OK. Judge me on my "Desperate Housewives" problem

Maybe it's just me. But this season's "Desperate Housewives" seems to really have a vendetta against working women. Felicity Huffman's character is now a working mom who has absolutely no time for her kids, one son has now replaced her with an imaginary Mommy, and her boss, a single woman of course, is the boss from hell who detests working moms.
The narration really makes it seem that working Moms are the downfall of the country.
I guess it doesn't help that I know the show's creator is a big Bushie. And the guy is gay. You think he'd have figured out by now that the Bushies hate gay people.
So. Is it me? Or does this season really have it in for working Moms?
("Desperate" is just about to make it off my TiVo list.)

for discrimination.

I have never seen a business be so anti-mother. But then again most of the crap that happens on that show aren't real-life happenings

show. But it still irks me that it's so anti-working Mom. The majority of the women in this country have jobs outside the home. There are a multitude of reasons. Most, though, based on economics. So, this show's emphasis on how "Mom" (not Dad) is damaging the children by going to work seems borderline fundamentalist. Is "Focus on the Family" getting script approval?

I kind of liked the rant against people with kids. I have no kids, so......


But, the show wouldn't be interesting if it didn't show the struggles of being a working mom. it is harder for women to leave kids at home or in daycare then men, in my humble opinion.

I'm not surprised.

I wouldn't be surprised they'd pull that tactic to be honest with you.

I'm not so sure the message is anti-working mother so much as it is a personalized situation for Lynette herself. The drama is fueled by her own guilt, whether she should feel guilty or not.

It's supposed to be a darkly comedic melodrama. It's supposed to be over-the-top and not necessarily real.

Joely Fisher, the woman who plays Lynette's boss, is pregnant. I believe they're writing it into the show. That ought to be fun!

Susan, Edie and Bree aren't wives anymore and Lynette works outside the home. I guess Gabbie is still a housewife technically, even though her husband is in jail.

I don't think the show has it in for "working moms," really, anymore than it has it in for women in general, or even people in general. It is a satire of a soap opera, so of course everyone is ethnically challenged and has a fucked up life.

I don't particularly care for it, but he always has to watch it. And then he keeps commenting to me "See? Women are evil!" :eyes:

It's really a show by men for men. The women are all contemptible, and wear really tight clothes.

but I don't see it.
You know what? The reality of life is that working parents have it fucking hard, and portraying it as anything less than an enormous challenge would be disingenuous, not to mention discouraging for the working families watching it.
EVERYTHING about the show is over the top, and going overthetop in the other direction would be even less realistic, and alienate working mothers who KNOW its fucking hard, and frustrating, and painful.
Showing negative sides of issues doesn't mean you're out to get people with those problems. It's a TV show.

Let's try demanding role models and honesty from places that actually matter.

however, I think my uneasiness is that it's Mom who is having all the struggles. Not Dad. Of course, the show is called "Desperate Housewives"..though, as noted above, none of these women are really Housewives. There is the undercurrent that problems at home are Mom's fault. Not Dad's. And why the portrayal of Lynette's boss as such a venal witch? Or, like hate-radio, are we always supposed to just shrug this off as "entertainment". Nevermind the underlying themes of chauvinism and contempt.
It's OK. It's all in fun.
But look at some of the mainstream Hollywood movies. Reese Witherspoon has to give up her thriving New York career(and Patrick Dempsey!) to find true happiness in the back woods of Alabama. Meg Ryan has to give up her thriving career to find true happiness...in another century! Because modern working women just can't be happy. They can't be fulfilled.
They must be miserable.

"Reese Witherspoon has to give up her thriving New York career(and Patrick Dempsey!) to find true happiness in the back woods of Alabama. Meg Ryan has to give up her thriving career to find true happiness...in another century! Because modern working women just can't be happy. They can't be fulfilled. They must be miserable."

The theme here is that modern urban working life is unfulfilling, not that women can't be fulfilled. I can name a LOOOOONG list of films with identical themes (worthy but unsatified person is redeemed by love) where men have the leads, but that would bore me, and this thread's already pushing me too close to that threshold...

The male boss that she has is way more supportive than the female one.
I'm not quite getting what you're saying. I mean, why portray her female boss like that? Maybe cause you will encounter people like that in life? Maybe? If it was the girlboss being nice and the boyboss being a dick everyone would be up in arms "OMG SEXIST ASSHOLE FEMINISM RAR"
The problem with people these days is that they don't seem willing or able to take some responsibility for their shit. I mean, Desperate Housewives isn't the cause of working moms troubles. It's a TV show that caricatures life. If there was no truth in what they were portraying, there would be no show. Saying that portraying shitty stuff that happens is somehow bad or wrong is just ludicrous. Desperate Housewives isn't to blame for the problems working mothers encounter, and if we have a problem with the issues that come up in the show MAYBE we need to look to the WORLD that some TV show is parodying to do something about it.
If theres a market for these movies, it's our own fault. If there is truth in the caricature, it's our fault. Don't blame the people who're mirroring the world for the state of the world they reflect. Unless they have some sort of activist stance (Women should NEVER EVER work, which is NOT the feeling that I get from the show. Susan works.) put energy into worrying about the culture and ideas that bring generations to life that cause and support unfair or unjust structures.

Plus, Dad had LOTS of struggles. Especially when Lynette fucked him over hardcore last season, and caused most of her own problems.

maybe I'm not watching that closely...but I have yet to see Susan "work". But I get the criticism...of my criticism. It's just a TV show. And a deliberately cartoonish TV show.
There is no blatant placard carrying sexism. But there are the undercurrents of career women as either evil harridans or ditzy guilt-ridden women who are less than competent at work. And at home.
And if these people are merely "mirroring the world for the state of the world they reflect", heaven help us all.
The mirror says we women are totally inept.
And we should just laugh at how silly we little women are. Imagine us. Trying to work outside the home.
Funny stuff.

thats what I think

this season does seem much weaker than the previous. But maybe that's to be expected in a second season. Either the writing isn't as sharp or their schtick is wearing thin.
The Bree/pharmacist thing is boring. As is the Susan/Zack storyline. Alfre Woodard's story might be intriguing...if we saw a little more of it. Even Edie is bland.
The show seems tired.

earlier. He couldn't deal with being at home and made a horrible "house husband". The kids and house were filthy, they weren't eating right, etc. They almost fell apart when Lynette went back to work. Now, Dad is on track and Mom is dealing with the guilt of leaving her children, which many working mothers have to deal with. All of the characters are supposed to be quirky and over the top. And, as a working mother myself, I would like to add that I worked for a woman very much like Lynette's boss, for a total of five weeks.

You could call the show misogynistic in general, but I don't think that they're singled out just working mothers for their scorn.

Didn't know that.

I kind of agree with the OP's working mom thing though but I plan to give them the benefit of the doubt.

when the show first became popular. It was supposedly a big deal that he's a gay guy...and he's an ardent Republican.

and don't remember reading that.

As someone who recently (okay, going on two years now) reentered the workforce after a long time because of my kid, I think it's very well done. I can completely identify with her feelings of guilt and exhaustion.


The boss from hell is just a regular tv character. It'd be too old school to have the boss from hell be a guy.