I must confess to not buying into the uber-hype of boob tube reality shows. Call me crazy but watching my fellow man eat mummified worms while being suspended over a boiling lava pit or peeking at a washed up B-List covergirl from 1983 getting her fourth round of nipple lifts is not my idea of primetime fun.

However, there is one mamma drama that I NEVER miss…Fox’s Trading Spouses. Upon first blush, how compelling could a Midwestern muffin-making mom trading families with a screaming New Jersey Carmella Soprano in-the- making be? Turns out, QUITE my pretties.

I was stunned after watching the show for the first time that I was so affected by it, sniffly nose, teary eyes and all. I realized why in the coming weeks as I sat riveted on my sofa. Thoughtful literature ala Gerda Lerner and Ms. Steinem examining women’s roles in contemporary society and family are no longer. Brilliant, golden egg, a-ha essays like “Confessions of a Playboy Bunny” are simply MIA in our new century. In their place, whiny faux feminist tomes in which once upon a time involves women who wear lipstick, are neurotic about roofies and rape and no longer have armpit hair. Bergdorf Blondes ring a bell?

Trading Spouses is the first authentic look I’ve seen in ages at the estro-centric struggle of work and family and the true impact a caring, non-bitching, non-whining mother can have on creating a healthy, loving child…one that that won’t shoot his playmates next door or tattoo everything short of his penis for attention. TV that teaches? You don’t say! Tune in Mondays at 8 for a rare sociological treat!

http://www.fox.com/tradingspouses/

Signed,
TLRG :pigtails: