The many facets of Bree in Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives (ABC 2004-2012) embodies many of the characteristics that the Suburban Gothic genre is trying to project. There is anxiety surrounding suburbanisation and the reality behind the nuclear family. This in turn brings up many issues regarding patriarchal society and the gender roles that are performed within this system.
As the title suggests, the show centres around housewives, each with a different set of problems but ones that essentially culminate into the major problems of suppression, lack of identity, financial entrapment, sexuality in relation to men and the family, as well as the role of the woman in the home.
The show has a serio-comic take on the issues mentioned above which allows the characters to publicly reveal their deepest secrets and have them criticised, satirized and related to by the other characters as well as the audience. This breaks with the normative ideology that is a result of the consistent repetition of (most times negative) images surrounding these gender roles. Instead of promoting the problematic behaviour and psychology that is depicted on the show, Desperate Housewives means to show audiences what is wrong with society through its characters and use of humour contrasted with disturbing elements.
The character of Bree in the series is an example of how the postfeminist world is attempting to negotiate the role of women in society. Her psychology gives reason as to why her life is secretly crumbling and can shed light on how society is constructing gender roles for women like Bree to perform. Looking at the episode Next (2:1) specifically gives evidence of Bree’s behaviour and place within Wisteria Lane.

In the episode named above (2:1) Bree is confronted with the aftermath of her husband’s death and has to relay the information to her friends. She sits by the phone until the “appropriate” time to phone arrives. This absurd rigidity during a period of grief is an example of how the show uses comedic aspects at times to portray very serious events. The separation between emotion and “duty” is a large aspect of Bree’s personality. This will be touched on further in terms of gender roles in the series (and society in general) later on.
The episode goes on to draw out this delayed emotional reaction (which actually only finds release in the form of rage in the next episode) in the scene where Bree stands outside waiting. Her friends encourage her to “let it out” but she states that she “can’t afford to fall apart”. The issue underneath this cold rationality is very serious as it has impacted Bree’s relations with her now deceased husband, her children and her friends negatively (Randell-Moon, 2007) (McCabe & Akass, 2006). The audience is aware that death is a particularly traumatic event for Bree as this calculated response has been speculated to stem from the death of her mother when she was a child. However, the show does not let the tragedy linger but rather brings in a comic element to ease in the concepts of death and mourning (Lancioni, 2006) through the arrival of Bree’s mother-in-law. The spotlight is completely taken off of Bree and transferred onto Rex’s mother. For the sake of her children, Bree tolerates the wishes and dismissive comments that come from her but we see a resilience arise at the funeral.
This scene perfectly encapsulates the broken nature of Bree’s psyche. She detests the tie that her mother-in-law has chosen for Rex to be buried in so at the ceremony she goes through the procedure of replacing the tie on her husband’s corpse. The way in which this is done is very comical as she struggles to lift up the body and make the perfect tie but in fact this shows how the character is in her own way paying her respects to the deceased. Through her neurotic compulsion for the funeral to go down perfectly, she still grieves Rex in her own dysfunctional way (Randell-Moon, 2007).
The other guests (especially the women) are appalled by her daring move to gain perfection during an imperfect situation but this in itself can be critiqued as a divide between the housewives and women as a whole. Earlier, the other women can be seen gossiping in a humorous manner about Bree and her family but despite their casual concern it is arguable whether they in fact care about their friend (McCabe & Akass, 2006) and what this means for postfeminist archetypes and the judgements placed on them.
Postfeminism is an era that we are (supposedly) currently living in which promotes the idea that feminism is not rigid in its construction of women’s rights. It acknowledges the struggles of 2nd wave feminism but states that the modern woman is free to choose how she identifies whether this be for example through her career, through motherhood or both (Lancioni, 2006). There is of course the question of where feminism stands in relation to genders and sexualities outside the binary construction but this can be answered through looking at the core value of feminism. This value is the equality of men and women. This can then logically be extended across all genders to form the aim of equality between these genders.
Where this ties in to Desperate Housewives is less clear as texts differ in their interpretation of the characters and the show’s aim in portraying them the way it does. The much idealised view that postfeminism projects onto the world is also seen to appear in Desperate Housewives as all of the housewives are repressed in some way but still live a privileged life that some women are alienated from (McCabe & Akass, 2006).
Perhaps it is for this reason that characters such as Bree are criticised for their embodiment of the ideal 50’s housewife. On one end of the argument, Bree is seen to be performing a role (which will still be touched on) to cover up a darker dissatisfaction with her circumstances (Hill, 2010) but on the other end, she is seen to be keeping herself in the realm of oppression through actively trying to achieve this image of the perfect housewife.
In the episode, Bree obsesses over the particulars regarding Rex’s funeral. When this is commented on by her friends they say that she does not appear to be coping due to her distant attitude to the proceedings. When engaging with her mother-in-law she is spoken to rudely and said to appear cold and heartless. This is interesting seeing as Rex’s mother is of an older generation than Bree but yet does not relate to her compulsive behaviour. There is a subtle but clear judgement on her behaviour as a woman but particularly a woman living in a postfeminist world as she is expected to show emotion (Richardson, 2006) but also submit to her mother-in-law’s wishes (which she does not) and by doing so she embodies the opposite of a postfeminist woman. Domestically she is perfect and socially she is defiant but these (ironically) are two concepts that patriarchal postfeminism does not cater to (McCabe & Akass, 2006).
It is also interesting to look at this patriarchal society that surrounds the women of Wisteria Lane. There is an incident where Bree and her mother-in-law are consulting with the pastor about the funeral. Her mother-in-law berates her in front of the pastor and Bree speaks up demanding that he not let it carry on. In this way Bree is standing up to the patriarchal notion that she is allowed to be belittled and that when a marriage ends it is the woman’s fault (as her mother-in-law implies). In later episodes, Bree is confronted with the dilemma of being vulnerable in a male-dominated society. She sees George’s affections as a way out of her loneliness and the trouble she is having with her children but in I Wish I Could Forget You (2:6) she is drugged and then manipulated by George into having sex with him. This anxious need for a male presence is constantly negotiated (Murphy, 2009) and troubles Bree as she is not just a pre-feminist ideal but rather negotiates her identity which she is only able to do in the postfeminist arena.
We see Bree struggle with this notion of how she is supposed to act and whom she need answer to which leads on to the question of what gender role Bree is enacting and what she is achieving by doing so. According to Niall Richardson, Bree’s stylistic behaviour can be likened to the “camp” with which homosexual men often perform a gender role (Richardson, 2006) that is seen as heteronormative or to emphasize stereotypical homosexual qualities so that they can be socially accepted. This social acceptance comes from fitting into a gender role that society deems a part of the collective (Randell-Moon, 2007). Therefore, Bree can be seen to perform the role of the perfect housewife according to what she thinks society desires of her.
The problem with performing in this way is that it does not necessarily appear authentic and this is what the other characters seem to remark on often. Apart from this judgement or confusion about what Bree hopes to gain by moulding herself in this way, it is interesting to inspect possible reasons why she may feel she needs to.
Several times throughout the first season her late husband Rex remarked on her role as the wife and mother being something she takes too seriously. The irony behind this can be noted in a scene where Bree and her psychologist are conversing about Freud. She expresses anger about the way that the family problems are always blamed on the mother due to this paradox of patriarchal society (Hill, 2010). The woman is unable to win because in order to do this she must fulfil every role perfectly. She points out that if she stopped doing the things that her family takes for granted and focused more on being “fun” and expressing emotion then she would simply be persecuted for this instead (Randell-Moon, 2007).
Focusing on the main episode for analysis (2:1) there are several moments where the roles of Bree and her mother-in-law are compared. Rex’s mother is deemed the greatest parent who expresses the deepest love for her child. Although this is also a performance (seen most perfectly when she dramatically grieves her son for sympathy) she constantly points out how Bree differs from her. Rex is seen as the perfect role model for his children and a loving husband while Bree is made out to have been cold and distant despite her efforts and Rex’s adultery (Hill, 2010).
The turning point in terms of this unfair comparison between the marital gender roles (Randell-Moon, 2007) is in They Asked Me Why I Believe in You (2:5) where she finds out that Rex believed that she was poisoning him and wrote a letter stating that he forgave her. She defiantly shouts to her friends that “there was nothing to forgive!” as she tried her best. Obviously it is important to note that although she is not a martyr, she did in fact perform her role according to how she thought it should be performed (Richardson, 2006). The hypocrisy in the gender roles is what Desperate Housewives points out in these scenes and aims to discredit.

The series Desperate Housewives employs serio-comic tactics in order to satirize the repressive and often unnoticed battles that the housewives of Wisteria Lane (and greater society) face. It attempts to disintegrate normative ideology and replace it with several narratives that negotiate how women fit into society, how gender roles are performed and why society functions the way that it does.
Bree can be seen as an example of a character that reflects the incoherent projections of gender and behaviour that exist in the so-called postfeminist world. She is seen to both embrace the nature of pre-feminism but reject notions of oppression. Her compulsive behaviour is evidence of how she attempts to cope through times of struggle and grief. The other women are quick to judge and speculate about the inner-workings of Bree but they themselves are caught up in the negotiation of gender and sexuality.
Ultimately the characters of Wisteria Lane still exist (as we do) in a patriarchal society where gender is compared but not afforded equal rights and respect. The only way the show sees fit to deal with this tragedy is to invite in comedy to reveal the trivial nature of these constructions.

References
Desperate Housewives Wiki, 2004-2012. Bree Van de Kamp. [Online]
Available at: http://desperatehousewives.wikia.com/wiki/Bree_Van_de_Kamp
[Accessed 30 September 2015].
Hill, L., 2010. Gender and genre: Situating Desperate Housewives. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 38(4), pp. 162-169.
Lancioni, J., 2006. Murder and Mayhem on Wisteria Lane: A study of genre and cultural context in Desperate Housewives. In: Reading Desperate Housewives: Beyond the white picket fence. New York City: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd..
McCabe, J. & Akass, K., 2006. Introduction: Airing the dirty laundry. In: Reading Desperate Housewives: Beyond the white picket fence. New York City: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd..
Murphy, B., 2009. Introduction to the Suburban Gothic in American popular culture. Dublin: Palgrave Macmillan.
Randell-Moon, H., 2007. The Death of the Housewife in Desperate Housewives. The Washington and Jefferson College Review, pp. 115-125.
Richardson, N., 2006. As Kamp as Bree: Postfeminine camp in Desperate Housewives. In: Reading Desperate Housewives: Beyond the white picket fence. New York City: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., pp. 86-95.