eating-disorder specialist.
Since the show, starring petite Teri Hatcher and her equally slim co-stars, became a hit, eating disorder clinics across the UK have seen an increase in older women suffering from anorexia and bulimia.
Clinics in Scotland report a fourfold increase in the number of women aged between 30 and 50 seeking treatment for anorexia.
Experts have said a "Desperate Housewives syndrome" has caused a significant rise in illnesses such as bulimia and anorexia normally associated with teenagers and younger women.
Dr Chris Freeman, consultant psychiatrist at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, in an interview with Closer magazine, said: "Desperate Housewives is a very popular programme showing older women who are attractive and have rampant love lives.
"They're also thin and it puts pressure on women in their thirties, forties and fifties to think that it is possible to have this glamorous lifestyle and a great sex life if you're skinny," he added.
"I believe it's influencing women to have eating disorders. Lots of women diet and lose weight quickly, but they aren't obsessive and perfectionist enough to sustain it.
"They might discover that, if they make themselves sick after eating, they can keep their weight down. That's the start of an eating disorder," he said.
However, Dr Alex Yellowlees, medical director of the Priory Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland's only clinic for adults with eating disorders, said it was inappropriate to link women suffering eating disorders with "shallow" television characters.
"There is a 20 per cent mortality rate among women with eating disorders and there is no evidence to suggest their illness has been driven by vanity.
"These women are not all the same. Some have had the illness all their lives and it only comes to medical attention in their thirties or forties. Others never develop the full-blown illness and others have had it triggered off by something in their lives."
Dr Yellowlees said that five years ago it would have been unusual for a middle-aged woman to attend his clinic but the age group now accounted for a fifth of his patients.
"I don't like the phrase 'Desperate Housewives syndrome' because it does affect all women and it sounds quite cruel. But we need to choose our role models very carefully, because if they are dysfunctional then it could hold serious consequences," he said.
"Eating disorders are multi-factorial, and you have to combine certain ingredients to have a recipe for anorexia.
"One of these ingredients is the modern-day idealisation of thinness. We have gone kind of mad and women have taken it to the extreme.
"More older groups of celebrities are expressing concern about their bodies and it increases the intense obsession with thinness.
"They think that to stay young they have to be thin and if you have low self-esteem or confidence then you will be more vulnerable.
"Women are very sensitive to the images that are being given out.
"It is not just housewives, but women from all walks of life - no matter how intelligent or successful they are."
Deanne Jade, of the National Centre of Eating Disorders, said women had to learn to like themselves first before they could start improving their own appearances or lives.
She said: "We are seeing more older women who are suffering eating disorders at a time when they should be at peace with themselves.
"They are under increasing pressure to look younger and thinner. They look around and they see people like Teri Hatcher, Liz Hurley and Carol Vorderman. They could be running a multi-million-pound company, but if they don't look glamorous and thin, they feel they are lacking."
This article: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1832272005
Housewife WarsThe cultural conversation behind the hedges of Wisteria Lane by Catherine Orenstein
A few years back, Cosmopolitan ran an article titled “Meet the New Housewife Wanna-Bes,” in which young professional women described their desire to marry, quit their jobs and pursue “the new domestic dream.” Erica, a 23-year-old investment banker, wanted nothing more than to “marry that cute associate two cubicles down and embark on a full-time stint as his housefrau.” This was back in the days of Sex and the City, when marriage was still a lovely fallback fantasy on television. If only Erica had known. Right now we’re inundated with dramas about the married woman, and “domestic dream” is hardly the vibe. If yesterday’s hit show Sex and the City was about single women who seemed to want desperately to be married, ABC’s current Sunday-night smash Desperate Housewives is about married women who would, by all appearances, be better off single. Trapped behind the hedges of affluent suburban Wisteria Lane, the five female leads experience life and marriage through a haze of infidelity, loneliness, thwarted ambition, sexual dysfunction and drug addiction. Gabrielle cheats on her husband with the teenage gardener. Bree terrorizes her family with her perfectionism. Susan sets slutty Edie’s house on fire in the course of their competition over a man, and Lynette, who opted out of her high-powered career but cannot seem to keep up the pace as a housewife, steals her children’s ADD pills. The show is posthumously narrated by a sixth neighbor, Mary Alice, who shot herself in the pilot episode, leaving behind a secret buried beneath her swimming pool and a stubborn bloodstain on her nicely lacquered floors. “I performed my chores. I completed my projects. I ran my errands,” Mary Alice says by way of explanation, in a voice-over that perfectly captures the show’s cheery, neo-Stepfordian fatalism. “In truth, I spent the day as I spent every other day, quietly polishing my life until it gleamed with perfection.”
The plotlines of Desperate Housewives unfold with such camp, glamour and gleeful bad taste (a nosy neighbor discovers Mary Alice’s body, then rushes home to peel her name off of a borrowed blender; let no one say there’s not a bright side to suicide!) that one might be inclined to dismiss the show’s portrait of domestic dystopia — if not for the fact that it is echoed by the current crop of “reality” TV shows that also explore the plight of the housewife. Take ABC’s Wife Swap and FOX’s Trading Spouses, in which two wives from different backgrounds swap places and problems (the shows are so alike that ABC has sued FOX for copyright infringement). The camera follows each woman as she performs her counterpart’s routine, exposing the dirty laundry (literally) and zooming in on quirky behavior, small cruelties and moments of quiet despair. Because the entertainment hinges on conflicts that emerge from pairing and swapping contradictory characters, both shows tend to reduce the women and their families to types, pitting slobs against control freaks, spendthrifts against killjoys, and hardworking Cinderellas against spoiled heiresses. Although the “characters” follow carefully edited narrative arcs in which they supposedly come to better understand themselves and appreciate their spouses, both shows’ allure — like that of the sudsy Housewives — lies in showing us the hysteria behind the hedges. As on Desperate Housewives, the “new” wives take us inside private spaces, inevitably turning households upside down in revealing and sometimes dismaying ways. In one episode of Wife Swap, Wife No. 2 forced her counterpart’s “house husband” to burn his would-be actor résumé and seek work as a janitor. In another episode, a stay-at-home wife who took the place of a spoiled heiress dismissed the household’s multiple nannies. Husband No. 1 inquired — seemingly in earnest — whether they would be taking the children with them. Meanwhile, two new reality shows, ABC’s Supernanny and FOX’s Nanny 911, bring in British child-care “experts” to instruct the poor American housewife in parenting. Supernanny’s website sums up the zeitgeist: “Are your kids driving you nuts? Is your house a zoo?” “These days, with the political emphasis on family values and the so-called opt-out revolution making headlines, there’s a ‘send women back to the home’ vibe,” says Deborah Siegel, director of special projects at The National Council for Research on Women, a coalition of women’s research and policy groups. “Only, as the TV shows seem to be telling us, once you open up the doors and take a closer look, life inside that house is not always so great.”
With such matrimonial exposés dominating the airwaves, only one mystery remains: Why would anyone want to buy into this mess in the first place? In fact, the one group that does want to buy in — gays and lesbians, whose right to marry was recently denied by voters in 11 states — spotlights a reason for our current fascination with marriage: The American family is changing, dramatically, right beneath our noses. In recent decades, we’ve redefined family in enormous ways. The so-called traditional family — married heterosexual parents with children, which policy-makers have long held up as the ideal — is quickly becoming a relic of the past. According to the most recent U.S. census, just over half of American households consist of married couples, and less than a fourth of American households are made up of nuclear families (down from 39 percent in 1990). More than half of American marriages will end in divorce (52 percent), the number of single mothers has shot up, and the number of children born out of wedlock has reached 33 percent — up from just 4 percent in 1950. Women now marry on average five years later than they did in the mid-20th century (now it’s at age 25) and, in part because of delayed marriage, over a quarter of households now consist of singles living alone. Finally, between 1990 and 2000, the number of unmarried couples — straight and same-sex — living together out of wedlock rose by 72 percent. Conservatives have framed these statistics as a crisis of moral values, with modern beliefs clashing against and threatening to destroy the traditional American family. In essence, this is what Desperate Housewives captures so well: The drama takes place not so much between the five women as between time periods and conflicting generational ideas of marriage. The main characters are 21st-century women, with 21st-century wardrobes and attitudes, but they’re dropped into 1950s suburbia, or at least into the Hollywood sets of 1950s TV shows about suburbia (the dozen or so houses on Wisteria Lane are repurposed facades; Beaver Cleaver’s actual TV house now belongs to Mary Alice’s family). Even as they languish in their retrograde cul-de-sac, the women of Wisteria Lane resonate with the history of the last 50 years — feminism, the sexual revolution, the struggle to balance family and career, even the impact of Martha Stewart.
Sly juxtapositions, along with the show’s many product placements, remind us of the telescoped time frame: Bree seduces her husband wearing nothing but a bra and panties under a fur coat, recalling Liz Taylor’s get-up in Butterfield 8, circa 1960, only now the underwear is La Perla. Even the show’s title, Desperate Housewives, recalls the subjects of Betty Friedan, while at the same time sounding a campy, erotic tone. It’s as if we’re watching a hypothetical experiment: How would June and Ward and Ozzie and Harriet have fared under today’s terms of matrimony? Or, more generally (and conservatively) stated: Are modern values destroying the traditional American marriage? It’s been reported, in tones of mystification, that Desperate Housewives is rated first and fourth, respectively, in red-state Bush bastions Atlanta and Salt Lake City, where “moral values” are supposedly of greater concern — but should this be surprising? Shouldn’t red-state viewers be all the more inclined to watch a show that dramatizes a conservative argument? Of course, the drama playing out on our television screens, like the greater ongoing national debate on marriage, is more of a clash of mythologies than of historical truths. As Stephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (Basic Books, 1992), points out, the happy 1950s household represented by Ozzie and Harriet or the Cleavers — male breadwinner, stay-at-home mom — was neither traditional nor accurate. It was a relatively new domestic arrangement, and the Father Knows Best facade was just that: a cover-up for a quite different reality. In fact, 50s families often had two standards of living — one for male household heads and another for wives and children. Wife-beating was tolerated by authorities and spousal rape was legal through the 1970s. Drug use was widespread, as was prostitution, and the virtuous chastity of the times is widely misunderstood: Terms like “going steady” and “petting” described not innocence but sexual exploration by teens. Plenty of unmarried girls became pregnant, but they were sent away and came back “rehabilitated” virgins, or felt compelled to marry (the number of pregnant brides skyrocketed mid-20th century). Above all, marriage in this era was hardly ideal for women because they were economically and reproductively dependent upon men. “It’s these women,” says Coontz, “who were the truly desperate housewives.” If we’ve mythologized the past, we’re equally apt to misinterpret the present. Our high divorce rate, for example, may indicate that indeed marriage is failing more people. Or, as Nancy Cott, author of Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation (Harvard University Press, 2000), points out, it may simply reflect the fact that people live longer now than in previous centuries. A few hundred years ago, when people died (or were widowed) in their 40s, divorce was less of an issue. And those spouses who did part ways were less likely to bother with divorce. If conservatives see American families as being in a state of crisis, it’s equally possible to see the changing marriage statistics as signs of opportunity — the result of economic and cultural shifts that have made marriage less mandatory, less desirable even. Feminism, the sexual revolution and the Pill — along with new ideas about family in general — have given us additional ways to organize our lives and families. My grandmother, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa, often spoke of getting her “Mrs.” degree; today she might have chosen to go to graduate school as well. Gays and lesbians who might once have spent a lifetime in the closet now have the possibility — in Massachusetts , Vermont and Canada , at least — of official recognition, and the myriad rights and responsibilities that come with it. “Marriage has changed more in the last 30 years than in the last 3,000,” says Coontz, whose forthcoming book explores the institution’s changes (Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage, Viking Adult, 2005). The biggest change is that we now have much higher expectations. Only in the last century have we come to expect emotional and sexual fulfillment from marriage (love used to be viewed as a potential impediment), and only in the last 30 years have women enjoyed a degree of independence from their husbands. “Marriage is harder today,” Coontz adds, “because it’s more optional. There are more choices. The very things that make it better also make it more difficult, and vice versa. It’s precisely because marriage can be more fulfilling today that it’s more of a struggle.” So Housewife Wanna-Bes be warned: Wisteria Lane may be just the tip of the iceberg.
http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2005/housewifewars.asp
Desperate to be thin? Cult show blamed for middle-age anorexia
SHAN ROSS
AN INCREASING number of middle-aged women are suffering from potentially life-threatening eating disorders as they strive to emulate the characters of Desperate Housewives, the cult American television series, according to a leading eating-disorder specialist.
Since the show, starring petite Teri Hatcher and her equally slim co-stars, became a hit, eating disorder clinics across the UK have seen an increase in older women suffering from anorexia and bulimia.
Clinics in Scotland report a fourfold increase in the number of women aged between 30 and 50 seeking treatment for anorexia.
Experts have said a "Desperate Housewives syndrome" has caused a significant rise in illnesses such as bulimia and anorexia normally associated with teenagers and younger women.
Dr Chris Freeman, consultant psychiatrist at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, in an interview with Closer magazine, said: "Desperate Housewives is a very popular programme showing older women who are attractive and have rampant love lives.
"They're also thin and it puts pressure on women in their thirties, forties and fifties to think that it is possible to have this glamorous lifestyle and a great sex life if you're skinny," he added.
"I believe it's influencing women to have eating disorders. Lots of women diet and lose weight quickly, but they aren't obsessive and perfectionist enough to sustain it.
"They might discover that, if they make themselves sick after eating, they can keep their weight down. That's the start of an eating disorder," he said.
However, Dr Alex Yellowlees, medical director of the Priory Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland's only clinic for adults with eating disorders, said it was inappropriate to link women suffering eating disorders with "shallow" television characters.
"There is a 20 per cent mortality rate among women with eating disorders and there is no evidence to suggest their illness has been driven by vanity.
"These women are not all the same. Some have had the illness all their lives and it only comes to medical attention in their thirties or forties. Others never develop the full-blown illness and others have had it triggered off by something in their lives."
Dr Yellowlees said that five years ago it would have been unusual for a middle-aged woman to attend his clinic but the age group now accounted for a fifth of his patients.
"I don't like the phrase 'Desperate Housewives syndrome' because it does affect all women and it sounds quite cruel. But we need to choose our role models very carefully, because if they are dysfunctional then it could hold serious consequences," he said.
"Eating disorders are multi-factorial, and you have to combine certain ingredients to have a recipe for anorexia.
"One of these ingredients is the modern-day idealisation of thinness. We have gone kind of mad and women have taken it to the extreme.
"More older groups of celebrities are expressing concern about their bodies and it increases the intense obsession with thinness.
"They think that to stay young they have to be thin and if you have low self-esteem or confidence then you will be more vulnerable.
"Women are very sensitive to the images that are being given out.
"It is not just housewives, but women from all walks of life - no matter how intelligent or successful they are."
Deanne Jade, of the National Centre of Eating Disorders, said women had to learn to like themselves first before they could start improving their own appearances or lives.
She said: "We are seeing more older women who are suffering eating disorders at a time when they should be at peace with themselves.
"They are under increasing pressure to look younger and thinner. They look around and they see people like Teri Hatcher, Liz Hurley and Carol Vorderman. They could be running a multi-million-pound company, but if they don't look glamorous and thin, they feel they are lacking."
This article: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1832272005
Sunday, 4 November 2007
feminism, femininity and popular culture
author: joanne hollows
published:2000
published by manchester university press (manchester and new york)
the female frontier, a comparative wiew of women on the praire and the plains.
author: glenda riley
publisher: university press of kansas
published 1988
media gender and identity, an introduction
author: david gauntlett
publisher: routledge
published: 2002
representing men maleness and masculinity in the media
author kenneth macKinnon
published in great britain 2003
publisher arnold, a member of the hodder headline group
Working girls, gender in sexuality in popular crime:
author Yvonne tasker
published 1998
by routledge
representing women, myths of femininity in the popular media
author myra macdonald
first published in great britain in 1995, this impression reprinted in 2003 by edward arnold, a member of the hodder headline group.
Reading Desperate Housewives: Beyond the White Picket Fence
author: Kim Akass and Janet McCabe
Publisher: I.B. Tauris Publishers 2006
author: joanne hollows
published:2000
published by manchester university press (manchester and new york)
the female frontier, a comparative wiew of women on the praire and the plains.
author: glenda riley
publisher: university press of kansas
published 1988
media gender and identity, an introduction
author: david gauntlett
publisher: routledge
published: 2002
representing men maleness and masculinity in the media
author kenneth macKinnon
published in great britain 2003
publisher arnold, a member of the hodder headline group
Working girls, gender in sexuality in popular crime:
author Yvonne tasker
published 1998
by routledge
representing women, myths of femininity in the popular media
author myra macdonald
first published in great britain in 1995, this impression reprinted in 2003 by edward arnold, a member of the hodder headline group.
Reading Desperate Housewives: Beyond the White Picket Fence
author: Kim Akass and Janet McCabe
Publisher: I.B. Tauris Publishers 2006
sally brady
"lives of quiet (and not so quiet) desperation"
Media Magazine
april 2005
Thursday, 1 November 2007
Quotes on women from books:
Female Frontier:
"they were expected to participate fully in domestic duties, whether for themselves, their parents, and other families." pg2
"the common conception...women would become wives and mothers."pg154
"domestic service attracted a wide variety of women." pg 126
feminism, femininty and popular culture:
"male character is presented as doing a favour for his wife by helping out in order to get in her good books, thereby confirming the nation that it is normal for women to be responsible for domestic labour." pg 23
"second-wave feminism is seen as a product of the past." pg1
"romantic love is pathological, she argued:it is love corrupted by the unequal relationship between the sexes and is used to reproduce patriachy...first, love becomes a woman's vacation, diverting her energies from other pursuits. second, a woman's sense of identity and self-esteem depends on a man's valuation of her as worthy of being loved. third, because romantic love makes women economically dependent on men, it is not about mutual vulnerability but female vulnerability, leaving women open to abuse" Shulamith Firestone thought this pg 73
"the romantic narrative also deals with a basic conflict that Modleski claims faces all women-women's goal in life is meant to be getting a husband, but they must not let it appear to be a goal which is consciously or calculatedly pursued." pg 76
media, gender and identity, an introduction.
"advertisers have by now realised that audiences will only laugh at images of the pretty housewife" pg57
"the 1995-1996 study found that men took 63% of the speaking roles." pg 58
"Gunter goes on to show how studies in the 1970s consistently found that marriage, parenthood and domesticity wer shown on television to be more important for women than men (1995: 13-14)." pg43
"married housewives being the main female role shown. women's interactions were very often concerned with romance or family problems." also in the 1970s bit pg43
"Female characters were unlikely to work, especially not if they were wives or mothers, and even when they did, this work was typically not seen on screen." 1970s part pg43
"men were more likely to be adventurous, active and vicorious, whereas women were more frequently shown as weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive, laughable or 'meerly token females' (Gunter, 1995)." pg43
representation of gender today:
"gender roles on television became increasingly equal and non -stereotyped." pg 58
"women usually got to be love interests and helpers." pg 64
"the 1992-1993 study found that only 3 per cent of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation." pg 58
"women are seen as self reliant heroes quite often today" pg 90
"representations of gender today are more complex and less stereotyped" pg 90
Germaine Greer: "every woman knows that regardless of her other achievments, she is a failur if she is not beautiful." pg77
The Gender Issue:
"women perform 80% of household tasks and they spend nearly twice as much time as men in child care" pg 33
Representing Men:
"men exhibited less emotional distress than women and traditionally solved their own problems, while women were more likely to deal with the problems of others or to need help in dealing with thier own." pg66
"images of 'soft' men were common...designed to appeal to women." pg 71
Working girls, gender in sexuality in popular crime:
"there are only three ages for women in Hollywood:babe, district attorney and driving miss daisy."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
