Desperate Housewives is obviously of a different caliber than Mad Men: the former being more like a comic soap-opera, the latter being a cable drama. However, narratives about gender and family roles form the foundation of both of these shows. While both shows provide a satire of the gender stereotypes of the era, the more comic nature of Desperate Housewives’ drama means that it often provides satire through the breakdown of these gender roles in the situation. The acknowledgment of these stereotypes, and the sometimes contradicting reality, is what we should look at in Episode 15.
Episode 15 peeks into the widest range of gender and family stereotypes relevant to Media Studies in Season Six. I strongly encourage anyone to watch it. The drama in this episode is more independent from other episodes, and understandable by those who don’t follow the show.
The episode is broken down based around Robin’s interaction with each “desperate housewife” in the show.
The single Robin is portrayed as a sexual object from scene one merely because of her beauty.
The first meeting she has with the married couples presents the first stereotype about married male and female roles with regards to their interaction with external women. The men flock to her side to court her, as the wives both resent her and their men’s overwhelming sexual urges. With the scene of the women in the kitchen vilifying the single beautiful woman as a threat to their marriages, the situation could not be more similar to the birthday party in Mad Men.
Interestingly, throughout the entire show, the men and “teenage boys” are not expected to be modest, responsible, and held accountable for their interaction with Robin. In the following scenes, the parents do not hold their teenage boy accountable through punishment for wanting to solicit sex and stare at a woman, but rather acknowledge his inability to control himself with “hormones holding his brain hostage” and breach of morality. She instead confronts Robin about “putting on a show” for the boy, as if she is responsible for the boy’s sexual thoughts.
In that scene, the wife holds a wooden spoon for cooking the whole time, and she keeps the husband’s “immoral” fantasy of pre-marital sex in check. 1950s family sitcoms -- sound familiar?
Lynette and Tom Scavo interact in the living room fulfilling both gender roles: domestic woman with baby folding laundry, working man in office attire on the couch dictating to the woman. The comedy lies in that she rejects that stereotype, but quickly falls back into the female stereotype by being bought off with jewelry, and by offering sex as a gift to the husband. The comedy lies in the fact that the strong-willed Lynette rejects the stereotype. She rejects the idea of the jewelry (a physical manifestation of the husband’s breadwinner-ship and desire to please the wife) much like Betty subtly does to Don Draper’s gift of an elegant watch. This relationship is an example of the gendered social contract of marriage in The Way We Never Were: a wife’s domesticity and sex in exchange for the husband’s security and providing for a lifestyle.
The next comedy again lies in gender roles - the fact that Robin doesn’t know anything about baking and cakes, and that she greatly idolizes those who are more domestic than her. This satire only exists because the stereotype is that women learn how to bake cakes – a symbol for domesticity. The satire continues in "Susan and the stripper" when Susan heats microwaved food for her husband since she is unable to cook. She is unable to cook and soothe her husband - this makes Susan feel awkward since she, within one minute, failed to fulfill two obligations expected by the stereotype of a wife.
The following comedy lies in the inability for the wife to arouse her husband and offer sex, as being able to do so successfully is seen as a given in the traditional role of a wife. The satire also comes from the character of Bree – being an untraditional housewife: the breadwinner, the more responsible, the more mobile one in the marriage.
The story goes on, and these narratives play out on Wisteria Lane. But the narratives that tie the episode together, and to Media Studies, are narratives about the gendered contract of marriage, and gendered distribution of responsibility for work, marriage, and sexual urges.
