Critical Analysis of Wife Swap

Wife Swap is a show that picks a subject and shows two wives on opposite poles of that issue. The wives switch families and everyone gets really mad because they believe their extreme pole is the right pole. For this critical analysis, I will critique this clip of Wife Swap through a feminist and semiotic analysis.

Feminist Analysis

What does it mean to be a woman? Or a wife? Or a mother? More importantly, what does it mean to be a good one? Although this clip does not explicitly state a proposed answer to this, viewers can infer an opinion.

The mother (in this clip, only known as Grandma) of the other wife (Paulette) storms into the kitchen and begins moaning about the terrible things the visiting wife, Elizabeth, has done. Her initial critiques are on the cleanliness of the kitchen, the presentation of the cooking dinner and the overall state of the house and family. She makes it known that she and her daughter believe this is the definition of a good woman, wife and mother. Elizabeth disagrees.

The strange thing about this clip is its focus. Yes, it's not hard to understand that a show about two wives who have different ways of defining wife would focus on traditional feminine roles, such as cleaner, cook, and childcare provider. This clip, however, focuses more on these roles than the women themselves. We do not learn about these women beneath the visible surface. We do not see how their definitions of woman have been developed. Instead, we only see the overflowing pots and food-encrusted counters. The grandmother says, "My daughter vacuums everyday!" These women are defined by their roles; the editing of the show, with its emphasis on surface actions, reminds us of this too.

Semiotic Analysis

As I mention in my feminist critique, this show represents the roles of women as a binary. In this clip, we have the clean wife versus the sloppy wife. The show does not have a game show format, but it invites the viewer to choose a side by providing arguments for and rebuttals for each definition of wife.

In this scene, we have the sloppy wife (Elizabeth) meeting the mother of the clean wife (Paulette). To show the binary of the two definitions of wife, the show uses semiotics to visually show the division between the two roles. The show uses two primary locations in this clip: the kitchen and the porch. The grandmother and the Elizabeth have agency in one location and not the other: the grandmother can critique Elizabeth in the kitchen while Elizabeth can critique the grandmother on the porch. Both of these locations are representative to their definitions of the word 'wife.' Additionally, these two locations draw on the cultural code of who belongs where: the sloppy wife outside of her home and the clean wife in her kitchen. Having two different locations also brings the idea of a binary back into play; the two women have polar opposite views and cannot reconcile.

Classroom Approach

I am very interested in how cultural codes and gender are constructed by media; I want my students to think critically about this too. If I were to use this clip and these analyses for instruction, I would begin by asking students to define wife, woman and mother and begin thinking about why their definitions are what they are. My objective is to deconstruct the strong binaries presented in this clip. To do this, I would ask students to first notice all the different binaries in the clip - age, setting, cleanliness, clothing, etc. - and through this, we will have a discussion as to how gender roles are socially constructed. We will explore how this clip constructs gender roles and the danger of polarizing them.