Swap! In the name of love

A 2

So, I am totally not a fan of Wife Swap -- the TV show that takes two very different households and has the two wives change places for two weeks. And I definitely did not see last night's episode where Susan Heiss, who lives in an upscale neighborhood in Rhode Island in a house with nine (9!) televisions and her husband Big "Bada bada bing!" Ed, switched lives with Sienna Kestral, an eco-conscious, dreadlocked freegan from Virginia.

Therefore I cannot report on how upset I was at the first half-hour of the show, wherein Susan Heiss ridicules the environmental lifestyle (no dishwasher or other modern appliances, baking soda and water for cleaning supplies, the "if-it's-yellow-let-it-mellow-if-it's-brown-flush-it-down" toilet mantra, etc.) of the Kestrals. When reading the first sentence of the Kestral family manual: "We are a community-minded, left-activist, eco-oriented ... radical family"; Susan responds, "I have no idea what those words mean." Oh, we have a looong way to go, middle America.

The two families couldn't have been more different at the outset, as demonstrated in their post-switch analysis:

Sienna: The amount of money you make in one week is the amount of money we spend in a year.
Big Ed: We. Don't. Have. People. Like. You. In. Our. Area.

Had I seen the show, I might comment that the editing really made enviros come off as more-than-wacky -- and the tie-dyed fade-ins/outs were really unnecessary. I might also suggest that the rules each wife set for the other family were a bit out there: Sienna forced Big Ed to wear a peasant skirt to work and all modern appliances were off-limits (even hair-dryers, eek!). Meanwhile, Susan sent the peace-loving hippies paintballing (because shooting is a manly, American sport, wo0t!).

But in the end, as with most Wife Swap episodes (not that I'd know!), both families ended up learning a lot (like "hmm, maybe a video-game system isn't the devil" and "ooh, this peasant skirt is cute on me!") and gained a whole new appreciation for their own lifestyles.

Bada bada bing.

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  1. Chris Schults Posted 6:03 am
    08 Nov 2005

    PainfulAs the show was painful enough to watch, I couldn't bring myself to relive it by writing about it. Thank you Sarah for saving me from any more pain.
    Last night's episode only demonstrates the need for enviros to work with Hollywood to get a more diverse representation of environmentalists into mainstream entertainment media. If not, shows like Wife Swap will make those choices for us, which will only perpetuate stereotypes.
    There is more to environmentalism than radical, hippy freegans and mad scientists who think category seven hurricanes will be the norm if you don't buy a Prius today.

    Support Grist: http://www.grist.org/support

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  2. DaisyCatnip Posted 11:32 pm
    13 Nov 2005

    RidiculousThe Kestrel/Heiss episode of "Wife Swap" was not only ridiculous, but fed directly into mainstream thinking...this much is obvious. The moment Susan Heiss looked at the (nice little house I thought!) Kestral home she actually laughed! As Sienna stated on the show "they just comsume, comsume, consume." Clearly the show is edit, edit, edit....but in my eyes, Susan came off as the most ignorant. A mind shut tight....passing the closed-mindedness on to her three children. Ian was delightful. Susan was disturbed by Ian's purple hair...yet her own son Ryan had a big old diamond (I am assuming it was real) in his pierced ear? I would like to read Susan's life manual because I don't understand the rules. I laughed right out loud when Susan made 'Ash get a job in a video store to "support the family like a man"....wow...he must have made a big old "man-supporting income working there."

    My thoughts,

    Daisy

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