Sexuality on Daytime Soaps

[John]

I feel its past time for the soaps to introduce characters that arent strictly straight or gay. THat believe in no labells and are just attracted to the person because they are a person

 

Tons of romantic possibilities that way

[YRfan23]

well Y&R is "trying" to do that with Mariah and Tessa, but they've spent more time in the backburner, when Mariah is not being some rom-com character...

[John]

Didnt GH say originally that Kristina was sexually fluid?

[DeeeDee]

Y&R tried to do that with Adam too but it was a disaster.

[beebs]

It would definitely help stop the gay characters from being islanded in their own stories, and/or forcing them to introduce new characters every time they need a spoiler for a popular couple, but...I don't have much hope.

[Faulkner]

Was that technically what happened with Otalia on GL or no? I wasn’t watching the show consistently enough in those final years to know.

 

Soaps would just never really go there for men in a real sustained way. There aren’t really that many male bisexuals in primetime either. (Issa Rae is executive-producing a show about a black bisexual man, and she’s had a lot of negative responses.)

 

Adam’s dalliance with Rafe on Y&R was used to show how depraved he was, how far he’d go to cover his tracks, and he had sex with Heather like someone washing a disgusting taste out of their mouth.

[dragonflies]

I agree BUT writer's don't want to write storylines like this, nor do they seem to have an interest to do so either. I'd rather if something like this were to be written, especially long term, I'd rather it be written well and with interest from the writer(s).

[Khan]

I'd (also) love to see a soap introduce an asexual character.  But, like beebs, I don't hold out much hope.

[j swift]

 

I agree, what I do not want to see is someone who is predatory rather than fluid.  I do not find stories about men who will sleep with any gender to get what they need to be empowering or respectful in 2018.  However, I feel like given the age of most soap writers, sexual fluidity would get confused with lack of commitment or slut shaming in today's stories.

 

Hollyoaks's Grace is a good example of a sexually fluid character.  She has relationships with men and women and it is never treated as a flaw.  Also, Emmerdale has an asexual character.

 

BTW remember when soaps actually had sex scenes and they lasted for days?  I was watching Cassandra's seduction of  Brad on Y&R, they were shown in bed for three days!

 

[Faulkner]

And the age of most soap *viewers* to be honest. The vast majority of the audience wouldn’t get it, and the ones who would wouldn’t be interested in watching a daytime soap.

[All My Shadows]

So many people are still so ignorant about any of this in real life, so I won't hold my breath for any soap or TV show in general to present a decently-written character that fits into this community. I think the key to success is to go into it knowing that it's a complicated thing and writing it as such. There is angst, there is drama, there is inner turmoil, and there is conflict with loved ones who mean well but just don't get it.

I think many of soaps' LGBT failures have been because they wanted so badly to write the characters as well-adjusted individuals without realizing that the best and most interesting soap characters are not. As a gay black man, I would not be offended in the least if a gay black man on soaps was as fcked up as everyone else.

[Winchester91]

"Sexually fluid"? We can use the word "biseuxal" instead. What really is the difference here? 

[Faulkner]

And there are things like open relationships or more fluid ideas about commitment that are more common amongst gay male relationships (and more common than one would think in heterosexual relationships). Yet a lot of gay men feel like showing that to a largely heterosexual audience would simply invite attacks, confirming stereotypes about gays as unstable, slutty, and poor role models for children.

[DramatistDreamer]

At the risk of sounding like a 'Debbie Downer', I'm just past the point of having any expectations of complex storytelling on daytime soaps with any subject matter.

 

It would've been ideal for soaps to write stories, highlighting the full spectrum of sexuality- -gay/bi, asexual, characters who 'come out' later in life after children, etc. 

Soaps have shown the likelihood that they will only engage in the superficial aspects of sexuality.  I get that soaps want to give more focus to "Love In The Afternoon", so they are always more predisposed to "coupling" characters but most of the U.S. population is unmarried and single life is a very real lifestyle and worthy of exploration--as well as those who are 'looking' and those who are 'not looking' for relationships.  Soaps no longer do any this well either.

 

At this point, I would've even like to have seen a single, successful woman who is not obsessed with being 'wedded or bedded' on a soap.  When's the last time we've even seen this?

 

 

I remember a scene where Sharon suggested that maybe Adam was bisexual and the way Case played the scene, Sharon seemed earnest about the possibility.

For a moment, it made me think that perhaps they were planning on presenting Adam as a character that could be sexually ambiguous, if not flatly questioning his sexuality but it occurred to me that, Y&R didn't know how to write with that level of complexity.  MAB's writing was way too over the top and literal for that to happen and she seemed more comfortable with making Adam a cartoon villain.

[Soaplovers]

Yeah, I dont truer modern day soap writers to write it well.  Look at Maya on bold and the beautiful...it was a great twist, but everyone was accepting, etc.  I recall my mom said while she thought the actress playing Maya was talented and did a good job, she wondered why the show didnt have a transgendered performer playing the part.  She also said she found the story preachy and not organic especially with how accepting Rick was since she didnt ever recall Rick being so easy going.

 

An asexual character sadly wouldn't make it on soaps...but there are a lot of avenues a show could go with an asexual character.  A Male asexual has more discrimination than a female asexual...but there would be interesting avenues to explore with either gender as asexual...or even demisexual (where a character had to be intellectual and emotionally into a person to be sexually into them).