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Start Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
In 2020-2021, two television shows premiered – WandaVision and Kevin Can F**k Himself – that make use of sitcom tropes to tell their stories. Particularly prominent in these shows is the idea of the beleaguered housewife who must endure various ridiculous situations because of the questionable choices of her husband. These two shows are telling vastly different stories, but they both rely heavily on the sitcom genre to convey those tales.
Sitcom housewives have not always been quite as beleaguered as these shows would like to suggest. Instead, from Lucy Ricardo to Edith Bunker, Samantha Stephens to Roseanne Conner, sitcom housewives run the gamut of character types. When modern television acts as though all sitcom housewives throughout the history of television have been subjugated, the strength and agency of those women is lost. This paper strives to resolve some of those misunderstandings, while also looking at where those ideas actually come from – because there are a lot of women in sitcoms who fit into the stereotypes.
In this paper, I will do three things: trace the history of the sitcom housewife, featuring the themes that she tends to embody; examine the recent representations of this character in sitcom satires WandaVision and Kevin can F**k Himself; and draw connections between the two, examining how the recent representations are accurate and the ways that they are simply perpetuating harmful stereotypes.
The Beleaguered Television Housewife: Sitcom Trope or Harmful Stereotype?
In 2020-2021, two television shows premiered – WandaVision and Kevin Can F**k Himself – that make use of sitcom tropes to tell their stories. Particularly prominent in these shows is the idea of the beleaguered housewife who must endure various ridiculous situations because of the questionable choices of her husband. These two shows are telling vastly different stories, but they both rely heavily on the sitcom genre to convey those tales.
Sitcom housewives have not always been quite as beleaguered as these shows would like to suggest. Instead, from Lucy Ricardo to Edith Bunker, Samantha Stephens to Roseanne Conner, sitcom housewives run the gamut of character types. When modern television acts as though all sitcom housewives throughout the history of television have been subjugated, the strength and agency of those women is lost. This paper strives to resolve some of those misunderstandings, while also looking at where those ideas actually come from – because there are a lot of women in sitcoms who fit into the stereotypes.
In this paper, I will do three things: trace the history of the sitcom housewife, featuring the themes that she tends to embody; examine the recent representations of this character in sitcom satires WandaVision and Kevin can F**k Himself; and draw connections between the two, examining how the recent representations are accurate and the ways that they are simply perpetuating harmful stereotypes.
Bio
Nettie Brock is an assistant professor of Convergent Media at Morehead State University. She studies popular culture, looking specifically at storytelling devices in genre television shows, including sitcoms and westerns. She has studied Doctor Who, Sherlock, Community, The Crown, Call the Midwife, and many more. She enjoys watching television, playing video games, and hanging out with her cat.