OLTL and GH: Watching Sadism for Thrills; Soaps Are Not Snuff Films

[quartermainefan]

For me it has something to do with quantity. If all things were truly equal there would be just as much male death as female death, but just taking the names bandied about in this thread (Stacy Morosco, Jen Rappaport from OLTL, Claudia and Chloe from GH, Frankie Frame famously) where are the male counterparts? I recall watching Chloe cornered like a rat on GH by Stavros, but where is the male Chloe who also got a long sadistic death scene? What male character was ever killed like Jen Rappaport? And just out of curiosity, why was it Jen slated for death and not Will if both actors were leaving the show anyway? Why did Stacy get this gasping for air in the ice, Claudia on GH got a slo-mo whack to the head, but the same show had Lorenzo Alcazar tastefully getting murdered off camera, no fuss no muss? Which male characters were killed sadistically and brutally? Even Nash died by accident and pretty quickly. I guess I just can't come up with any male counterparts to GH's Claudia being knifed in the gut, and then tossed in the river.

[TC]

You've said it all.

I hate to say it but "men, misogynist males" are not the whole problem here. For some reason, "some" women eat it up like slices of pizza. Soaps, or at least ABC soaps, have a tendency to regress to THE PERILS OF PAULINE style of storytelling for women. My late grandmother who somehow managed to survive the deathcamps loved her soaps but I can't see her rooting for any of the new weak, all about the man, women we see playing out now, on ABC at least.

[EricMontreal22]

Certainly NBC (at least when Passions was there especially) was at least as bad...

[DRW50]

It's never good when fans talk about how many times various female characters have been raped. I still can't remember how many times Fancy was raped.

[EricMontreal22]

I really find JER's increasing reliance on rape (especially since he didn't know whether to treat it seriously or as camp) bizarre and awful.

[Scotty]

Reminds me of OLTL.

[Vee]

Surely Fancy was not raped multiple times.

[DRW50]

I think she was raped like 2-3 times by Vincent/Valerie. I remember some fans used to talk or debate about who was raped more, they'd say, "Teresa was raped every night by Alistair when they were together" and so on. And "Jessica was raped twice, wasn't she?" Ugh.

[Vee]

Oh, for goodness' sake.

For all Reilly's devout Catholic stricture for certain characters, I think he implicitly (or rather, explicitly) rebelled against it all the time by trying to debase himself and his work as much as possible. I heard somewhere that he also was a bit weird with the actors when meeting them in person, and I don't mean referring to them by character name.

[DRW50]

A Passions fan would have to tell us for sure but I think the story was that a man would come to Fancy's room on various nights and rape her or attempt to rape her. I believe that Luis was also raped, in some sense, and a sperm sample was taken during this instance. Then, when Fancy was again assaulted, Valerie/Vincent left Luis's sperm inside her so that Luis would be framed for her rapes.

[Vee]

At least he's thorough.

[Chris B]

Vincent was also her brother, so she was being raped by her brother--played by OLTL's Daphnee Duplaix, lol! Vincent also was pregnant with his dads baby. It just got ridiculous at the end, but I loved the effect it had on Eve. I did enjoy Passions, particularly when Vincent arrived (loved him with Chad), but the show had so much filler and little payoff so I don't know if I could handle it again.

[EricMontreal22]

She was,within 2 years

[TC]

MOM! Don't make me go say hello. He wants to EAT me!

[Sindacco]

On DAYS Roman was stabbed in the throat, Tony was mauled by a tiger, Doug was stabbed in the throat, Jack was hit with a brick in the head, Victor was electrocuted in his bathtub, Paul Mendez was stabbed, shot, beaten up, shot again, beaten up again before eventually dying. Just like Claudia on GH, Stefano was once knifed in the gut. Those are the ones I can think of right now.