Kate plus 8 and some balding dude in douche-wear

Monday night was the premiere of the newest batch of episodes of America’s favorite train wreck, Jon and Kate Plus 8. There were two new episodes, the first of which focused on the much-publicized beach trip that Kate took with her kids a few months ago. It turns out that the Gosselins had been planning on having a free kitchen remodel done in their home, which would leave them without a kitchen for two weeks. So rather than deal with that, Kate took the kids to the beach while Jon stayed home and “supervised.”

The episodes were an interesting glimpse into what the “new normal” is for the Gosselins, and went far to illustrate the complete public image reversal that the couple has had since filing for divorce. Before they separated, Jon was seen as the long-suffering husband, stuck in a home with his shrew of a wife who ruled with an iron fist and belittled him in public. Since then, we have seen tabloid report after tabloid report of Jon douching it up both stateside and internationally with a cast of characters that includes a crunchy-haired 22-year-old, the designer for Ed Hardy, the worst clothing line in the world, a Star reporter, and Lindsay Lohan’s dad– all while Kate has been at home, taking care of her eight small children.

That’s not to say that Kate is a normal single mom, trying to make ends meet while being the sole caregiver for her child. Far from it: she has a fat TLC paycheck coming in, not to mention a large amount of paid help. However, the fact remains, that when Jon was sailing around the south of France, she was home making s’mores for her kids.

Let’s talk about the kids for a minute, shall we? I’m not one of the people who agrees that on its face, starring in a show like this is going to scar them for life. However, when they’re older, and they look back on the sepia-toned last moments of their family as a whole, while their parents intone about moving on, as they do at about the 1:00 mark in this clip, I can’t imagine they’re going to be thrilled with their parents and their decisions.

On the other hand, maybe the kids will be better off in some ways. One of the things that has always bothered me about Kate is how she not only sticks to traditional gender roles, but that she passes those ideas along to her five daughters. She cooks while Jon does all of the heavy-lifting. While there’s nothing wrong with this arrangement if that’s what works (or worked) for them, it gets sticky when it leads to the impression that that’s the only way things can be done.

So in the second episode when Jon is away and Kate decides to take the kids camping in their backyard, she has to step outside of her comfort zone and the role she has created for herself, and make this camping trip happen. It’s obvious from her kids’ derision that the way she and Jon have raised them up to this point have already made quite the impression. Watch this clip beginning at 3:30, in which all of Kate’s daughters are interviewed about how she did setting up the tents.

Not only do they talk about what a bad job she did and how they were afraid the tent was going to collapse upon them, but the three littlest girls say in unison that “only boys know how” to put together tents and that Kate couldn’t do it “because she’s a girl.”

So yes, this is a shitty situation all around for the Gosselin clan. Maybe the show, at this point, is doing more harm than good– the tabloid attention certainly is. But in the end, maybe all of the turmoil and scrutiny will lead to a wake-up call: maybe Kate will realize that she, her daughters, and women everywhere can do things even though they’re just girls; and if Jon wants to run around wearing diamond earrings and jeans with tigers on them, that he can just go right ahead.

Clacked by Kona Gallagher
on Aug 05, 2009 @ 15:00 EST5EDT