{"id":32,"date":"2010-08-02T17:01:28","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T17:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/08\/the-real-housewives-of-proverbs-31.html"},"modified":"2010-08-02T17:01:28","modified_gmt":"2010-08-02T17:01:28","slug":"the-real-housewives-of-proverbs-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/08\/the-real-housewives-of-proverbs-31.html","title":{"rendered":"The Real Housewives of Proverbs 31"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

As a working mother who lives in the Washington-metro area,
\nI admit that I’m dreading Bravo’s new program The Real Housewives of D.C.<\/a> <\/i>(begins 8\/05).  <\/span>I took some comfort in the Washington
\nPost’s scathing advance review<\/a> of it:<\/p>\n

\n

Every word of the title is wrong, except “the” and “of.” <\/i><\/p>\n

Real:  What can that even mean anymore?<\/i><\/p>\n

Housewives: Remember when that bordered on slur?  The surgically taut eyes of certain Real Housewives must ache from wink-winking every time Bravo has them say the name of the show.<\/i><\/p>\n

D.C.: Always the artificial
\nno place . . . <\/i><\/p>\n

What woman in her right mind would submit to this charade?<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bravo’s botox-injected shouting match that makes women look
\nlike idiots is coming to my town. 
\n<\/span>In their defense, Bravo insists that the D.C. series will have more
\nintellectual and political content, being socially relevant.  <\/span>But I doubt it. 
\n<\/span>Bravo, which used to toy with cultural irony regarding materialism now
\ncloys us with “real” Lindsey Lohans (sans the talent) and slightly better
\neducated Snookies as a way to up the ratings. <\/span><\/p>\n

I’m no snob when it comes to reality TV.  <\/span>I love Top Chef<\/i> (also
\nBravo) and confess to have sobbed more than a few times while watching The
\nBiggest Loser<\/i>–both of which actually have some moral content.  <\/span>What is the point of the Real Housewives<\/i>?  <\/span>Is this pure escapism?  <\/span>Is it an alternative reality for
\nrecession-weary women?  <\/span>A mirror
\ninto middle-class aspirations?  <\/span>What
\nwomen secretly wish to be?<\/p>\n

Whatever it is intended to be (my tween daughter says that
\nit is only supposed to be “funny”), the main problem with the Real Housewives<\/i>
\nfranchise is that it depicts women using stereotypes in a way to entertain
\nthat, if inflicted on any racial or ethnic group, would give rise to legal
\naction, boycotts, and public outcry. 
\n<\/span>It pictures women as grown-up mean girls, the sort everyone hated in
\nhigh school and who have now parleyed their cruel social climbing to the bigger
\nstages of New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and D.C.  <\/span>The shows denigrate women by implying that they get ahead by
\nbeing materialistic gossips and marrying the right men.  <\/span>Even the criticism lends itself to demeaning
\nwomen.  <\/span>Example?  <\/span>The mostly-liberal Washington Post
\nlikens the word “housewife” to a “slur” and asks what woman would “submit” to
\nthe show.<\/p>\n

Excuse me, both Bravo and WaPo, but “housewife” is neither
\nglam-reality nor a slur especially in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.  <\/span>And women here are not the submissive
\ntype.  <\/span>Washington women toil at raising
\ntheir children, work at home and in offices, run businesses and the federal
\ngovernment, volunteer at non-profits and serve in religious communities.  <\/span>The real women of D.C. spend their time
\ncaring for others, nurturing the next generation, and trying to make the world
\na better place.  <\/span>We sit in traffic
\njams and on corporate boards.  <\/span>We
\nare creative, energetic, busy, and often overwhelmed.  <\/span>And, for what it is worth, we are too invested in working hard and doing good
\ntoo spend even an hour watching a show that does not come close to the reality
\nof our lives. <\/span><\/p>\n

When I think of my D.C. housewife friends and neighbors (who
\nare politically and theologically liberal and conservative; who are Christians,
\nJews, Muslims, and secularists), I do not think of some faux-Hollywood
\nglamour.  <\/span>Instead, they bring to
\nmind the description of the good wife of Proverbs 31<\/a>. Although this passage is sometimes hijacked by conservative Christians, it is a surprisingly apt description of contemporary women–and most especially, religious feminists.  In the words of the writer of Proverbs, the “capable” wife  “works with willing
\nhands” and “rises while it is still night and provides food for her
\nhousehold.”  She<\/span> is savvy, charitable, just, creative, strong,
\nand dignified; and she “opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is
\non her tongue.”  <\/span>She “looks well to
\nthe ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.”<\/p>\n

The Real Housewives of Proverbs 31<\/i>? <\/span>It would be closer to reality
\nthan any of the Bravo celebri-wives, who make a mockery of the ancient wise
\nwords “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord
\nis to be praised.”  <\/span>Could that be
\nthe actual point Bravo is trying to make? 
\n<\/span>Maybe.  But I suspect not.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a working mother who lives in the Washington-metro area, I admit that I’m dreading Bravo’s new program The Real Housewives of D.C. (begins 8\/05).  I took some comfort in the Washington Post’s scathing advance review of it: Every word of the title is wrong, except “the” and “of.” Real:  What can that even mean anymore? Housewives: Remember…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-and-religion","category-scripture","category-women"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Real Housewives of Proverbs 31 - Christianity for the Rest of Us<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/08\/the-real-housewives-of-proverbs-31.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Real Housewives of Proverbs 31 - Christianity for the Rest of Us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a working mother who lives in the Washington-metro area, I admit that I’m dreading Bravo’s new program The Real Housewives of D.C. 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Housewives: Remember…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/08\/the-real-housewives-of-proverbs-31.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christianity for the Rest of Us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-02T17:01:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Diana Butler Bass\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Real Housewives of Proverbs 31 - Christianity for the Rest of Us","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/08\/the-real-housewives-of-proverbs-31.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Real Housewives of Proverbs 31 - Christianity for the Rest of Us","og_description":"As a working mother who lives in the Washington-metro area, I admit that I’m dreading Bravo’s new program The Real Housewives of D.C. 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She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of seven books including A People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History of Christianity: the Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009) Her best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us (2006) was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and Christian Century, won the Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY. Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She regularly comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR. From 1995-2000, she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She has written widely in the religious press, including Sojourners, Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations. From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality\u00e2\u20ac\u201da project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Diana also serves on the board of directors of the Beatitudes Society. Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington, D.C.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/author\/dbbass"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}