'Workin' Moms': Will Netflix show address charge of white privilege against its main characters when it returns for season 3
Netflix show 'Workin' Moms' has been garnering applause for its depiction of working mothers. The series mainly focuses on four women doing their best while trying to juggle between work and home, something made all the more difficult by the challenges of bringing up a baby.
In the first two seasons of 'Workin Moms', the four mothers meet in a 'mommy and me' group to discover their inner mother-ness. Season one followed their lives as they tried to find a balance between work and life; season two sees the women attending the group with their toddlers.
The four are now familiar with parenting and have also realized that life after kids is never the same. Though they have advanced in their parenting skills, they all are depicted in different ways, including being faulty and flawed, in their struggles and often are clueless about the right way to approach a situation with their babies.
Many fans have appreciated the struggle, but some have pointed out that the depiction is mainly of white women and highlighted the lack of any character of color.
"Workin Moms on @NetflixSA. Show about, you guessed it, working moms. Great show if you're a white woman, its just very white cishet feminism you know? Breaking the glass ceiling type of content, very meh for this climate. One black woman married to a white woman. Come on! 2 stars" pointed out one on Twitter.
Kate's (Catherine Reitman) depiction in season one and two oozed with entitlement, reeking of white privilege. Kate and her best friend Anne ( Dani Kind), both white women, are married to white men, and have nannies working for them who are brown-skinned.
The only major non-white character is Giselle (Oluniké Adeliyi), who in season one was Frankie's (Juno Rinaldi) wife and later became her ex. Frankie's depiction too is completely a white woman's point of view on gay parenting.
Jenny, the Asian origin character, is married to a white man, who is a stay-at-home dad. The white privilege is apparent in the fact that in present America, white men are more open to being stay-at-home home dads as it has become acceptable, which again stems from a very white socio-cultural milieu.
In black households, the man is considered to be the head of the family and in most cases is the breadwinner. In Asian cummunities, women are discriminated against on the job front and not as entitled to good salaries and jobs like men. There is a world of difference between the white and non-white women in the cast of 'Workin Moms' but none of that is portrayed as most of the roles are played by white folks.
Kate portrays herself as the working mom who has it all figured out, but from a distance her character seems far too shortsighted - American white women have the privilege that many other non-white working moms, in reality, do not.
Fans are still waiting eagerly for the next season, as is apparent from this tweet,"So I'm at the end of @WorkinMoms and feel bereft. So well written and fab characters I totally love it but am confused by what I want for #Kate #bothobviously."
As ardent fans know that Kate's fate in the next season will be the one to look forward to given the drama that took over her life at the end of season two. However, the charge of depicting characters with white privilege is likely to stick unless they introduce characters of colors who are going through the same travails while navigating their ethnic communities.
The series will be returning with season three on Netflix on August 27.
