In addition to disparaging remarks made in previous episodes on topics ranging from the size of Asians to the creative process of ad agency executives, now we have Ronnie belittling working mothers.
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| Ugh - women who change diapers make me nervous. |
Her son, Jhordan, informs her that he has hired a designer from Seattle named Amie to work on their wine label. He hands Ronnie the phone and tells her to speak to Amie about design ideas.
Ronnie takes the phone more as a courtesy to her son than out of any interest in actually conversing with this Amie person. Upon taking the call, Ronnie immediately conveys her disinterest by pretending she can't get Amie's name straight and keeps referring to her as Memee, even after being corrected several times.
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| "Meme, don't you agree if we're using lipstick on the bottle it should be lipstick font?" |
It was incredibly demeaning, but it is not the first time we have bore witness to Ronnie making fun of someone she considers beneath her.
Not bothering to remember someone or something’s name (think "Blue Goo") or referring to them by their job title, such as Chef, Lawyer and Driver as Jody does, are classic tactics of those who dwell in the upper stratification of social hierarchy. It lets the “lesser class” know that they are so inconsequential that they're not even worth the fraction of short-term memory required to get a single name straight during a brief exchange.
To add further insult, when Ronnie gets off the phone she turns to Jhordan and with disdain asks, “Were those kids in the background?”
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| Maybe Memee will buy some of Mary's Blue Goo Dippity Doo? |
Jhordan confirms they were indeed children and that Amie is a working mother who works from home. One might think that Ronnie with her five kids and business venture would, if not respect, at least show some camaraderie towards another working mother who puts her children first. But NO.
Ronnie is more put out than impressed by a working mother who cannot afford multiple nannies and says, "Now we're dealing with a woman that is trying to work while changing diapers and I'm getting more nervous than I ever thought possible".
If only that was all the rest of us had to get "nervous" about. I have a bear living in my backyard, and I just read an article about Spencer West. He is an amazing, inspirational human being who is a keynote speaker for Free The Children and tours all over the place giving presentations. He also, incidentally, has no legs below his hips; basically, he only has a torso and arms with which to ambulate, but this is not preventing him from preparing to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. He does not seem all that nervous about it, either.
Anyway, let us do a little recap here: Working mothers, who work for a living and not as a hobby, are yet another annoyance to Ronnie and her billions. This is in addition to her apparent indifference towards environmental issues, as symbolised by the numerous $10 tennis balls she and her friends lob into the Pacific Ocean.
She furthermore mocks serious addiction problems, as indicated by various comments she has made on the show, as well as the "brilliant" name she came up with for an alcoholic product, which of course is Rehab Wine.
Ronnie has also displayed to us that she is not above implied and blatant cruelty towards people she does not like for whatever reason, is envious of, or threatened by, even when the threat is clearly a self-imagined or delusional one. Christina has been a frequent recipient of this cruetly, but more perplexing is Ronnie's unkind and continued mistreatment of her “best friend”, Mary.
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| Ronnie & Mary - Best Friends |
She deprecates Mary at every turn and each week I am left wondering why Mary did not scrap this friendship a long time ago. I didn't think it was purely because Mary is a pushover whose passivity attracts "difficult" and parasitic people into her life. After all, she has proven herself quite capable of standing up to bullies like Jody and Mia. We have also seen Mary put her foot down with her unruly BFF, as when she tossed Ronnie's drunk ass out of that Keefer Hotel room. So she does not just passively accept abuse from people. She does stand up for herself when she is moved to do so for whatever reason.
Moreover, Mary does not seem to shrink from uncomfortable social situations and will confront people who have perhaps betrayed her, such as when she questioned Christina about not staying behind at the Keefer to support her (by the way, what kind of betrayal was that when Christina partied all night with Mia???)
In other words, I thought there had to be something else about Ronnie we weren't necessarily seeing on TV that made Mary willing to tolerate what appears to be periodic abuse from a friend she has maintained a friendship with for nearly 20 years.
Then, near the end of episode 9, Mexican Standoff, we finally get a glimpse of the kind of genuine loyalty one would expect between best friends.
The ladies are in The Room trying on clothes when Mary informs everyone she will be providing the transportation for the Okanagan trip they have planned for the proceeding week.
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| Muppet hybrids, Mia and Jody, consider donkey travel versus flight via Hilda Broom Lines. |
Jody pipes in, in her usual nasty style: "So how are we getting there, by donkey?"
"Maybe you are," Mary snaps back.
Jody replies she does not need transportation arranged for her since she has her own jet.
Mary disagrees and says of Jody: "She does not have her own jet - what's it called Hilda Broom Lines?" (Lala snickers).
The nastiness escalates from there and at one point Jody states that she will NOT put up with defamatory comments made about her store.
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| Jody is a serious businesswoman who means business, which is why she wears sunglasses indoors. |
Ronnie jumps to Mary's defence and says to Jody:
"Then you need to stop talking about it if you don't want it out there. Let it lie!"
Jody is not affected by Ronnie, however, and announces she is going to serve Mary with papers, anyway.
Ronnie feels like she is in the "Twilight Zone" and again comes to Mary's defence, telling Jody, "Honey, whatever she's said, she's apologized and she is NOT going to accept service."
Ronnie goes on to advise Mary not to accept the papers and then turns to Jody and tells her that what she is doing is NOT okay.
This was the moment where I thought, "Ah! And there it is!"
When Ronnie is fighting against "evil" rather than supporting it, she is a person to admire and maybe even a force to reckon with (although that remains to be seen).
Ultimately, Christina with the support of everybody else there, asks the "Muppet hybrids" with their fur, sequins, red lips and gawdy jewels to leave. Jody thus takes her dummy, I mean daughter, and off they trot trailing glitter and bits of feather remnants behind them.
The remaining Vancouver "housewives" breathe a sign of relief and rally around Mary; even Ronnie admits things were getting "weird".
But unfortunately that was not the last they were to see of Jody, the Clown Lady, and Mia, her clown puppet. They returned a few minutes after being kicked out to serve Mary those papers.
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| You've been served Mary - it's "the law". |
After reading the document out loud, Ronnie rips it in two. Everyone agrees the entire charade is absurd.
As for Jody, she claims to feel "no remorse" for what she has "done" (thereby implying she knows perfectly well that she is being a vindictive bitch by serving Mary papers and that Mary has done nothing to deserve it).
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| I have no remorse - messing with people's lives is what my family does for kicks! |
Christina thinks the whole situation is "stupid", Reiko thinks Jody and Mia are "ridiculous", Ronnie feels "sick" for Mary who has been hit with a "ton of bricks" and Lala is happy to see everyone, including Ronnie, defend Mary and shun Jody.
