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| Clever Girl... >> Writing >> Soap Opera In her article, 'Genre and Gender: The Case of the Soap Opera', Christine Gledhill critiques the assumption that soap opera is a women's genre, designed to appeal to, addict, and entrap women in tradition gender roles. She argues that the very features of soap opera designed to draw women in have resulted in a widening circulation of the genre. Soap opera is no longer a form designed for or appealing to housewives alone. Not only have soap operas themselves moved into primetime television, but the conventions of soap opera, such as a greater emphasis on talk, have been deployed by traditionally male genres, such as police and law series. Gledhill also argues that rather than trapping female viewers in the position of the ideal spectator, interpreted by Tania Modleski as the "ideal mother", soap opera works as a subversive force, both through the inadvertant consequences of the genre's longevity and need for continued disruption, and through the viewers' ability to interpret the text through their own cultural competencies. Gledhill critiques Tania Modleski's suggestion that soap opera disempowers women by placing them in the position of the 'ideal mother', unable to respond to events but endlessly sympathising with a variety of characters. Modleski argues that this position reinforces the place of women in their own lives, that soap opera is merely a more insidious form of the authoritative voice of the advice programs rejected as a way for advertisers to reach female consumers. What Gledhill suggests Modleski ignores, through her inclusion of Charlotte Brunsdon's (1982) and Ien Ang's (1985) soap opera critiques, is the ability for each individual viewer to interpret the show through his or her own cultural competencies. Indeed, there is a notable hostility amongst female viewers towards "some of the presumably more sympathetic female characters - as well as fond admiration - for the supposedly despised villainesses", eg the preference for baby-stealing Amber over lovelorn Kimberly in The Bold & The Beautiful. Gledhill suggests that the format of soap opera has even led to an inadvertant subversive element within the genre. The longevity of the continuous serial, as well as its need for continued disruption, leads to a succession of temporary liasions, and eventually an unusual number of "older, widowed, divorced and independent female figures." This inadvertant disregard for marriage delineates soap opera as a subversive force against the patriarchy. Gledhill argues that the longevity of soap opera and changing conditions within society have resulted in the evolution of its audience and of the genre itself. No longer an entirely female domain, daytime soap opera has attracted a wider audience including college students and unemployed men, leading to the eventual inclusion of soap opera in primetime television. Gledhill argues that the widening of the genre's audience has resulted not only in changes to the genre itself but the incorporation of characteristics of soap opera into other, traditionally male, genres. Gledhill notes one of the most significant consequences of soap's move into primetime on the genre itself; the larger part played by male characters in the genre. Primetime soaps such as Melrose Place and Dawson's Creek feature male characters that are just as significant as the female characters on the show. It is notable however, that while the power held by characters on Dawson's Creek appears unrelated to their gender, Melrose Place, both the more adult and the more traditional of the two programs, has a marked power imbalance, with the female characters constantly outwitting the male, and Amanda Woodward as the clear centre of power on the show. This suggests a continuation of the traditional female dominance of soaps, even with the now greater number of and more significant male characters. The other significant consequence of soap opera's evolution, as perceived by Gledhill, is the blending of genres, with soap operas appearing in the form of traditionally male genres, and traditionally male genres including elements of soap opera. Ally Mcbeal is the quintessential 'women's program' of the early naughties. While it is, on one hand, a law series (a traditionally male genre), the influence of soap opera on the show should not be dismissed. Indeed, the focus of the program is far more often Ally's personal life and emotions than the court cases taken up by any of the firm, which will more often than not relate to her personal life anyway. On the other hand, programs that lie firmly within traditional 'male' genres, such as The Practice and NYPD Blue, are now just as likely to involve emotional conversations between characters as their work as lawyers or police. Buffy The Vampire Slayer, a program marketed towards young women, is perhaps the perfect amalgamation of horror, action and soap, with Buffy dealing with both her personal life, her professional life, and their intertwining each episode. Whether or not this tendency for personal feeligns to be brought into the forefront of television drama, soap or otherwise, is a catalyst or reflection of the breakdown of gender barriers in modern society, Gledhill makes it clear that soap opera can no longer be ascribed merely as the domain and represser of bored housewives. back |
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