The Real Housewives of Dubai Recap: Marco Polo
One of the details I’ve struggled to properly discuss on this show is its relationship with support staff. I’ve made a joke here or there about how the women on the show treat their maids and nannies like background ornaments, but for the most part, I have chosen to let viewers indulge in the fantasy of the bizarre life of these expats. In reality, however, I share a lot more with the support staff than the housewives. I grew up with a mother who put food on the table by cleaning houses in downtown New York City for years, and I have been one of those background figures in a wealthy person’s life more than a few times.
This is all to say that I find it discomforting that the first time any of the maids, nannies, or assistants are really discussed at all is in a criminal proceeding. What Sara has seemingly gone through is horrific — she returned from her Bali trip to discover that a maid was intentionally obscuring cameras and inviting strangers to her house, seemingly with plans to traffic or kidnap her child. I have no issue with her taking that issue to the proper authorities and protecting her child as needed. As she told the story, I was shocked and appalled right along with the cast, and I hope her sweet son doesn’t take too long to recover from whatever trauma he may have experienced.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out my issues with the conversation that followed. Much of it was situated around “not knowing who you can trust in your home” and how, as expats, they rely on nannies, all people who have barely functioned as more than sentient furniture on our screens, for safety and security. The real rub is that the narrative that the wealthy expats have to be afraid of their house help is actually the opposite. Domestic workers in the UAE are routinely exploited, especially those who originate from Asia (the Philippines, in particular) and Africa. Passports taken, wages stolen, sexual abuse, the works — some stories of which I have been told personally in my travels in the region. It is a very unforgiving and dangerous job, and I encourage people to do their own research on the horrors of the Emirati kafala system and how domestic workers are exempted from local labor protections.
The sole person on the cast who seemed to take pause with how the conversation was tracking was Lesa, who ultimately relented once she understood more of what Sara was going through. That comes as no surprise — in this episode, she reveals more of the source of her frustrations with Caroline Stanbury and the impact of how this show plays with real-life social stigmas. In a one-on-one sit-down, Lesa explains that a big part of her resentment with Stanbury is the fact that she publicly labeled Lesa an escort, a damning label to put on a Black woman in an Emirati society where women of African descent are often stigmatized as such. While I do think Lesa should understand that she kicked off the reunion back and forth by insulting Sergio and Caroline’s businesses (and even mentioning Epstein, I believe), she is telling the truth about the dangerous association of Black women with sex work. I have known Black women working on the planned Guggenheim project in Abu Dhabi who have been pulled aside in the streets of Dubai and asked plainly, “How much?” It is a degrading shock to the system, and I am glad Lesa chose to speak openly about that reality. Ultimately, Caroline profusely apologizes for her remarks at the reunion and for interfering in the friendship between Lesa and Ayan, and the duo agrees to a classic housewife “fake-up.”
While we are on the note of fake businesses, Ayan is working hard to prove that her endeavor into the beauty world is far from a housewife vanity project — and who better to validate that for her than the queen of the Arab beauty world, Huda Kattan? Frankly, I was surprised to see her on camera for Bravo — her sister Mona, of Kayali fame, is on Netflix’s counterpart Dubai Bling, and they never did a scene together. It speaks to their relationship that Huda was willing to do this for her — she used to do Ayan’s makeup in her early modeling days and is now more primed than ever to give Ayan advice on taking her makeup dreams to the next level. Offering to make a call to Sephora on the spot? That is the kind of girlbossing that I like to see! The black YSL power suit that Ayan wore to the meeting is also the most demure we’ve ever seen her look on camera to date.
This week’s all-cast event was coordinated by Caroline Brooks, who invited all the girls to a polo event. Now, my only interaction with polo and horses, in general, is the VC Polo Classic once in college, when white girls convinced me that sitting in a plot drinking all day while horses were being raced a mile away from us was a worthwhile social endeavor. Not my bag, generally, but I do have a good sense of the style that is supposed to be delivered in an affair like this, and while the women wore designer and couture to the nines, only Lesa actually looked like she was there for a polo match, sporting Ralph Lauren head to toe. I was rather surprised by Stanbury’s look, actually — for someone who made a big show of telling us that she has dated men who ran polo clubs and gone to matches with royalty, she looked rather pedestrian, but perhaps she simply wasn’t interested in bringing out her finer wares for the occasion.
Speaking of Caroline, I have finally nailed the dynamic that she and Sergio remind me of: Gronk and Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove. While Sergio grates, I ultimately understand that he is just a doting himbo who wants to be rewarded for being there for his wife — look at how seriously he takes her birthdays! I screamed out loud when he casually said in his confessional that he desperately wanted a child because, eventually, his family AND CAROLINE would be gone. He meant it innocently, but he seems to not realize that he has accidentally been speaking to Stanbury’s deep insecurities — she doesn’t like birthdays because she simply does not want to acknowledge getting older and getting close to 50. I fear that the doting husband will soon have to come to terms with the reality that I have a higher chance of giving up cheese forever than he has of conceiving a baby with Stanbury.
Next week, Lesa and Taleen will argue, and we will start to see Saba and Sara’s fractured relationship build. This will hopefully help me understand what prompted Saba to post this hilarious friendship breakup statement on Twitter. See you then!
Golden Nuggets
• I am thoroughly uninterested in this drama with Akin and not forgoing his modeling shoot. Why are we pretending that Sara was ever going to marry this man? We have all thirsted for an Instagram model for a little too long and lived to regret it. Let’s wrap this story up.
• The lingering friendship triangle between Ayan, Stanbury, and Lesa continues to amuse me. I get that Ayan mishandled the voice note snafu, but it does seem that ultimately, Ayan is right. Lesa is a possessive friend who doesn’t want Ayan to build bridges with anyone else. Her telling Rich, “Now she knows she only has one friend, and that’s me,” was very telling.
• Brooks telling us that she was in actuality closer to Raffi than Taleen is where she loses me. I don’t think anyone watching the show would believe that, although I do believe he owes her an apology.