Desperate Housewives Opening Sequence

Susan Mayer plays 'The Damsel in Distress' the vulnerable woman who must breezed by the hero. She is often used as a trap to ensnare the unsuspecting hero. This is conveyed in the title sequence when a younger woman flirts with the wife husband and the woman is then visually sealed/trapped into a sardine can. This presents men as easily tempted and can easily discard their wives. This also presents women as easily being replaced and that they have to be young and attractive, and when they get old they have past their sell buy date and are chucked out.

Lynette Scavo plays 'The Earth Mother' a symbolic of fruition, abundance and fertility. This character offers spiritual and emotional nourishment to those with whom she comes in contact. Often depicted in earth colours with large breasts and hips symbolic of her child bearing capabilities.  This is portrayed when it shows the Egyptian woman physically drowning in children. This conveys women as unreliable and incapable of coping alone.

Gabrielle Solis plays 'The Temptress' a character of sensuous beauty, this woman is one to whom the protagonist is physically attracted and who ultimately brings about his downfall. This is portrayed in the opening title sequence when they show Adam and Eve and the apple falls off, this shows how Eve is tempted by the apple and picks it. This portrays men are hurt by women actions, and women are devious and sneaky/sly.

Bree Van De Kamp plays the 'Unfaithful Wife' she is a woman who is married to a man who she sees as dull or distant and is attracted to more virile or interesting men. This is presented when the husband watches his wife sweep the banana peel of the floor (which he has just eaten). This reinforces the stereotype that women are supposed to be domestic wives and are represented as servile to their husbands.

The sequence ends with a woman punching her husband, this ultimately shows that woman win.