“Why do people go on Wife Swap???”: this is my despairing cry every week. It’s despairing because I know the answer. It’s not just because they want to be famous, really – that’s a harmless enough ambition for all that we like to look down on it. No, I think it’s often something deeper – they go on Wife Swap because they are sure that their way of life is right. This was starkly clear last week with the cleaning-obsessed rich woman, and even more nakedly – also more sympathetically – clear with the hippies on last night’s show, whose whole life was an act of hopeful example-setting.
The dynamic last night was the clash of motives: the other couple just wanted a bit of time in the spotlight and considered their lifestyle normal. When paired – predictably – with a couple who wanted to critique that normality it was fascinating how Mrs.Normal went from someone who consumed supermarket food and TV to an evangelist in their favour. The conversation at the end was revealing – a very riled Mrs N insisting on using the word “normal” where her husband wanted to use the more politic “conventional”.
Of course the programme made a hypocrite out of me. I watched it on a TV, surrounded by the comforts of home and munching on chicken straight from J.Sainsburys – and still it was hard not to reflexively see the conversion of the eco-friendly kids to telly addicts as a serpent-in-Eden moment. This is where the programme makes me feel most uncomfortable: the impact on the kids of the swap – it’s only two weeks but that’s a long time for a four year old. (Though kids tend to be much more resilient than I give them credit for.)
(The show also got me thinking in another way – results here.)