When you think about the word “housewife,” what image comes to mind? A 1950s middle-aged woman who cooks and cleans for her family? Yeah, me too. That is, until the debut of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” in 2006. Partially influence by my favorite television show, these blonde, botoxed, and bickering women were a far cry from the conventional image of simpler times. This was “reality,” to a certain extent.
While trying to break the mold of boring and conventional, Bravo hit a gold mine. These women were most certainly not “real,” in more ways than one. Their outlandish and extravagant behavior was intoxicating to American viewers, who were used to seeing such conduct in scripted television shows.
The housewives expanded to different cities, from New York and New Jersey to Atlanta and Miami and back around again to California, this time in Beverly Hills. There was an unsuccessful installment filmed in Washington, D.C., most well known for Michaele Salahi, the White House “party crasher.”
This franchise has also spread internationally, to places such as Athens and Israel. Next on the list is Liverpool, England. A promo clip shows women, young and unmarried, living glamorous lives. It is not just this upcoming season of housewives that display single and fun-loving women. In fact, one or more of these non-“housewives” can be found in every installment.
Housewives no longer, these shows now cater to the viewers, who prefers to watch dating and drama over peaceful dinner tables. Such incident can hardly happen to women with responsibilities like a husband and children, let alone a time-consuming job. It seems that, for the majority of the “housewives,” the most dutiful tasks are shopping, gossiping, and, maybe, taking care of tiny dogs. This behavior is a far cry from “the suburban dream” of the mid-1950s.