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“Desperate Housewives” or Shameless Slaveholders?

Hit TV comedy series takes on modern slavery

BOSTON — To viewers of ABC’s hit television series Desperate Housewives, it’s no secret that every character on Wisteria Lane has a skeleton or two in her closet. Indeed, viewers were likely less shocked than they were amused by the discovery in last Sunday’s episode that overachieving housewife Maxine Water was keeping a Chinese girl as a domestic slave.

What made the episode remarkable was not scandal but veracity. The storyline echoes the life of Sri Lanka native Beatrice Fernando. At 23 Ms. Fernando responded to an ad by a false employment agency, only to find herself being trafficked to Lebanon, where she was beaten, starved, and forced to do housework 20 hours a day by a wealthy Beirut woman. She finally escaped by jumping off her slaveholder’s fourth-story balcony. Today, Ms. Fernando speaks out against slavery as an associate of the Boston-based American Anti-Slavery Group.

Domestic servitude is only one of many guises assumed by slavery today. Others include debt bondage, sex slavery, and chattel slavery. Together, the CIA estimates they account for some 600,000 to 800,000 people — 80% of whom are women and children — being trafficked across international borders every year. According to the State Department, each year 14,500 to 17,000 people are trafficked into the United States alone.

Such was the case of Micheline Slattery, who — after nine years of domestic servitude for her relatives in Haiti — was trafficked to Connecticut as a teen. Though Ms. Slattery was permitted to attend school, once home she was expected to resume her domestic labor while enduring frequent beatings and even whippings. She still bears a scar across her left cheek from the time her cousin struck her with a butcher knife.

True to the series’ satirical tone, the writers of Desperate Housewives keep the discovery of Maxine’s slave light-hearted. Upon being freed, the former slave is welcomed by Eva Longoria’s Gabrielle Solis — who makes use of the girl’s perfect cooking and sewing skills by adopting her as her own [paid] maid.

It may all seem like fodder for a good joke, but the truth remains disturbingly close to home.

The American Anti-Slavery Group is the first anti-slavery organization created in the US since the Civil War. Working in partnership with former slavery victims and a network of over 30,000 activists, AASG promotes awareness and advocacy in order to end modern slavery around the world.

For more information, see www.iAbolish.org or contact Diane Nguyen at 617-426-8161.