Soap operas are known for their generational bond between family members. Women especially, such as grandmothers, mothers, and their daughters, bond and create memories over shows such as "The Guiding Light," which aired fro 72 years, and "All My Children" which aired more recently. They also bond over soap operas due to their feminist values that exist beyond the melodramatic plot lines from generation to generation. This blog is going to explore all the feminist values that should exist in reality opposed to only in fictional shows, inspiring the hashtag, #FeminismnotFiction.
First of all, soap operas are very much like feminist utopias, even back in the 60's during "The Guiding Light." Utopia means the opposing view of how things could and should be different, what a world lacks, and a state of perfection. Within soap operas, the constraints of a patriarchy were released and an imaginary world of how reality should be with equality between men and women emerged.
First of all, every soap opera has a matriarch, or a strong older woman who is responsible for the family or community. This shows how respected women were and how their opinion was valued. Women also played key roles, such as doctors and surgeons, frequently over nurses to show how women had power and equality to men within society. Women also spoke the truth to powerful authorities and were paid attention to. Even in jobs women did not partake in, such as the formulation of public policy, they still had a say in how things should be run. Men authority officials would always listen to women and come to a consensus between both genders.
Women were also sided with by authority when crimes were committed against them. Police officers, lawyers, and judges believed women when they said they were sexually assaulted and the man was punished. This frees women of the shame and fear of fighting for justice for themselves. Today, women have a hard time getting convictions among sexual abusers. Therefore, lots of rape victims do not speak up and never get justice because they feel they have no power. There were also issues of feminist date rate, domestic abuse,and even lesbianism discussed within soap operas in the 60's before other shows dared to speak on these topics.
Within soap operas, the public spheres of masculinity and femininity intertwine, enabling men to show their emotions. In soap operas, women combine their personal lives with their public lives. For example, they take emotions such as nurturing, kindness, compassion, and other emotional aspects into work. This forces men to work in a feminized public sphere and have no choice to combine their public lives and personal lives together. Men become emotionally involved in coworkers and neighbors emotions because of this. Therefore, men show their nurturing and compassionate side. They are also obsessed with the needs of women and devote a lot of time to appeasing their desires within soap operas as well.
It is insane how feminist soap operas were in the 60's until today, yet a world of equality between men and women still only exists in a utopian society. These values of women's opinions being respected, women being respected in the workforce, women getting justice for crime, and men showing their emotions needs to be applied within the 21st century. Words such as rape culture, gender inequality, and patriarchy should not even exist or be apart of our future children's vocabularies. I hope that one day these values from soap operas will spread into reality in order for feminism to stop existing in only fiction. #FeminismNotFiction
Key words:
Matriarchy - A system of society or government ruled by a woman or women.
Patriarchy - A system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
Utopia - The opposing view of how things could and should be different, what a world lacks, and a state of perfection.
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