What's The Audience Actually Seeing - 2
In the other fifteen scenes in which intercourse was directly implied, the scene either ended as the act was imminent or opened after the act took place. One example of the former took place on SANTA BARBARA. A couple was trying to conceive. They were at a ritzy party when they started to talk about their situation. Deciding that there was no better time than the present, the cameras followed them as they raced to the bedroom. He loosened his bow tie while she took off her formal white gloves. The male character said, "I can't believe we are going to do this in the middle of my father's party." The bedroom door closed and the camera lingered on the closed door for a moment. The scene ended there. It was obvious what was about to take place, but the viewer never actually saw anything. In fact, both actor and actress remained fully clothed.
An example of the audience joining the characters after the fact also came from SANTA BARBARA. The scene opened with a man and woman entering her living room. She was buttoning her blouse; he was zipping his fly and fastening his belt. He told her he knew it would be just like old times when they got together again to which she replied he could have as much of "that" as he wanted if he would just come by more often. Once again, the viewer KNOWS what happened, but didn't even see any of the performers' bare flesh.
While both of these scenes came from the same show, they are indicative of scenes that take place on all soap operas. In fact, based on these quick descriptions, if the program had not been identified upfront, a viewer of any daytime soap might have thought the scene belonged to any show currently on the air.
The whole concept was explained in such detail because this is a crucial point in studying and understanding sex on soap operas. Many people claim that soap operas are borderline pornography in the afternoon, a claim made by Bob Peters from "Morality in the Media" on the Maury Povich Show. (Povich 10/9/92) Critics claim that this "practical pornographic material" should be subject to increased censorship. The simple truth is that sex on soaps is not the shocking, filthy, graphic material that some critics claim. It is really the perception of sex on soaps that matches this description if the viewer is so inclined. Therefore, one must conclude that it is indeed the minds of the critics that need the censoring.
A question in the original viewer surveys asked if there is too much sex on soaps. The men split their answers evenly among the five choices. Women were split too, but with a slightly higher percentage choosing undecided. The expectation was that most respondents would answer agree or strongly agree to this question. The writers and producers can feel justified when they say they only show what the viewers want. Perhaps the real question is about the amount of sex on viewers' (and critics') minds!
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