Bravo's Real Housewives franchise isn’t exactly known for its progressive female role models, though many of the ladies are successful businesswomen. But thanks to The Real Housewives of Orange County's Alexis Bellino and her husband Jim, last night we got a taste of their chauvinistic relationship at its most musty and outdated.
Alexis has a little gig on the local Fox News station -- nothing major. She’s not Christiane Amanpour. She’s not running around Afghanistan with a Hellfire missile strapped to her back. She’s got a one-day-a-week gig at Fox, yammering about spas and gourmet cooking and the like. No one is going to win a Pulitzer. But she enjoys doing it. It gives her a sense of purpose. A sense of purpose outside of taking care of her husband and kids. Oh-oh. Hubby don’t like that.
When Alexis tells Jim that she’d like an acting coach to help her with her Fox appearances (though I think she means a media coach), Jim grunts: "I just don’t see how this fits into being a wife and mother."
OMG. Did you see his hairy knuckles dragging on the floor? Jim then goes on to say that Alexis shouldn't get more involved with her job because they don't need the money. Oh, help me Gloria Steinem. He thinks that it’s all about the money. Not that women might enjoy working. Not that working at a job they love might give women a sense of self. Alexis isn’t suggesting she become a coal miner. She dresses up and goes on TV! It's fun for her.
Plus, the kids are old enough now that she can leave the house without any issues. What should she be doing instead? Cleaning the pool table? Vacuuming up the hair her troglodyte husband leaves behind?
Anyway, Alexis doesn't seem ready to quit her job. She told the camera (though not Jim) that he would have to deal.
Here’s the gig that has Jim’s sexist panties in a twist:
Is Alexis's husband a chauvinist oink oink?
Image via Getty
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Comments 22
Oh, Torrance, surely you already know the answer to that. Lberals see no value in motherhood nor being a wife. In their minds, those two roles are demeaning and no woman would ever choose them.
TorranceMom, he is a "chauvinist oink oink" because she found a gig she could do part-time that is not a huge impact on the kids who are now old enough for her to leave the house without a major production, and he is against that. A man who does not support his wife in her interests because they might take away from husband and kids is not very mature. Is he so inept that he can't put together a sandwich or run a vaccuum? Last time I checked, it took two people to make kids, both parents should raise them.
And I will not apologize if that viewpoint offends anyone.
You know the Bellino family personally, then? I guess I'm just wondering how you're able to measure the impact of Alexis' part-time job on her responsibilities at home.
As an aside, she is terrible on the news
I heard that! ;)
No, I was going by what I've seen on TV and in articles. But major issues aside, a job where you only go in one day a week is not a very big impact. If the kids are old enough to be in school, they are old enough to handle their mother working one day a week. And I still say that it took the two of them to conceive the kids, he should help raise them. It would also be way healthier for the kids to have a happy mother, whether her hobby is a paying gig to go on TV and comment on spas, gourmet cookery and similar things or doing needlepoint. Before you jump on me, my wife and I had a marriage where she decided to work and I stayed home with the kids. But that doesn't mean I didn't have any hobbies or that she did not help raise our kids. This was something that we decided on after talking it over and deciding what would work best for our family.
Seriously FlordiaMom!?! Seriously? Grow up!
Don't get mad that some women can handle the responsibilities of raising a child, being a wife, and having a job. If you can't/won't do all three that's your own personal problem.