Stereotypes In 'Devious Maids'

Lifetime’s new drama, Devious Maids, is a major hit which focuses and revolves around the complex and tangled relationships between rich Beverly Hills families and their maids. The pilot episode starts dramatically, when the maid, Flora Hernandez was mysteriously killed by an unknown person.

Later we are introduced to the lead character, Marisol Suarez (Ana Ortiz) pretending to be a maid, who is investigating the murder after her son was accused of being Flora’s killer. The episode also introduces the four other central maids of the show: Rosie Falta (Dania Ramirez) from Mexico, Puerto Rican singer Carmen Luna (Roselyn Sánchez), the senior maid Zoila Diaz (Judy Reyes), with her teenage daughter Valentina (Edy Ganem). All of these maids work

in the homes of powerful, high class characters, who live mansions with large swimming pools, mostly including emotionally unstable, spoiled rich women. This show is not only exciting and unexpected, but also mysterious, suspenseful and complicated, leaving you on the edge of your seat.

But here’s the thing.

Why are all the maids in the show Latinas? Almost all of the people working for the wealthy Beverly Hills families are of Hispanic decent, portraying the most typical negative stereotypes through characteristics, like incredibly strong accents, financial problems, slutty or sexual women who have affairs, illegal immigrants and even criminals. Not only do we see these characteristics being portrayed, but we also notice how the wealthy and powerful characters of the show manipulate, mistreat and disrespect these Hispanic maids, making their ethnicity the focal point of the

show.

Co-executive producer Eva Longoria says that the characters are ‘Latina Heroes’, explaining that the show is debunking stereotypes by showing Latina maids as more than just maids. However, Devious Maids doesn’t debunk stereotypes, it only reinforces them. The show has unleashed many negative reactions from the Hispanic community for good reasons. The maids were represented as submissive, gossipy and oversexed. Author Alisa Valdes wrote on NBCLatino.com that “there is something very wrong with an American entertainment industry that continually tells Latinas that this is all they are or can ever be.”

This is shown in the very first scene of the pilot episode, when Evelyn Powell says to her maid, “I think what you people do is heroic. You wash clothes you can’t afford. You polish silver you will never dine with… and still, you dare to dream of a better life. I am in awe for your determination to succeed in this great country of ours.” Just by what Evelyn says to her maid Flora, we can see how she looks down on her by mocking and lacking respect for her, being the reminder of what she can’t afford and and what she will never have.

“That said… if you don’t stop screwing my husband, I’m going to have you deported.

Comprende?” continues Evelyn. Here the show portrays Flora as a home wrecking slut who is objectified, as well as an illegal immigrant. These negative over-exaggerated stereotypes of not only Flora, but also the spoiled rich wife, Evelyn, shows the ways in which these two classes clash and interact with one another. The fact that Evelyn says the Spanish word at the end, ‘comprende’ (meaning ‘understood’), in a strong English accent, shows how she is making fun of her and her Hispanic culture because of the way she talks English with a strong accent and not very

fluently.

In another scene of the episode we see how assumptions are made based on these maids and how language plays a big role. “You don’t have an accent,” says Taylor Stappord, a rich trophy wife, interviewing Marisol before she becomes her maid. “I’ve never met a maid who didn’t have an accent… You sound like you went to college,” she says suspiciously. After a long pause, Marisol responds, “Thank you.” Here we can even see that the wealthy high class people have expectations about what their maids are like, without knowing their full story.

This brings us to the topic of language and it’s significance in how we are represented in society. Many people often associate one’s ability to speak English fluently with their level of education. Because the maids of the show have such strong accents and do not speak very articulately, the high class characters of the show think that their maids are not as smart as them, and is shown in the way in which they treat them. Later on in the episode, Evelyn refers to the maids as ‘poor’ when she is talking to Taylor Stappord, another wealthy trophy wife.

Devious Maids takes Latinas back to sweeping, cooking and cleaning, where they obey white spoiled women. Because Latinas as leading roles are rare in TV, the images that created by media greatly matter, showing how they are represented in society. The National Hispanic Media Coalition conducted a survey in 2012 asking non-Hispanics on their perspectives of Latinos in TV and movies. Many of the answers said that Latinos were seen as “criminals” and “gardeners”, but 61% said that they viewed Latinos as “maids”.

Unfortunately, this is an unpleasant reflection of reality. Latinos deserve so much better than to be seen as the character in Devious Maids.