Really Desperate Housewife

Note for Nat (and whoever else) : Desperate Housewives Season 7 spoilers, sorry.

In Season 6 of DH Susan Delfino inherited a strip club when her first husband Karl died. She was shocked and appalled at this. She wanted nothing to do with the place and sold it as soon as possible, she 'rescued' the intelligent Robin (who escaped the Lane and the show by running off with Katherine Mayfair which was great), what's more she was really angry with Mike for going to the club. (As she should've been.) Anyway, the result of this storyline (other than a beautiful girlfriend for Katherine) was that Susan had money - enough to pay off some of Mike's debt. So she did. And Mike went crazy - for some reason it hurt his macho pride that the wife and mother of his child felt that whatever they had (or lacked) was shared.

Somehow, this debt must have got out of control and even Susan's stripclub money couldn't help. The Delfinos had to lease their house (to Paul Young of all people) and move to a little apartment which is five minutes away. Understandably, Susan wants to get back to the home her children grew up in. Less understandable is the way she goes about getting the money back.

She ends up (after not persuing many alternatives) becoming a sexy cleaner (cleaning in her underwear on a webcam). A desperate situation that you'd expect the writers to portray with heartbreak and misery. No, the situation is played for laughs with typical Susan physical comedy. She keeps this huge secret from her husband and prances around in her brand new underwear with glee. Empowerment? I don't think so.

After a while a bigger company is going to buy the small stripping company from Susan's landlady. They are going to put up a huge bill board of Susan; Susan gets this stopped but at a price. She needs more money so agrees to one-on-one online sessions. How niave is she, exactly? She does one but gives up after the man asks to see her breasts (what precisely was she expecting?).

Lynette finds out what Susan's been doing and doesn't understand; Susan explains she wants MJ to have hot lunches. Which is fair enough but to resort to this is somewhat extreme. However, Lynette is a good friend and doesn't want to judge.

In the same episode Lynette is totally on form and on message - telling her mother-in-law that in her house her sons get up of their asses to get their own drinks and under no circumstances will her ten-year-old daughter be taught to mindlessly serve men.

So, what is going on with Susan (or rather with the writers)? Why is she so quick to sell herself. Later in the episode she realises she must sell her grandmother's jewellry. At this point I was almost shouting at the TV: "Why on earth didn't you sell that before you starting selling yourself?"

The issue remains unresolved. And I'll keep watching and hope for a positive outcome but I really do hate this storyline. I know DH can be silly and soapy. And I understand not all of the women on the show are good feminist role models - that's fine. I love Gabby, I love them all. But Susan - she's supposed to be an artist. What happened to that? What happened to Susan? For some women there are few options but Susan is lucky - middle class, both her and Mike have jobs, they're not living in luxury but they have a nice enough place. Whatever their problems are (and they're pretty temporary) there must be another way to solve them.