Today's Views Of Television Housewives example essay topic

Television housewives of the sixties were depicted as humble glamorous women; however, in today's busy world they are viewed as empowered comic icons. Women like Rosanne rule our television sets, and dictate their independence of a male dominated world. The home is their world and they are taking back the right to rule it. Why were the television housewives portrayed to live to serve their husbands and family? Because that was their role back then, it was almost unheard of for a women to hold a job back then. Housewives, ideally, were suppose to have the meals hot and on the table for their husband when they got home from work.

They were suppose to be home to greet the children with fresh cookies, after they got off their quaint suburban school buses. And they were suppose to have the house immaculate and look glamorous at all times, because that was their job. Women never challenged their husbands authority, because he was the bread-winner and was to be respected. Women served the man of the house because that was what there mothers, and their mothers before them, had done so it was only right.

The television housewives of this era loved to spend their spare time sewing, knitting, and shopping because that is what proper American Women was expected to do. This perfect life, perfect home, and perfect husband were exaggerated by corporate America, of course. No family's lives were ever as perfect as Leave It To Beaver or the Brady Bunch, and people began to realize this. Today we live in the twenty-first century with television shows like Malcolm in the Middle, Everybody loves Raymond, and Rosanne (reruns). These shows depict women in a more realistic manner.

They show the chaotic everyday life of a homemaker. They show realistic problems, and the stresses that come with the problems of everyday life. They show marital disagreements and financial difficulties that television didn't touch base on, in the past. They show the woman as the stronger parent, more likely to put her foot down, or show discipline. Television mom are also commonly in charge of finances. This demonstrates a power struggle, where the male generally ends up doing whatever the wife asks, to get some of his paycheck.

The wives often nag at their husbands constantly on television, because sitcoms often portray the men as sports watching, potato chip eating, couch bums. Women are often viewed as, the Bad Cop, or the disciplinarian on television, but they also give them a well rounded persona. Women can also be the nurturing, loving mothers that most Americans know and love. Housewife is not a common term to hear anymore, considering it is extremely rare to find a home today where both parents are not working.

Most women have found a place in the working world and today's women are expected to balance raising a family while working. Women are not just housewives, secretaries, and nurses anymore. Many women have looked at the sitcom housewives of my generation and decided they should go against the grain as well. Today there are women mechanics as well as underwater welders. Women are competing for masculine and feminine professions, and part of it is inspiration from our leading comic icons the television housewife. Is today's views of television housewives realistic?

I'm not sure, but I know if they are exaggerated, it couldn't be half as bad as in the sixties, and I do know that being a housewife would not be a position I would like to fill..