Irish Soap Culture - Essay Example

Irish Soap Culture The incidence of the popularity of soap operas has seemed to increase exponentially since their initial popularity in the mid-twentieth century. Sixty years of soap operas have revealed more about human nature than it would seem possible for television shows to do. As in the case of television series like The X Files which have cult followings, soap operas also form a distinctly identifiable genre. Soaps, as they are popularly known, cater to a particular section of society and utilize the social identities of their target audiences to create televised realities which echo - or seem to echo - the lives and longings of their protagonists. This paper is built around the central idea that soaps structure and inform the realities of many, and examines the phenomenon of soap operas in Ireland within this theoretical framework. The term 'soap opera' bears little resemblance to the nature of the genre itself, and is a curious amalgam of connotations. The origins of the term, which brings to mind a visual image quite unlike anything that is actually the content of a soap opera, have evolved - or perhaps 'mutated' is a better word - into the current avatar of the genre, the history of the nomenclature of which may be pieced together through a brief examination of the semantics of the term. It combines various ideas, as analyzed in this description: The "soap" in soap opera alluded to their sponsorship by manufacturers of household cleaning products; while "opera" suggested an ironic incongruity between the domestic narrative concerns of the daytime serial and the most elevated of dramatic forms. ("Soap Opera," paragraph 1) As the term itself suggests, the patterns of plot and characterization in soap operas have reached a generic level, and many theorists have identified several distinctive features of the genre. M. E. Brown has identified the following as the generic characteristics of soap operas: 1. serial form which resists narrative closure 2. multiple characters and plots 3. use of time which parallels actual time and implies that the action continues to take place whether we watch it or not 4. abrupt segmentation between parts 5. emphasis on dialogue, problem solving and intimate conversation 6. male characters who are 'sensitive men' 7. female characters who are often professional and otherwise powerful in the world outside the home 8. the home, or some other place which functions as the home, as the setting for the show. (Brown, 1987, paragraph 1) According to Robert C. Allen in Speaking of Soap Operas, there is much ambiguity involved in the attempted definition of the genre. He writes: "Since the 1930s the soap opera has been defined by what it pretends to be but is not, by what it lacks rather than what it is" (2). He points out that with reference to the definitions of what soap operas are, "we need to examine not only what was said about soap operas but also what was assumed and left unsaid" (12). Allen speaks in terms of the soap opera's "sense of kitsch," and opines that the soap has "eventual psychosocial consequences [on] mass culture, suggesting that the agenda of the soap opera is to take the "place of art in the lives of the masses," and that "what has taken place is nothing less than a subversion of an important part of the social order" (18). Therefore, he suggests that the objective of the soap opera is to undermine the fabric of society itself by seeking to replace the role that art has traditionally played in society. Helena Sheehan, author of Irish Television Drama: A Society and Its Stories, points out that soap operas originated with the supposed attempt to represent society, and followed a distinct and recurring pattern which could easily be identified as well as predicted as one was subjected to a series of soap operas all revolving around the same ideas. She writes that many soap operas create the illusion that what they are presenting to their audiences are grand but authentic portrayals of reality, while this is not really the case: These serials [the soaps of the 1950s] all had grand cosmological titles like The Guiding Light, Love of Life, Search for Tomorrow, As the World Turns, Days of Our Lives, Secret Storm, One Life to Live, The Edge of Night, Another World. The underlying philosophies consisted of such bland maxims as the wise-sounding but intellectually empty declarations as the daily voice-over which announced: "As the sands of the hourglass, so are the days of our lives." (Section 1, paragraph 2) As the above passage indicates, a soap opera pretends to be philosophical and reflective about reality, but that is not its true nature. Although Sheehan's is a description rather than a definition, it makes a significant observation about the culture of soap operas, which supports Allen's definition as well. Sheehan goes on to outline the topics that soaps usually consist of, and comments on the implications that these have on the social order of the audience that they are directed at: These daytime dramas did take up matters rarely permitted on primetime television then, such as marital breakdown, frigidity, extramarital sex, alcoholism, professional malpractice. They did so, however, within tightly circumscribed boundaries. (Section 1, paragraph 2) Sheehan suggests, therefore, that the soap opera creates a closely restrained and restrictive world of fictional reality that works according to the conventions of the society that it works within. Although it is not likely that a person watching a television show will consider it a mirror of reality, the soap opera nevertheless builds a powerful, larger-than-life idea of reality that affects its audience's conception of the world that they live in, and perhaps also their thought and behavior patterns. Sheehan goes on to observe that the reality of the soap opera is carefully guarded by almost prudish ideals regarding the sanctity of institutions that are valued in society. While these institutions are constantly being violated, it is made clear that the violation is done by the characters that are at fault; it is never the institutions themselves which are assigned any blame: Although these serials featured many transgressions of traditional values, it was unthinkable to question those values. Whatever problems and pitfalls characters encountered in their pursuit of the American dream, they never ceased to believe in it. Their tragedies were due to natural disasters or human failings, but there was nothing wrong with God, marriage, motherhood, apple pie or the American way. (Section 1, paragraph 2) Statistics on soap operas reveal some surprising findings. Sarah Richards points out that even though soap operas are publicly looked down upon by most people, research findings such as those collected by Livingstone reveal the following about the statistics: Although there may be a general trend for people to label soap opera as 'rubbish,' a large proportion of television viewers watch and enjoy soap operas. In fact, it seems that the British soaps dominate our national audience ratings, with over a third of the population tuning in to watch Coronation Street, and just under a third watching EastEnders. (Richards, Paragraph 1) Livingstone, examining the results of a survey of the viewers of the popular serial EastEnders, discovered the following about the male-female ratio of people who watched the show: Total Viewers of the population (aged 16-34):28% Male Viewers: 22% Female Viewers:33%. (1996, 55) Anna Prescott in a 1998 survey also discovered that whereas it is a popular opinion that only night-time shows attracted male viewers, the most popular soap opera among men was the Australian soap Neighbours, which is broadcast during the daytime. Various organizations and individual thinkers have conducted several studies of popular soap operas. A study of Coronation Street by the Museum of Broadcast Communication resulted in the following analysis: Coronation Street's style, setting, and narrative concerns are informed by the gritty, urban, working-class plays, novels, and films of the 1950s--the so-called "angry young man" or "kitchen sink" movement. Where U.S. daytime serials were (and still are) usually disconnected from any particular locality, Coronation Street is unmistakably local. ("Soap Opera," paragraph 19) The study suggests that the popular soap opera is a combination of the contemporary and the historical, and "began and has to some degree stayed a celebration of the institutions of working-class culture and community (especially the pub and the cafe)"; the soap continues to propagate the ideals of an era gone by, and therefore seems unconcerned with reflecting contemporary reality, since "that culture was by 1960 an historical memory and Coronation Street's representation of community a nostalgic fantasy" ("Soap Opera," paragraph 19). Consequently, it may be concluded with reference to Coronation Street that it prioritizes a certain kind of life and a certain kind of social class over others, and it may be faulted for "its cozy, insulated, and outdated representation of the urban working-class community, which for decades seemed to have been bypassed by social change and strife" ("Soap Opera," paragraph 19). Interestingly, the same study has determined that EastEnders was created with the intention to negate the kind of elitism that had set in with shows like Coronation Street: EastEnders, when it was launched in 1985 [as] the BBC's first venture into television serials in twenty years, was designed from the beginning to make contemporary material and social issues part of the fabric of its grubby East End community of pensioners, market traders, petty criminals, shopkeepers, the homeless, and the perennially unemployed. ("Soap Opera," paragraph 20) The problem with this kind of determinism seems to be that the sway of the setting is still specific to one ethnic community or to one economic class of people, and can thereby result in the potential danger of stereotyping. Even in EastEnders, there is no attempt to convey a microcosm of society. The soap opera remains a fragmented look at society, instead of being an attempt to portray a realistic cross-section of the society that it is viewed by. In comparing the two shows while discussing the popularity of soap operas, Sarah Richards writes: Despite soap opera being popular because it is centered on women, there is some evidence to show more recently that soaps are focusing more on storylines outside the domestic feminine sphere and concentrating on more 'masculinised' plots such as crime (for example, Billy in EastEnders was kidnapped by a gang of robbers, and in Coronation Street, Don Brennan attempted murder and committed arson). (Paragraph 34) The soap opera is traditionally associated with women, and conjures the image of bored wives dulled by the routine of housework, bending over the kitchen sink with soap suds on their hands and peering bright-eyed at the television screen, the only exciting thing in their otherwise routine lives. This was perhaps the reason that soap, being a household product, was one of the first to be promoted in commercials that were aired during the broadcasting of daily soaps. There is also the tacit assumption that women don't need to watch soaps during weekends since their husbands and children are home all day, and hence soaps are aired only on weekdays, when women can amuse themselves while doing housework. Richards, however, suggests that the market is turning its sights on male audiences as well, by prioritizing their interests in focusing on action-oriented sequences featuring male protagonists. As Richards writes, there are several techniques used to draw male audiences into the world of the soap opera, that hitherto seemed to cater only to female audiences: Additionally, the storylines have recently focused on male characters, as in EastEnders where Ian Beale has fought to get his children back, and in Coronation Street where Jim McDonald has had to face the consequences of breaking up a wedding because of his love for the bride, Fiona Middleton. (Paragraph 34) Not all theorists, however, are oriented towards denouncing the structures set up by soap operas. Commenting on the effect that the soap can have on the family structure, Christine Geraghty suggests that the repetitive patterns of large families' lives that we see in soap operas can lead to a greater awareness of the manner in which the family set-up can be beneficial to its members. She also suggests that characterization plays a similar role, and that "the presence of well-established characters leads to value familiarity and predictability" (15). Whether or not soap operas have possible positive effects on audiences, the fact remains that they engage in encouraging set and rigid ways of determining social and psychological realities, which, as Livingstone points out, may affect the "ways in which the viewers selectively interpret what they see, depending on their own experiences and socio-cultural background" (1996, 317). M. E. Brown has also commented in her study of the soap opera culture that the audience that views soap operas on an everyday basis does not merely switch out of the soap opera mode when the television set is switched off; "the solitary viewing experience is not the end of their involvement" (1994,19). Many viewers, for example, may exchange notes on what happened during a particular episode, or share ideas about what is to happen next, creating a kind of community of soap opera watchers whose lives revolve around the lives of stereotypical characters in television shows that exploit their imaginations of their audiences. More than they affect generic family structures, soap operas exploit the manner in which women are subjected to double standards by patriarchal societies. Nina Robinson writes: For example, even if a woman is engaged in paid employment outside the home, the domestic sphere is still regarded as a place of work. As a consequence, women tend to undertake chores such as ironing while watching the television and thus pay less attention. Conversely, for men the home is more a place for relaxation and as a result they can watch television with more commitment. (Section 4, paragraph 3) Therefore, it is clear that the soap opera builds different relationships with the two different genders. It is a common image to visualize a man sitting with a beer in a recliner in front of the television. Curiously, images of women watching television rarely portray them in positions of relaxation. It is taken for granted that a man may enjoy his time at home while watching television, but a woman's viewership is a different matter, it is subjected to the same stereotypes that are enforced onto female (as well as male) characters in the soap operas that women and men watch. In this manner, a strange symbiotic - or parasitic - cycle is developed whereby stereotypes are exchanged between viewers and soap operas. Commenting on the incidence of viewership of soap operas in Ireland, Helena Sheehan raises two critical concerns that determine the manner in which the Irish social order is affected by the culture of soap operas: What is the relation between soap operas and the social order in which they are set and seen To what extent is it possible to trace the temper of the times in television serials (Paragraph 1) Sheehan is of the view that soap operas and other television shows tell the stories of the societies they thrive in; perhaps not in an accurate or realistic manner, but the very misrepresentation may be an indication of sociological concerns within a given society. Commenting on the grim political situation in Ireland - peppered by attacks on journalists such as the one that resulted in the brutal murder of Veronica Guerin - Sheehan goes on to suggest that television in Ireland parallels its realities: During [the 1980s and 1990s], there has been much less drama and what there has been has been much more tame. Why The changing climate of international broadcasting, the erosion of the ethos of public service broadcasting, the accelerating costs of drama production are also factors, but still do not constitute sufficient explanation in my opinion. (Paragraph 14) Sheehan suggests, therefore, that the relationship between violence in television and violence in real life constitutes a ratio of inverse proportions: the more violence there is in reality, the more tranquil, and even boring, become the television shows that people tune in to. Sheehan suggests that this antithetical reality is an expression of the differences between the politically antithetical forces of the right and the left: "Traditionalist forces are no longer as strong as they were and significant liberal values have been accepted by the new right, which is now a far more formidable force than what is left of the old right" (paragraph 15). The seesawing of polarities in terms of the political situation seems to have created a social order which is confused and swinging between extremes, a fact which reveals itself in such seemingly trivial statistics as the number of people who watch a particular television program. Examining the possible reasons for this situation where television viewing becomes microcosmic of the patterns of social reality, Sheehan writes: It is not that Irish society has settled into some sort of insipid unanimity. It is a society more deeply divided than ever it was, a society of more various views and values than ever existed before. However, it is a more complex and confused society, a society in which the battle lines are not so clearly drawn, a society that seems unable to imagine itself dramatically. (Paragraph 16) The author suggests that Ireland is churning in the grips of a social and political reality that has left the country incapable of imagining itself the way it should be, and that therefore the insipid reality of the soap opera may seem to be a panacea for the fragmented Irish psyche, which can only now seek refuge in fantasy while it licks its wounds and tries to ignore the ravages of its reality. The narratives of fictional, bombastic characters replace the historical process of narrativization that can allow a country to invent itself and shape its cultural landscape. The culture that has been propagated by soap operas may be seen as part of a larger framework; that of the manner in which the media informs and even constructs social reality. Television is only one channel of communication; there are several others, and each can be infested with more subterfuge than the next. The popularity of soap operas only serves to caution us that we have forgotten to use our imaginations. We enjoy simplistic versions of reality to make ourselves forget that there are real issues that are waiting to be addressed. Works Cited Allen, Robert C. Speaking of Soap Operas. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985. Ang, Ien. Watching Dallas: London: Methuen, 1985. Brown, M. E. "Mass Media - Effects Research." 1987. Retrieved 9 April 2006 from Geraghty, C. Women and Soap Opera. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. ---. Soap Opera and Women 's Talk: The Pleasure of Resistance. London: Sage, 1994. Livingstone, S. Making Sense of Television. Oxford: Pergamon, 1990. ---. "On the Continuing Problem of Media Effects." In Curran, J., and Gurevitch, M. (eds.) Mass Media and Society. London: Arnold, 1996. Prescott, Anna Catherine. "Male Viewers of Soap Operas." 1998. Retrieved 9 April 2006 from Richards, Sarah. "Why Are Soap Operas So Popular" 1997. Retrieved 11 April 2006 from Robinson, Nina. "'An Easy Read': A Study of the Role Girls' Magazines Play in their Reader's Everyday Life." The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure, Volume 1: Issue 1, 1999. Retrieved 8 April 2006 from Sheehan, Helena. "Soap Opera and Social Order: Glenroe, Fair City and Contemporary Ireland." Irish Film Center. 31 October 1993. Retrieved 9 April 2006 from "Soap Opera." The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved 9 April 2006 from Read More