SOAP OPERAS BLACK WOMEN: A POSITIVE PORTRAYAL BY WINSTON MAJETTE BIG RED...MAY 21, 1983
Past television soap operas have rarely produced an image for Black women as strong, goodwilled women. Most of the characters have been maids, servants and mothers struggling through poverty. These characters showed a lesser side of the Black woman’s presence in society. Today on soaps the situation has altered. We have tenacious Black women setting a precedent of strength and invulnerability with their roles.
One of the women that has taken her character and role to the limits of positive and inspiring images is Petronia Paley. Petronia and several other well known Black actresses from the daytime television soaps will be featured on upcoming issues of this feature series on Soap Operas Black Women. Petronia plays the role of Quinn Harding, a coordinator of a major construction company, on the soap Another World. Petronia has brought about respect and power in Quinn. “The character lives with you everyday,” says Petronia, “and I’ve grown with her since the beginning—when she was merky.” Television hasn’t begun to tell the strife and tribulations that Black women go through emotionally and socially. Quinn Harding and many other Black TV soap women bring sensation to the set with their competitive capabilities and emotional adjustabilities. Quinn rose from the stints of poverty to become the head of a white maledominated business. Petronia is an actress who is and has always been conscientious about her ^career in everyway.
“When I decided to switch my major in college to acting, I was serious about it and really wanted it. I toured Europe and Africa and after graduation, I came to New York,” says Petronia. Petronia proclaims, “I’ve worked hard at what I do and for a Black actress I want to be as good as I can be.” Many TV networks don’t initiate any work into portraying Blacks as positive images. They just take whatever available stereotype there is and blow it out of proportion. The idea that ninety percent of today’s Black youth are thieves, muggers and prostitutes is easily from the roles of Black characters on TV. With this in mind, the negative depictions of Blacks must be put to an end. Petronia notes, “There are few positive Black images on TV today. Quinn is a very good character (for Blacks) and I would call her a heroine. She’s got confidence and is very outgoing. In past history there has been much discrimination against women in sports, politics and entertainment. Black women have had to fight harder for all of them and more. Petronia adds, “I am very interested in being a Black woman. I want to also be a human Black person."
By
Paul Raven ·
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