Responsibilities
This is a key area in the character make-up of why the genre of soap could be classed as primarily a woman's genre. Modleski's research studies (1984) reveal that the soap opera primarily reflects the woman's role in the home. Modleski believes that within this area it could be argued that soaps extend upon the average everyday lives of a certain grouping of people and tare really a sub-plot to focus upon, in a subtle or even subconscious manner, the responsibilities and expectancies of women concerning their roles in society.
The up bringing of families along with the instances that deal with emotion and morality are, and will almost certainly always be associated with women, in the viewpoint of society and so obviously will be linked with the notion that soap is primarily feminine in its approach due to the glaringly distinguishable connections that soap has with societal behaviour, attitudes and beliefs. Large Emphasis is placed upon the family, public situations and more often than not the community. This gives viewers and women most notably a sense of belonging and provides, hypothetically speaking, a substitute family.
Independence
The vision of the woman as having a massive amount of independence is shown in the soaps of today and as is another indication of it being a woman's genre. The amount of up front and powerful images of women is commonplace in soaps. Peggy Mitchell of Eastenders and Bet Lynch of Coronation Street who both own and run a pub is a prime example of how women are portrayed as being independent. Another example of independence shown in soap operas is Janine Butcher in Eastenders where she seems to have this entrepreneurial spirit about her. "For women viewers of patriarchal soaps it is the demonstration that male power, challenged on the one hand by moral questioning and on the other by the women's refusal to be controlled, can never be fully or easily asserted" (Geraghty, 1991: 74). Soaps provide an outlet for feminine anger in acknowledging women's contradictory impulses. Men take on static positions as 'head' of the family in soaps and are deliberately deprived of the stereotypical powerful image inherent in action thrillers, etc. Women enjoy seeing them suffer and their authority undermined. With regards theories of women's inequality, soaps are a source of female strength because "they help women test the waters to see how far they can go in challenging social norms" (Brown, 1994: 12)
Viewpoint
There is no question that the soap opera was designed to appeal to the female sex. It centres its viewpoint of reality on domesticity, family life and gossip making it both comforting and appealing to women of all ages, classes and origins. In all soap operas there is a definitive aim in terms of the woman contained within this genre, which is one of letting its audience see the episode from a woman's point of view. This can be backed up by the fact that the audience is continually asked to identify with the female characters. For instance, the recent revelations in Eastenders concerning Kat Slater being Zoë Slater's natural mother ad Sonia Jackson giving birth in her front room. Both of these storylines are extremely feminine issues and even a deemed masculine event such as the "Who shot Phil Mitchell?" storyline of recent times was eventually settled when it concluded with the expected "gunman" being a "gunwoman" in the form of character Lisa Shaw.
Scheduling
The scheduling of soap operas is also equally as important as any other reason for distinguishing it as a female genre as they are continually shown at primetimes but also in some soaps cases, for instance Neighbours, at dinnertime slots in and around one o'clock. For the most part they are shown during the day when women are attending to their daily house chores, but in the cases of say Coronation Street andEastenders are shown after the tea has been eaten. It is also a familiarity that is a major attraction to women, as they know that when everything is done that their soap will be on the screen at that time.
Realism
British soaps are often viewed as being realistic because of their emphasis on the everyday happenings of life and their depictions of the working classes who in reality constitute the mass of the British population. This "realist aesthetic" appeals to the masses, and women in particular, because it allows viewers to put their knowledge of the world and knowledge of the conventions of television into play. The close-up shot characteristically used in soaps enables viewers to focus on the characters' emotions and to understand most, if not all of the actions depicted. Women in particular obtain enjoyment from being able to acknowledge the 'true' emotions of the characters when they typically hide them behind a mask; for example, Bet Lynch (from Coronation Street) is admired for putting on a brave face when times are tough at the Rovers Return (the local pub in the series). In this way, the characters are emotional representatives, inviting the audience to partake in the arising issues and conflicts, in order that they may seek temporary solutions to the problems they are experiencing in real life.
Repetition
The fact that soap operas are so repetitive in terms of form and its storylines which in most cases carry itself through one episode and anaesthetising itself within the numerous episodes which follow. It doesn't matter what is going on in an episode it is extremely easy to catch up with what has been happing. So with women it is easy to, for example, do the ironing at the same time as of an episode being on. Their undemanding nature and emphasis on talk not action, means that a busy mother can catch the gist of what is going on merely through hearing what the characters have to say. This is because a soap opera is simplistic enough as to only be listening to it to understand what's going on. Its simplicity makes a soap opera easily viewable even in a sometimes hectic, domestic lifestyle
Emotion
As Ien Ang (1985) suggested, the surface of a soap opera, its exciting representation of everyday life, is not its only key to success. Ang's book called Watching Dallasindicated that women's enjoyment of Dallas came not from the surface of everyday life but from an ability to believe and identify with the emotional side of certain characters, none more so than one of the main characters in the American soap, Sue Ellen. Ang found that even the glamour depicted in the American soaps, whilst it would understandably create envy, did not make women resentful, they found that it appealed to their fantasies. The melodramatic format of Dallas allowed the expression of emotional problems, and difficulties, which would otherwise be suppressed, in normal everyday life and it is this form of representation that appeals to women and enables them to "feel as well as observe". (Geraghty: 2000)
A reason for the apparent feminism within soap and its then expectedness of becoming known as a woman's genre is its link to the notion of the personal sphere of emotion (Brunsdon: 1981/1991). As Geraghty points out the domestic space of home and the trials and tribulations of relationships of a personal nature, especially in the family are constructed as being female concerns. This, coupled with soap operas acknowledgement of the nature of women's work and thus in turn endorsing it, along with soap being recognised as emphasising traditional associations between women and emotions, is again a significant link to the notion that soap operas are primarily a woman's genre (Geraghty: 2000).
This can be justified through the pleasure that is gained by the female audiences through the value given to women in soap operas in terms of creating and/or maintaining a storyline through everyday characters such as wives, girlfriends and daughters.
In agreement with Ang is Dorothy Hobson who also believed that it was the emotional connections that women had of the characters that was a definitive link to the notion that soap can be defined as a woman's genre. Hobson conduced a set of interviews during 1987, to establish how far the soap operas fit into the working environment of women. In her study of Crossroads during its peak, in the mid 1980's in which it gained on average over 13 million viewers an episode, she noticed that women used it as source of pleasure. Crossroadswasn't well known for its award winning acting, in fact it was often mocked for being incredibly poor and the situations that characters were placed within were somewhat extremely implausible. Yet still it attracted the large audience in which it due, and that was due to the character companionship that women felt towards the soaps characters, with one woman describing and believing that the emotional dilemmas placed upon into certain scenes and upon certain characters "were close to home". Hobson asked the women why they actually like soap operas and they claimed that it was due to their undemanding natures, the interesting story lines and the ability to become emotionally involved in the programme (Hobson: 1982). Hobson also agued that Crossroads and other soaps weren't just a mild form of escapism from everyday life but were a chance for women to experience everyday difficulties through a virtual emotional realism.
Pleasures
Put simply, it offers a set of pleasures that are extremely potent in attracting a female audience and so has adopted its content to, not exclude the male audience, but to satisfy the majority, which in the case of soap operas, the female audience.
When looking at academic literature for information into a subject area of this kind the well-used model of "Uses and Gratifications" can be applied to women and soap operas (Branston/Stafford: 1999:408).
Even though this form of audience reception research was developed in the 1940's and then redeveloped in the 1960's it still has extreme relevance in application to today's society.
In relation to the topic of study concerning to what extent can people go to, to actually define soap operas as a woman's genre, this form of media has not influenced women in any particular way, the female audience has in fact chosen soap operas as way of feeding a habit so to speak. As is classically phrased amongst academics its not "what the media do to audiences" and more to do with "what audiences do with the media" (Corner: 2000). And so it is noticeable that women are attracted to soap operas as they can enjoy the elements of its form to such a certain and unequalled degree, than with any other element of mass media.
A soap opera offers, as stated previously, family as a centralised theme, with authority and leadership contained within a usual "mother" type of figure. It emphasises women's responsibilities at home as well as in society and offers a form of independence rarely seen elsewhere. Soap operas are attractive to the female gender because of the escapism that is available within such programmes. The lives of the characters in the soaps are exciting and lively and offer the audience a glimpse of how life could be more interesting. But this concept of escapism only really works through the repetitive nature of soap operas and the audiences' ability to find a form of companionship in a character or characters.
Research undertaken by Christine Gerahty (2000) into gender and its representations within society, clarified many arguments about to what extent soap operas could be defined as a woman's genre. In analysing women in it is noticed that the role that "Cagney and Lacey" had on its female audience was an extremely powerful one. In a study of women that were interviewed about the programme, the answers pointed to the two characters sense of realism - they seemed ordinary and were distinguishable because of their realism as they were described as being "like us". Only a female audience could relate to such characters and where more narrowed soaps were concerned, like Coronation Street, Terry Lovell commented upon the independence that women in soaps showed and how this strong and deeply powerful imagery which was offered to its audience was in fact in essence an attraction for the female gender. cf.
Feminist critics have, when analysing media and cultural studies, often referred to soap operas as prime examples of television that was specifically geared towards a feminine audience. For many women soap operas are deemed as a source of pleasure, which is an indication towards a constructed femininity through a depiction of a woman's life.
Conclusion
Hopefully I have clearly outlined the key factors in what defines soap operas primarily as a woman's genre. It is in my opinion an extremely female orientated genre but that does not however make this genre any less progressive than any other form of television. I tend to agree with the notion put forward by Hobson (1982) that even with it's lack of masculinity, the genre of the soap opera is one of the most progressive forms of television around. This is due to the fact that the audience "contributes to the understanding" of the drama and it is a form where the "audience is always in control". This, coupled with the raising of issues in society that are of paramount importance for debate, like for instance considering abortion as a reasonable option, are what makes this genre so progressive and is what will keep soap operas, a woman's genre or not, on our screens for years to come.
