The actress daughter of Diana Ross is fighting the perception that only women do house chores as she refuses to do 'lady chores' on her television show.
- August 20, 2020
AceShowbiz - Tracee Ellis Ross is determined to change the perception on TV that only women do chores around the house.
The star, who appears as Rainbow Johnson in hit ABC show "Black-ish", which tackles issues affecting the Black community, told the Los Angeles Times' "Can't Stop Watching" podcast viewers won't see her character doing "lady chores" all the time.
"What I did speak up about from the beginning was, 'Why am I carrying laundry?' 'Why am I the person in the kitchen cooking right now, when this has nothing to do with the scene?' " the 47-year-old shared.
"Even sometimes when it does have something to do with the scene. I started coining them as 'lady chores.' 'Why am I doing the lady chores?' 'Can't Anthony (Anderson) do the lady chore?' "
Explaining her commitment to changing the assumption that women are responsible for domestic tasks around the house, Tracee explained, "I don't believe they're 'lady chores.' I believe they're house chores."
"I believe every relationship is a negotiation between two people about what each of them feel comfortable doing, and I think the more that we portray that on television, the more that that becomes the reality out in the world, or matches the reality that the world actually is."
The show has widely been praised for tackling issues from police brutality to the intricacies of Afro hair, with actor Anthony Anderson recently admitting he's "proud" to work on the programme because bosses "never shy away from anything that’s happening in the world."
The comments come after an episode of the show that was shelved by ABC executives over "creative differences" was recently made available to view on Hulu. The episode, titled "Please, Baby, Please", focuses on multiple social and political issues and had been set to air in February 2018.
