This Month’s Features Letter From the Editor 2 Interview with James Rohl, 8 Stay-at-Home Dad Desperate For Some 5 Real Wives’ Lives The New Supermom When Mommies and 7 11 Tweets Collide 1 Letter from the Editor “natural” place. Our articles will address a cial position of women have made it possible for number of issues that housewives today face: women to choose alternative routes than family familial happiness, representation in the media, life. Cooking or cleaning does not define being a and even political rhetoric surrounding their housewife; instead it is about doing what is best occupation. Gender roles and social stigma still for you, or your family, or both. So why is this surround and influence what it means to be a not seen as valuable work? Feminists have made housewife. Our writers challenged themselves the argument that women should be paid for the to think outside the box, and we hope you are housework. Others disagree. One economist, up to the challenge too. Dougas. W Allen, argues the traditional approach We found ourselves asking about the to discussing the value of housework is flawed. As summer finds its way back into our wayst tha mothers are represented in the media. In his journal article, “A Better Method for As- lives, so too does the overbearing heat, sounds From The Real Housewives of Orange County sessing the Value of “Housewife” Service,” Allen of children on summer-break, and the ringing to kitchen appliance TV advertisements, we arguest tha to compare housework with jobs that of ice cream trucks. Our lives become packed foundt tha our view of mothers in the media contribute to the market is to “miss the point of into longer days of humidity and sun-screened is limited. As Mothers’ Day comes and go, we marriage.” He continues, “Marriage, as an insti- sweat.e W here at FEMZINE have been hard reflected on why it is so problematic to view tution, is designed to produce aset of goods that at work producing an issue that will hopefully mothers in such a constricting way. Our articles the market does not produce.” We cannot think provide you with relief from the responsibili- willh touc upon our own mothers too. We view of work in the home in the same way we think of ties of career, family, and whatever else it is that ours mother as much more than child-rearing work in the workplace because marriage/part- occupies your day-to-day living. This issue is all individuals: they are our superheroes, our thera- nershipse ar a separate institution altogether, about housewives, and our aim this issue is to pists, our teachers. We hope you come to think that produces a separate set of “goods.” challenge you. We want to challenge how you of your mothers in many different ways too. I recently stumbled upon a blog think about housewives. We want to challenge What makes this issue so special is called “Off Beat Mama” where a contributor you to rethink what a good housewife does. We how close to home it will hit for many of you. named Narasha Pinterics blogged about be- want to challenge you to think about who can Whether you are male or female, child-rearing ing a “feminist housewife.” Pinterics rejects the be a housewife. This issue’s theme is all about and managing a family is one of the hardest word housewife or homemaker altogether, even the joys and downfalls of being a housewife (or journeys you will undertake in your life. From though she is a stay at home mom. Pinterics maybe even a househusband). balancing a career to balancing time, raising a hass a master in Gender Studies and does not The topic of housewives is oftentimes family and being a mother or father requires identify with these terms because “[they] are so left out of feminist discourse because the oc- persistence and patience. Our issue and articles loaded with patriarchal bullshit that I can barely cupation is dismissed as being anti-feminist. We emphasize the important of choice and flexibil- utter them in any seriousness, much less use want to break this stereotype. Talk about house- ity.ty Wha ma work as a family structure for one them to describe myself or what I do.” We here wives. While they might not contribute to our familyy ma not work for another. Our identifica- at FEMZINE want to challenge the notion that capitalist economy in a traditional way, house- tion as feminists should force us to think outside the word housewife implies an occupation that wives provide valuable and irreplaceable work. of the traditional roles that women have his- is not serious. We want to reject the notion that Many of you will be or are housewives. Many torically been boxed into. Betty Friedan in The being a housewife is not a serious job because it of e you ar tired of the portrayal of housewives Feminine Mystique first described the trouble is our “natural” role to be a caretaker. Describe in the media. Many of you consider yourselves that educated women faced when they were yourselfy an label you’d like. Homemaker. Stay supermoms without ever stepping foot into a forced to be stay at home mothers. Constrained at home mom. Stay at home dad. Housewife. kitchen.et W a FEMZINE are too. Our mission to a routine life, Friedan articulated what many Caretaker. Whatever you call yourself, do it with ist to suppor your individual mission: whether women thought but couldn’t say. And we want a t power tha rejects the stereotype. Do it with your task is shuffling kids around to school and to continue in this tradition: our articles are re- the power knowing that you are doing what is from sports games, or shuffling papers at the of- flective of the continued struggle to give women best for yourself, for your family, for your chil- fice. more choices so they can attain fulfillment and dren. As Freidan writes, “It is no longer possible We began our issue by asking our- happiness. toet ignor tha voice, to dismiss the desperation selves:t Wha does it mean to be a housewife? Friedan quotes a New York Times arti- ofy so man American women” (165). Consider Our introspection and research revealed that clet tha describes the problem of unhappy wom- this your call to power. while feminists have made progress for women, en:y the were “deeply frustrated at times by the our ideas about what makes a good mother lack of privacy, the physical burden, the routine Sincerely, and wife remains suspended in time. This issue of , family life the confinement of it” (Kolmar & hopes to make progress on how we view house- Bartkowski, 165). Fortunately, strides in the so- wives and to challenge ideas about a woman’s Tram Ha 2 Tram Ha Desperate for Some Real Wives’ Lives A Commentary on Voyeurism in “Real Housewives” By Maddie Goldman mates have no social limitations. In an episode of thaty not onl does it encourage the fame of its Real Housewives of New Jersey, two of the cast- participants, but reveals the utter fascination of Childish quips. Nudity and debauchery. Cat mates, Teresa Guidice and Danielle Staub, while America’s viewers with the lives of wealthy peo- fights on Fifth Avenue. Reality TV’s play on hu- at dinner were engaged in a heated discussion ple, whether as an outlet for humor, voyeurism, mor reaches a new level with the Real House- that eventually lead to Danielle telling Teresa or national reverent. wives, a series of separate shows that take place off for her ignorance by yelling, “Pay attention! How does Real Housewives stray from depict- in different wealthy communities across the Puh-lease!” Teresa then responded in fit of rage ing housewife expectations that have stemmed country. The shows delve into the lives of several that went as far as flipping a table at Danielle, all from ages of patriarchal influence and gender affluent women and their families and friends. the while spitting out swears and insults. Looks norms? Is there value to be seen in the indepen- Beyond the extravagance and glamour however, like someone needs to up her Xanax medica- dent, frivolous lives of these women? And how thew sho has ironic fallacies that renders it un- tion. Or perhaps in Real Housewives of Orange does Real Housewives captivate viewers with its able to portray the “reality” of suburbia behind County when one housewife, Tamra Barney, aura of mockery and parody? The conception of closed doors. hosted a party and invited another cast-mate, housewife, developed in the early and mid-20th The title of the show alone is enough to stir a Jeana Keough, whom she knew disparaged her century, hinted themes of “conformity, banal- chuckle. The majority of the characters do ev- name to the media. During the party the two ity, and stifling domesticity” (Chocano 1). Early erything but housework. The show depicts get into a frenzied fight that resulted in a letter feminist documents such as those written by women in wealthy, suburban and urban environ- from Tamra’s attorney being thrown in Jeana’s Mary Wollstonecraft in the 1700s, discusses the ments, with an agenda that is so superficial that face and champagne being tossed everywhere. unspoken tyranny of men over women within you begin to wonder if they even have a house Research has revealed that there is a secretive the household. Wollstonecraft writes that wom- ore kids to tak care of at the end of the day.