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Alexander Morley
Dr Eleni Liarou
Television: History and Future
5th December 2019
To what extent do you agree with the statement that soap operas are a ‘woman’s genre’? Please
answer the question with reference to two soap operas.
In the 1930’s when soap operas first gained commercial recognition, they were targeted
towards women who stayed at home, taking care of the house, while their husbands were at
work. It is said that they engaged in “subservient and endlessly repetitive daily work” which
“prevented their pursuit of self actualization or self realisation.,” (2010, p. 167) making them the
perfect consumers for something new to keep them entertained and interested in the life they
already lead. Times have obviously changed since then, yet the idea that soap operas are
intended for a female audience seems to have lingered. This essay will seek to take a deeper look
into what people believe makes a soap opera “for women” and how we can challenge this way of
thinking.
It’s no secret that the way gender was perceived in the early 90’s is greatly different than
it is today. Based upon observations from the early “caveman days”, women have since been
seen as the more domesticated gender due to men, back then, typically being the hunters while
women were the gatherers, thus partaking in less violent or dangerous acts on a day to day basis.
This presented the idea of women being weaker or less able compared to their male counterparts.
This concept continued, leaking into a more modernistic life with houses, cars, lightbulbs, and
the wonderful invention of the TV, where men would go off to work to earn the money, whereas
the woman would stay at home tending to the household chores. Since these women were alone
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for extended periods of time, usually the television set would be turned on to give some
entertainment or background noise as they worked on the chores, continuing to stay on once they
sat down to have some leisure time. Producers saw this as a prime opportunity to create shows
targeted specifically to these women that stayed at home, especially since they were the
dominant consumer in households. As Robert C. Allen states, “the housewife, in a majority of
cases, is the member of the family who has the most influence upon family purchases and is the
one who spends the greatest amount of time in the home.” (1985, p. 107) This makes them a
particularly helpful demographic to advertise to, and to engage in new content. And thus the
“soap opera” genre was born.
Now in the, soon-to-be, 2020’s women are independant and in the work field, working
the same hours and the same jobs as men, meaning that they aren’t at home during the day like
all those years ago. In addition to this, friends sharing places has become more common place
and homosexual couples are more visible and able to be “out” in society, meaning that more
variety of households exist compared to even as early as the 70’s. Due to this change, soap
operas now display later at night, a more “family-orientated” time which, arguably, would
already count as a big signifier towards soap operas not having a gender-specific demographic
anymore. Soap opera as a genre doesn’t seem to have changed much though. Which begs the
question as to whether it’s content was ever actually targeted to women, or if it was simply due
to circumstance and timing.
To analyse what makes a TV genre seen as “feminine”, we first need to establish what in
society as a whole is viewed as so. Things typically seen as soft, emotional, or romantic are
usually attributed to adhering to a woman’s desire rather than a man’s, whereas things typically
seen as strong, action-packed, and violent are usually attributed to adhering to the male desire.
