Ep. 8 I'm not a housewife, but I am...real
or: women in their 60s getting drunk and being friends is really important television, actually
Ooooo we’re getting into The Real Housewives franchises, what they contribute to the overall landscape of women on television, the importance of the early seasons of RHONY, the ethics of the depictions of alcoholism & abuse that the show delves into, and why Alex McCord actually had the best townhouse of them all.
Justice for Alex!! (“Is that a buffalo coming down the stairs?”)
«Stefon voice» these shows have everything: medical fraud, open marriages, and make it nice meltdowns—it’s that thing where doing coke turns out to be the only thing that balances you and when you go on vacation with no access to it you have meltdowns at the table about people making a light joke about a birthday cake.
Widows being candid about how dealing with tragic death has affected their realities! A dinner party from hell with one of the first e-cigs being smoked on camera while the psychic smoking it is yelling at Kyle Richards about how “your husband will never fulfill you. Know THAT!” as the host of the party refers to Faye Resnick as “the morally corrupt Faye Resnick” and brings up her Playboy spread! Kelly Bensimon running in the streets of New York with her hair down slowing down taxis! The iconography never stops tbh!
(Every time I say “debutante” in this ep, plz replace it with socialite, I was v stoned while recording and just want to make clear that Tinsley was not 16 during the height of her NY fame!)
CW: this episode discusses domestic abuse, mentions of suicide, disordered eating, and alcoholism.
Link It Up Baby, Link It Up
A Definitive History of Socialite Rank
The Number-One Girl (Socialite Rank)
Brooklyn Heights Preschool Dramz
Yolanda Hadid’s letter to Bella
Taylor Armstrong Cat Meme has its own Wikipedia page??
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