Sex and Its Consequences for THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL of Daytime
Five questions dealt with social issues. It should be noted, in order to consider the social issues in their proper societal and historical timeframe, that the survey was issued in the fall of 1992. This is not to say that any of the issues deserve or receive any less attention sixteen years later, just to remind the reader that there may be varying levels of media coverage on particular social issues throughout the years.
Soap Opera Social Issues - AIDS
The format of the questions was "Soap operas should deal with the issue of…." One hundred percent of men and women chose either agree or strongly agree when the social issue was AIDS. At the time of the survey, about half of the soap operas then currently on the air had dealt with AIDS storylines. Obviously, this is something the audience wanted to see. Only one other question on the survey received such an overwhelmingly consistent response either within genders or across gender divisions.
At the time, the original version of this article concluded that the lack of AIDS storylines on the other shows could not be blamed on audience negativity, at least according to those results. The article also predicted that since the topic had been completely taboo only a few years before the survey, that status would continue to erode like other social issue taboos over time and that it was inevitable that AIDS would continue to be dramatic fare for future soap opera storylines.
Years later, some shows have made AIDS storylines an intense part of the mixture by having major characters (such as GENERAL HOSPITAL's Robin) contract the disease and then go on to live with it and manage it for years. Other shows have still only glossed over it by having day players or very minor characters infected with the disease, having no real impact on the major character's lives.
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