Peace in a Pod

For the last few years of secondary school, regardless of what homework needed to be completed or what sandwiches required preparing for the next day’s lunch, Tuesday evenings were sacred in our house, because, for 60 minutes, starting at 10pm, Desperate Housewives was on. With 5 out of the 6 of us getting hooked from about Season 3 onwards, it became an unspoken ritual in our home to gather around the TV set each Tuesday and watch in suspense as RTÉ2 delivered the latest instalments in these glamorous women’s lives. Now almost a decade has passed since that time and I decided to rewatch the series with my parents, only viewing it this time through a far more educated and nuanced lens, and, while I still love it and find it entertaining, boy do I see some stuff that makes me mad, the highlights of which I will momentarily flesh out for you here. First and foremost, I absolutely refuse to apologise for any spoilers you are about to read: Desperate Housewives originally aired between 2...

Feminism is the belief that men and women should have equal rights. It is literally that simple. A person doesn’t have to burn their bra, grow out their body hair or ‘hate men’ to be a feminist, and whoever told you that has a lot to answer for. Despite significant improvements in the lives of women (in the Western world) over the last 50 years, there still remains a gap between the ideal and the reality of what it means to exist as a woman in society. I don’t plan on getting into every aspect of feminism in one post - to try to do so would be extremely naive - so consider this the first of many discussions around a very meaningful and worthwhile topic. Today I want to get into what it means to be a successful woman. Chats with other women my age and older, as well as reading feminist literature over the last year in particular, have really helped refine my understanding of how success in life is portrayed to women. So basically there is a narrative in society that is sold to girls fro...