I Love Lucy Ricardo's Housewife Analysis

Television shows such as: Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, and The Honeymooners, depicted the 1950's housewife as living in a domestic picture of bliss, replete with kitten heels, set hair and a frilly apron. Housewives in the media were seen content and satisfied with doing house chores and obeying their husbands, however, one housewife in particular was not- Lucy Ricardo. Lucy, from the hit show I Love Lucy, has singular similarities and numerous differences to other tv housewives. Although she was not the role model 1950’s housewives were striving to be, the show was a success due to its uniqueness plot line and Lucy’s feminist strain. The stereotypical housewife portrayed in the media such as June Cleaver in Leave it to Beaver, displayed

The show was successful because the show was about the wonders of Lucy instead of the typical "Men comes home to his wife that has been cooking and cleaning all day."In addition, I Love Lucy was the first television show with a female lead. This gave Lucille Ball an opportunity to show women that they could act in a silly manner and still be feminine. The character Lucy Ricardo was not seen as threat to society at the time because it did not defy beliefs, and values in the time era. Lucy’s schemes often failed in every episode which proved that her husband was always right. The show also did not challenge gender roles. In the episode, job switching, both Lucy and Ricky decided to switch roles to prove each other they can handle each other’s job role. By the end of the episode, Lucy could not handle a job at a factory and Ricky could not handle house chores. This once again did not challenge the common belief that a women’s responsibility is to run the household while the men runs the business. Although Lucy was not the perfect 50’s housewives, the show was a success because of its uniqueness in character and physical