Desperate Housewives is a television show that is ripe with situations for various lens analyses. For this this exercise, I have chosen to analyze the clip from Feminist and Marxist lenses.

Feminist:
It would be naive to think that any show titled "Desperate Housewives" wouldn't have many instances where the Feminist radar was blaring. Here, the scene opens with two women talking about responsibilities to their children, with Lynette having found childcare so she could have alone time and Susan feeling as though she needed to prepare dinner for her daughter. Clearly this places the women in the role of "caretakers" for their families. What is interesting about the decision of both of the women in the this scene is they both choose to buck their traditional roles, even if just for one afternoon of cocktails. Gaby joins their afternoon happy hour, however, and we soon see the women return to traditional roles, complaining and worrying about the men in their lives. The women talk about their bodies, passion, and their fears of growing old - particularly emphasizing the fear of growing old alone. Lynette is the most powerful of the three women, talking of how she has "allowed" her husband to open a pizza shop, but that it has had a negative effect on their relationship. Overall, the scene plays into many feminine stereotypes, but does it in the context of the women choosing to take to themselves outside of their traditional roles and just spending time together. (Note: the women are not on the porch drinking beers, but drinking a traditional "girly" drink: margaritas)

Marxist:
An afternoon and evening sitting on the porch of a well kept house drinking margaritas. This is a situation that screams middle/middle-upper class privilege. The visuals in the scene are clearly from an uppity, suburban neighborhood in anywhere America - nice cars, well-maintained yards, meticulously clean front porch, and the ultimate symbol of status: the white picket fence. There is something to be said about a mother who feels as though she needs to prepare dinner for her sixteen year-old daughter, as well. Clearly, the expectation that mom is home every evening to make dinner is created in a world where mom is either working no job or working a regular day shift job. In low-class families, many parents are working multiple jobs or have only been able to find second or third shift jobs. Other parts of this scene that speak to the wealth in the neighborhood include the old couple walking while it is dark out and the older woman waiting at night, alone, on her curb for a taxi. Gaby makes a direct reference to the status driven neighborhood when she calls out to the walking couple, "Yeah, we're drinking on the porch. You got a problem with that?" Hanging out on the porch with neighbors, particularly while drinking, is commonly a practice associated with low-income communities, not in a neighborhood such as where they live. As the day becomes night, we can see that the street is well lit and seems safe and when a random taxi driver ends up in front of the house, they have no problem encouraging Susan to jump into the cab. Desperate Housewives is a show built on the assumptions of middle/middle-upper class status and constantly uses this as part of the storyline in episodes.

Classroom Activity:
In order for students to really understand using different lenses, it is important to allow them to juxtapose the different approaches/perspectives with one another. One activity I came up with would be to have students each choose their favorite television show, movie, or video game. I would ask them to analyze their choice from their own perspective - what do they love about this show, movie, game; what are the main appealing aspects of this; who is the target audience, etc. After they have performed that analysis, I would ask the students to look at their analysis from a different lense (ex. if they chose Marxist, I would have them critique the parts of their choice from the perspective of each rung of the economic ladder). Their final task would be to create a 45-60 second "teaser" for their tv show, movie, or game that would make the show more appealing to people outside of the target market. Students would identify the setting, character, and language changes they made after applying a new lens.