Assignment 2-1

The topic that I chose to talk about this week for my blog is the show Desperate Housewives. I found an article by Jennifer Williams, titled “ABC’S ‘Desperate Housewives’ reinforces stereotypes of gender and race.” Jennifer’s article discusses the stereotypes on gender and race found throughout the show’s episodes. She suggests that there are different examples of this found through last season’s episodes (“Williams,” 2006). She talks about one example in particular, she points out that the only African-American family that has been on the show ended up to be very violent and involved in murder and rape on the show (Williams,” 2006). At the end of one episode, the African American family just leaves in the middle of the night, leaving viewers to wonder about what happened, and to leave them with the impression of this black family as being violent (“Williams,” 2006). The article then goes on to discuss “Bree”, who is a main character in the show, and her battle with drinking and compulsive cleaning (“Williams,” 2006). Bree’s marriage failed and all she did was clean and drink wine all day, the author points out that this is a poor way to show how to deal with a failed marriage, and that the show could have had her character do something more beneficial to society (“Williams,” 2006). The whole idea behind Jennifer William’s article is that shows like Desperate Housewives are putting off the wrong message and are stereotypical on gender and race. I don’t know that I agree with the author here, I think that people recognize for example that compulsively cleaning and drinking wine all day, isn’t a good way to deal with a divorce. I know that people say that what we watch on TV influences us a great deal, but from my own personal experience, just because I watch something on TV that’s entertaining doesn’t mean I would model my life after a character or something they’ve done. I think most shows are just for entertainment value.

Williams, Jennifer. (2006). ABC’s ‘Desperate Housewives’ reinforces stereotypes of gender and race. Retrieved from http://www.dailyorange.com/home/index.cfm?event