by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban
Women have come a long way on television since those first sitcoms where they were cast as perfectly dressed housewives who wore pearls while doing the dishes and high heels when preparing lunches. Now, housewives are, as one of the most highly successful shows of the last years reminds us in its title, not perfect but desperate.
I loved Desperate Housewives when it first aired, and I still enjoy it now, most weeks. I love the witty voice-overs at the beginning and end of each episode. And I love the four main characters: perfectly proper Bree (Marcia Cross), klutzy and clueless Susan (Teri Hatcher), super efficient Lynette (Felicity Huffman) and outrageously politically incorrect Gabrielle (Eva Longoria). If these four so different women have something in common, it’s that they are all both totally unrealistic and perfectly real. Luckily and, despite the fact that, every season their lives have undergone dramatic changes, the writers have managed to keep the essence of their personalities intact.
Yes, women’s role in society has changed in the last 50, 40, 30 years, and I’m most happy that it has. But, if the women on Wisteria Lane are any representation of the real world, there is still something that has not changed at all. And that is the instinctive, irrational, and blinding love women have for their children.
Women may have changed, but mothers have not. And never will, because we are just perfect as we are.
Happy Mother’s Day!
And, I think I’d add, we share a need to connect with other women. Those friendships feed the soul!
great post Carmen—nice tie-in with Mother’s Day. It’s true, no matter who we are or what we do or don’t share—as moms, we do share unconditional love for our kids.