Wife Swap Analysis

 

    Wife Swap is a reality television show that highlights two families who have the mothers switched around (both are sent to each other’s households to live with their respective families) and they must live in these households for two weeks. The first week is an observation week, where the mothers also must take on the duties of each other, while the second week is a week where they are permitted to implement their own rules of the household, as well as having their “host,” families follow their rules as well. Of course, the show is constructed in a manner that borders on farce, which calls into action just how “real,” the show actually is.

    Regardless, the show is actually highly anthropological, almost a human version of Jane Goodall’s chimpanzee study, just televised! The inherent differences of the majority of the families on this show, display just how different each family unit is, as well as how challenging it can be for an outsider to truly and fully acclimatise themselves into their host families. With the show being titled “Wife Swap,” however, it is only natural that the meat of each show is the mother of each family and how they can assert their dominance/feminism.

    On that note, the show is actually quite positive in my opinion, in the display of the female and their roles in their families/society. To begin, the females may be thrust into the subordinate role of “quiet housewife,” at first though they are able to be the dominant wife of the household, just a week later. This dynamic of both sides of the spectrum of women in the family unit, makes this show stand out amongst other reality shows, as it displays this notion of black and white that can occur between families.

    More so than black and white, is the notion of many different views of the nuclear family; the families are “happy,” with their own mothers, the sense of a patriarchy is there as the fathers of both families are the flag on the top of the mountain of each family and the women are judged on the traditional notions; the notion that they are judged on their success (the more wealthy mother in the subject episode, is the cooler, more socially “with it,” of the two mothers), cleanliness = “goodness,” (the less clean, harder working mother is seen as inherently crazy or evil, also reinforced by the fact that she will kill the house pet for food), and finally the notion that their respective houses are a reflection of the women (with drab and few clothes, the harder working mother is seen as less caring and not dependant on appearances, while with a stocked wardrobe of highly-priced clothing, the more wealthy mother is seen as materialistic and more mindful of the quality of their lives).

    The episode in question was moderately entertaining and even though there were moments of dubiousness in terms of reality, the episode displayed the massive differences between families that different in region, class and possessions.