Prudence March 10s
Ethnicity in Soap Operas
Soap Operas are serial dramas set in a domestic setting; they deal with many everyday issues in a familiar surrounding to ones which their audience will live in. They are very character based and the plots often rely on the actions of one or more characters. Normally the characters are very stereotyped and are easy for the public to label as a specific group.
In this essay I will be exploring whether the stereotypes and ethnicity portrayed in such shows are accurate, how they are portrayed and if it is effective. I will also be looking at whether real-life issues are shown in these soaps, and how they are conveyed to the audience. The two soaps I will be looking at are ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘EastEnders’.
‘EastEnders’ is a soap created by the BBC for BBC 1. It has been running since 19th February 1985, it was originally shown twice a week at a peak viewing time and gradually increased to four with a two our omnibus on Sunday. The show is targeted at all ages as everybody has a character they can identify to.
‘EastEnders’ is set in the fictional East London town of Walford; it deals with real-life storylines including crime, marriage and unemployment amongst many others. The soap is set around 10 main families all living around Albert Square and their day-to-day goings on. It can be anything from a comical to sad programme depending what is going on in the square at the time, but generally ‘Walford’ is not a pleasant place to live. The opening of the soap is basically a turning overhead view of London with the title of the show on it; it only shows you where the programme is set and the name of it, not much else.
This soap represents views which affect us as a nation from the view of somebody watching the events go on, it has the normal stereotypes; there are thugs, single mothers, teenage mothers, widows and token black and Asian families to represent a cross section of people in Britain. It does not really represent the ethnicity of East London as well as the topics addressed in the programme, in London 30% of the population are from an ethnic minority, EastEnders levels fall way below this, out of the 10 main families in the soap only two are of an ethnic minority. Most of the major storylines include members of the white cast, ones from the ethnic minority families are normally an underlying plot which is not seen as regularly.
In this soap real issues are addressed, but not as much as you would see them in one week, in what other community as small and tight-knit as this would you see a murder and the return of an ex-wife in one day? However, it does not include real-world events such as 9/11 etc. Also the things that the characters do in their spare time are very unrealistic, they seem to spend all night in the pub and all day in the local greasy-spoon café, for dinner they have fish and chips from ‘Ian’s Plaice’ and for special occasions they go and eat out in the town’s one and only foreign restaurant, ‘The Argee Bhagee’.
The ethnic minority characters are very stereotyped, Juley Smith, a black character, is portrayed as a gangster, owning his own gun and being described as liking “fast cars, fast women and a fast buck.” The Ferraria family, the newest edition to the soap are its only Asian family and are very male dominated with one out of the five children being female; the father has run away leaving his family in debt. Also the family are coming to terms with the latest arrival, a long lost brother. One of the sons had recently suffered from kidney problems and has had to receive a kidney transplant, this reflects reality as kidney failure is a problem affecting 3 times as many Asian people than whites, however, the operation was done in an unusually quick time which doe’s not reflect waiting list times. Another Asian family were the Jaffrey family, who suffered from problems from their arranged marriage. Another black family, the Truemans also contain a thug-like son who is constantly looking for a way to make money an was recently involved in the murder of Barry Evans, in most cases illegitimately. Other black characters who have appeared in the soap have included a gangster and a gangster’s moll which really gives the wrong impression out about the stereotypical black person. There are a few black people in the soap who are seen as harmless, but the majority are seen as yobbish thugs looking for trouble. There has also been an Italian family in ‘EastEnders’, the ‘di Marcos’ they ran the Italian restaurant and were Walford’s answer to the mafia.
These stereotyped characters reveal a lot about the producer’s, and the audience’s assumptions about ethnic minority groups. The values of the groups are below the London average, let alone the ethically diverse East London area and the messages that are given off about these groups are very typical of English attitudes. The black minority are seen as gangsters, or thugs and the Asian minority seen as male-dominated and generally poor.
If I was producing ‘EastEnders’ I would include more accurate representations of ethnic minorities as the examples that are given are quite negative and very stereotyped. I would also definitely increase the number of Asian families in Walford and I would like to see more families from different religions, e.g. Sikh, Muslim and Jewish.
The next soap I will be looking at is Granada’s ‘Coronation Street’ which is shown on ITV. It has been running since 9th December 1960, 5 years more than ‘EastEnders’, It is shown 4 days a week at a peak viewing time with a Sunday omnibus shown on the digital ITV2 channel. Again it is targeted at anybody who identifies with the characters or the storylines.
