Soap Opera Social Issues - Rape, Prostitution, and Teenage Pregnancy
The third social issue was rape. One hundred percent of the women agreed that they thought soaps should cover the topic. Men tended to agree but thirty percent were either undecided or disagreed. Rape is dealt with constantly on soap operas. At any given time, two or three female characters on any particular soap have been victims of rape. Rape was once considered a "women's issue," but one hopes that this rather ignorant and inaccurate assessment is no longer prevalent. Nonetheless, more women than men responded that it is an issue they want to see explored on soap operas.
The fourth social issue was prostitution. This is an issue that usually portrays the women as victims. Female soap characters who are prostitutes have almost always been forced into prostitution as unsuspecting ingénues by unscrupulous pimps. Out of the five social issue questions in the survey, this one was the most dichotomous. Ninety percent of women agreed that they wanted to see the issue handled on daytime serials while sixty percent of the men disagreed. This may be attributed to the fact that this type of storyline appeals more to women because women are portrayed sympathetically. It is unlikely for male soap watchers to favor stories in which other men are seen as exploiters and denigrators of women.
It should be noted that thirty percent of the men did agree they want the issue covered. (The other ten percent were undecided.) Some researchers have speculated that since soaps are supposedly written from a female point of view, male soap watchers are more likely than other men to sympathize with a female point of view. Also, they may be able to suspend their "masculine disbelief" while watching. (Frentz 30) This could account for the percentage of men wanting soaps to deal with prostitution. A more prurient interpretation could be that college age straight male survey respondents were also interested in seeing provocatively dressed female characters.
The whole "written from a female point of view" issue is debatable too. Though it is true that the original, legendary names in soap opera history are female, the writing and producing staffs are generally equal in gender and many later legendary soap writers are/were men.
The final issue question was about teenage pregnancy. Both men and women thought soaps should deal with this issue. Eighty percent of men and ninety percent of women were in agreement. Though one might expect women to favor coverage of this issue slightly more than man (and this did occur, but not significantly), the answers are probably more reflective of the age group of the responders than their gender as most of the responders were of traditional college age. No doubt, they had some personal experience, at least through friends with this issue. It is only natural that they would want to see how "other people" deal with it.
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