06 November 2010

Real Housewives

While surfing the never-ending world of the internet last night, I stumbled upon a blog discussing the week's TV shows. Since I don't have cable, I usually take a gander and see what's going on, which usually reminds me just how much I'm really not missing. Among the many clips I watched was one from that horrible excuse of a show called Real Housewives. Now I've never actually watched the show - which might explain why I haven't gauged out my own eyes yet - but I have seen previews for the show so I sort of had an idea as to what I was getting myself into.

Or not.

Like I said, I don't follow the show, so when it said "Real Housewives of BH" I didn't know where they were. Since one of the wives - and the only one this clip was bothering to show so I have no idea who else is involved - was a celebrity's wife, I decided it was safe to assume that BH stood for Beverly Hills. Of course it could still stand for Blood-thirsty Ho-bags. *shrug*

Anyhow, the sorry excuse for a woman wife on this show was none other than the wife of Kelsey Grammer - Camille Grammer. Being that one of the other clips in this entourage was this same Camille Grammer being interviewed by another loser celebrity Joy Behar, with the caption reading "estranged wife of", I'm assuming they are getting divorced. No surprise there. In the clip from RHOBH (hey, that's how everyone else writes it .. I'm just pretending I'm part of the 'cool kids' crowd .. it's working right?) she talks about how she has so much work to do, how a lot of housewives do but she just has "that 30% more", and the only way she gets through it all is because she has great help.

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Wow.

I think that's all I can say to that. Wow. Let's see, she has several houses, all of which have their own "house manager" whatever the hell that is; she has maids, cooks, nannies. She even has someone who plans all her vacations and gets her travel arrangements together, including a car to the airport, the plane tickets, cars at the destination. Yeah. Her life must be hard. So hard

These types of shows disgust me. I will never understand what makes watching people waste their wealth on stupid crap so entertaining. These women are not real housewives. They aren't even housewives. Just because a woman is married and doesn't have a job, doesn't mean she's a housewife.

Real housewives have jobs and do a lot of hard work. They cook dinner and clean the house and fold laundry. They take out the trash and sort the recycling. They do the dishes and mop the floor.  They vacuum the carpets and scrub the bathtubs. They walk the dog and change the cat litter. Real housewives raise their own children, taking them for walks and going to the park. They brush their hair, pick them up, give them hugs. Real housewives don't bother wiping their kids faces after dinner bc dessert will be just as messy and they have to give them a bath later anyhow. They run around with their children, chasing them with tickle monster hands. They wipe away tears and kiss boo-boos.

Real housewives do not laze around the house all day, tanning by the pool, while a hired helper does the cleaning, and another hired helper does the cooking and another hired helper does the laundry, and while a pool boy cleans the pool. They dont have someone to mow the lawn and do the grocery shopping. They don't have four nannies for two kids. Real housewives don't have drivers and trip planners and house managers. And they most certainly do not go out and get their hair and nails done every week while looking into their next plastic surgery.

Now if you want to do nothing but lay around all day while someone else does all the work for you - and you can afford that - then fine. But don't sit there and call yourself a housewife, much less a real housewife. Because you're not.

You can't shoot a bunch of prissy, spoiled, bratty women who do nothing more than pamper themselves and waste their husbands' hard earned money on stupid crap like clothes and hair appointments, and call it "real". Unless you're shooting with a gun instead of a camera. I might actually tune in for that one.
If you want a show about housewives, about real housewives, then go into any two parent/single income home. Film the mothers who have to figure out how and what to feed their families on budget, who go to the grocery store with children in tow. Follow the women who get laundry done while preparing dinner, and then fold it while dinner is cooking, all after vacuuming and scrubbing all day. Document the housewives who have to juggle nursing an infant, caring for a sick child, getting everything in order for the next day, all while making sure the bills are paid and the kitchen and laundry room are well stocked. Show the women who have to do all the packing, all the moving, all the unpacking, because their husbands are busy working or fighting for their country.

But you won't find that. Because real housewives don't parade their lives around in front of a camera for all the world to see. Real people are generally private people who don't want a film crew hiding in the shadows, recording their every move. These women don't have time to sit down every few days and do an interview about why they made this meal or chose to clean the living room before the dinning room. They're just too busy living their lives and taking care of their children and households to be bothered doing a TV show.

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