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As long as theres been TV, the family has been one of its favorite go-tos.
All week long, Vulture is exploring how its been represented on our screens.
Perhaps most fascinating, though, is the evolution of the housewife.
A housewife was a woman who runs a household.
She was married (wife is right there in the word).
She probably had children.
A version of that definition of housewife goes back tothe 13th century, at least.
Its family as vocation, as career, as societal role.
It is selfhood as defined through the family.
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That housewife has long been one of the most visible members of the TV family.
She is Harriet Nelson and June Cleaver and Claire Dunphy and the mom fromHome Improvement.
A classic housewife wears an apron, pushes a vacuum, and deftly pulls casseroles from the oven.
In either iteration, her expression is usually exasperated or exhausted, concerned or patient.
In dramas and melodramas, the labor and tedium of housewifery gets more play.
Housewives are more likely to be cast as dissatisfied, stunted.Desperate.
As of the last decade or so though, housewife has had a double meaning.
She wears a jewel-toned ball gown, and pivots to the camera while saying her signature catchphrase.
She takes vacations to Dubai.
She hosts themed parties and holds long grudges.
But its especially working to draw a line between reality and fiction in the idea of being a housewife.
The fake housewife is Donna Reed.
A Housewife does not need to be married, or in a serious relationship.
In fact, zero of the current cast ofReal Housewives of New Yorkare married.
She does not need to have children.
She is no longer conceived of in any family context at all, in fact.
Theres plenty ofcultural irefor the Real Housewives, and there arebountiful reasons to dislike them.
Theyre wealthy women, for the most part.
They mine their lives and their families and their careers for notoriety.
But theres not much Housewife criticism that focuses on wishing theyd be more like the older definition of housewife.
The original housewife has a vocation defined by her relationship to her family unit.
(And also Andy Cohen.)
