Jump to content

Soaps try to be socially conscious unless it is about....


Recommended Posts

  • Members

The discussion on the boards about race and culture made me think about how soaps write about other sensitive topics.  Historically, soaps have been good about informing their audience using issues-based story lines ranging from breast cancer to addiction and eating disorders.  However, the following is a list of topics that soaps tend to get wrong and provide misinformation:

 

Adoption

     - all soap adoption social workers are evil people who want to rip away innocent children from well-meaning adults

     - all long lost soap children instantly bond with their family of origin, they take their surname, are given rights of inheritance, and take on the character traits of their biological parents

     - adults who were adopted as kids loose all contact with their adoptive parents and never invite them to weddings or major life events

     - rich soap families can easily find resources for illegal adoptions, and "black-market babies" outnumber legal adoptions in most soap towns

 

Brain Injury

     - most brain tumors do not result in people committing murder

     - the removal of a brain tumor does not cause a change in a patient's morality and usually involved more hair loss than portrayed on screen

     - adults with brain injuries usually have chronic cognitive delays unlike those in soaps

 

Mental Illness

     - due to the nature of tv storytelling, visual hallucinations are far more common on soaps than auditory hallucinations, despite their actual rarity in psychotic disorders

     - asylums are still prevalent on soaps despite a drastic reduction in long term hospitalization for mental illness due to insurance companies restricting access to residential care (the average hospital stay for acute mental illness is 72 hours)

     - soap characters instantly recover from mental illness without any economic impact, unless they are a woman and need to worry about "passing on" a mental illness to their child

     -amnesia due to trauma does not usually resolve by exposure to a loved one

 

Those are my top three, respond if you can think of other examples.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 22
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Members

Rape.  The soap starts out with an actor who usually is charismatic and attractive, presumably to show that a rapist can be anyone, even the "nice, good-looking, presumably charming" co-worker or acquaintance but inevitably will decide that they want to keep the actor and set about totally undermining their own storyline by somehow making the rapist a "victim" somehow and then try to make said rapist a romantic leading man, of sorts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members


When was the last time a soap actually even tackled rape? After all those extremely trashy rape plots on ATWT, B&B, Days, Passions and Y&R in the 00’s it seems that daytime is past that aside from something sleazy like Phyllis unknowingly sleeping with Jack’s doppelgänger on Y&R

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

What a terrible time that was for DAYS.  They decided to dump some money into the show, and we had one unrelentingly depressing story after another.
 

Soaps so often do a terrible job with medical privacy, and therapy.  They often have people getting their hands on medical files or blurting our patient information.

 

I can’t count how many bad therapy sessions I have seen on soaps over the years.  Which goes hand in hand with how awful they are with mental illness.  It’s often a plot point and rarely given any dimension.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Paralysis - temporary in all cases.

It would be an interesting story if a character was permanently paralysed. The list of characters who've had to face the fact they might never walk again is endless, but not a reality for any of them.

Same for losing sight or hearing - purely a short term plot twist.

Edited by Paul Raven
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

That was a weird [!@#$%^&*] period. The show was so dark, the Ciara rape so unnecessary and ruinous, and then they got a major genre film actor (Tobin Bell from the Saw flicks) to come in and redo John's backstory yet again. All very Griffith IMO, and not his best. He should've been fired for the Chase/Ciara story alone.

 

I will say the scene where Hope executes Stefano was very well-produced and cut. (And I think her killing him - especially after what he said to her - was appropriate.)

Edited by Vee
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Paul from Loving was still paralyzed when he left the show, wasn't he? I think that lasted about 6-7 months until his exit. 

 

Soaps just love to tell us that abuse victims or the children of abusers will also be abusers. Shameful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

As a Brit, I can tell you that U.K. soaps have entered the proverbial lift and have gone down a fair few levels

Please register in order to view this content

but your point remains, and the industry still remains financially supported and largely respected.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • I love me some Anita and TT. They need to give her a good storyline and I know that it's coming. 
    • @Franko Thanks for tagging me. A few days ago I was talking in another thread about the rise of "snarky" critics for TV shows in the '90s online recaps, but this is just more along the lines of a mauling. There's also the unspoken reality that these were seen as movies for women, so therefore they sucked. Pauline Kael also had her share of blunt, at times incredibly nasty remarks, but the vitriol is often balanced by her love for film. I'm not seeing that here.  With that said, the comment about Field's work becoming unbearable describes how I felt when I tried to sit through her and Maura Tierney on ER. 
    • I skipped most of Daniel too. I think it's awful he has kids with Nicole, Csrky5 and Chloe and Brady, Bo and Philip do not. 
    • Please register in order to view this content

         
    • A great day. Feeling happy and accomplished.

      Please register in order to view this content

    • Today was very focused on Bo and his illness.  I’m liking how everything is ultimately tied together, even though everybody doesn’t know it yet. The EJ connection seems a little sudden and random though. I’m guessing that that was not on Ron’s agenda. And I’m not really sure why any of these rich people couldn’t help the hospital months ago lol  But I really like how the whole sepsis drug thing is being written a lot more realistically than what we’ve grown accustomed to with Dr. Rolf and all of his wonder drugs. They’re definitely putting more of an effort into this storyline. It feels more real.  Philip was a little whiny and self-pitying today, but I also feel like the writing has improved for him as well. He’s coming off less like a villain and more like a tragic hero. I enjoyed his scene with Stephanie and hopefully it means that at some point, we’ll get a revival of Philip/ Stephanie/Alex. Tying it to Stephanie’s novel could be really good. And, the dorkiness of Xander and Sarah was really sweet too. I’m looking forward to their weekend together and what secrets may or may not come out lol 
    • "And I also want to flirt with every woman that comes my way... but then beat up anyone who talks to my wife. BECAUSE I'M A MAAAAAAAAAAAN." Give me a break with your ugly baby paintings... You're in the same category of the hacks that sell paintings with a single dot for thousands or even millions of dollars.   

      Please register in order to view this content

    • I have to check out his Bela Garody on Search for tomorrow. He was one of the main reasons EON worked for me when I was watching. Truly unforgettable presence. Handsome in the most perverse and sinister way. They don't make faces like that anymore. 
    • My favorite moment in SOAPDISH is the HW taking the star to the mall in NJ to improve "morale"!! 
    • Oh no! The shoulder pads! I will mourn them when they're gone. Please tell me the head pieces and hats remained!?
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy