Obsessing Over 'The Real Housewives'

By Laurie Sanchez

Hi, I’m Laurie! I’ve just been invited by the wonderful Joanna D’Angelo to blog here at popculturedivas, and I’m honored to be in such fun and witty company. My own participation in pop culture ranges from romance novels to literary novels, from romantic comedies to The Godfather, and from The Office to Mad Men. (I’m all over the place with interests!) But my current obsession, which has been going on for some time now, is reality television.

Yeah, I’m one of those closet fans of Bravo TV. I don’t even want to like reality television. And yet there I am – walking up the stairs with a laundry basket on my hip, catching one small snippet of The Real Housewives of New York City, and – kerplunk! – laundry basket is on the floor, and I’m sitting, glued, through a four-hour marathon, watching Ramona mispronouncing words and The Countess behaving badly.

(It’s a wonder my kids ever have any clean T-shirts.)

The Real Housewives, in fact, is the series I’m most enjoying (although I can get sucked into Millionaire Matchmaker with similarly alarming speed). The “housewives” concept began right here in my hometown – or “homecounty,” as it were. The original concept was to film behind the gates of Coto de Caza, which is up the street from me, and focus on what it was like to live “behind the gates” of the upscale neighborhood. It took a couple of years for enough people to agree to the concept (Coto kind of rebelled) but eventually, The Real Housewives of Orange County was born. And Orange County women everywhere had to start to shade their eyes when they would go anywhere in public. (“Orange County? Who, me? No, I’m not from there. …”)

But now I’m completely smitten with the series – as well as the Real Housewives of New York, Atlanta, New Jersey, and … my heart be still … upcoming D.C.

So what’s the obsession? I mean, we all know (especially when one is filmed in your neighborhood) that these aren’t “real” housewives. “Real” housewives are the ones, like me, who are shopping at Target. Who are standing in Aisle 5 comparing various styles of Swiffer. They’re the ones worried their cars are going to run out of gas in the drive-through at Taco Bell, or the ones running to the baseball field across town to pick up their second child before they zoom home to feed the hamster.

So if we know these aren’t going to document what we know as “real” housewife-dom, why do we watch?

Here are a couple of possibilities:

Maybe we just like to watch people behaving badly. Whether it’s Teresa flipping a table or Gretchen flirting with her friend’s son, we can gawk at the television and breathe a sigh of relief that we’ve never done that at least.

Maybe we’re fascinated that people can be so clueless. Knowing the housewives are showcasing what they see as “attributes” – presenting expensive cars to ungrateful children, advising a single woman to ask her dying fiancé about his will, giving young girls advice that drunken binges are bad for you only because they make you gain weight – we can all stare at the TV and let our jaws drop a little.

Maybe we enjoy having our assumption verified that money can’t buy you happiness. Sure, you can have a $1.5 million home, but that doesn’t mean your son will treat you with respect or that your daughter will graduate from high school. Sure, you can spend outrageous amounts of money on clothes and jewelry, but that doesn’t mean that your marriage won’t dissolve in front of your eyes or you won’t age. And sure, you can throw lavish parties or get invited to the most amazing social events in the stratosphere, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have true friends. Or even know who your true friends are.

What about you? Which is your favorite “Housewives” series? What is it that draws you in, and makes you sit, glued to the TV, with your laundry basket on your hip?

Laurie Sanchez lives in Southern California with her hubby and three kids and is putting the polishing touches on her first manuscript. She also blogs as Mizwrite and blogs over at Health Bistro on Fridays. She's still trying to catch up with laundry.