Housewives & soaps : how some Maltese women relate to soap operas

Abstract

Soap operas as a genre have been the subject of study ever since they were originally transmitted as radio programmes in the 1940s (Buckman, 1984; Hobson, 1982; Kilborn, 1992). The story of how soap powder sponsors gave the programmes their name is by now as familiar as the fact that the daily episodes on radio, and later on television, were aimed towards a specific social category: housewives. For a while during the 1980s, glossy versions of the genre (DYNASTY, DALLAS) were shown during prime-time and successfully managed to reach a wider audience. The impact of these expensive American productions worldwide was so great that numerous international studies were carried out to examine the reason for their enormous popularity (Ang, 1982; Liebes & Katz, 1986a; Schroeder, 1988; Silj et al., 1988). When the fascination with these programmes eventually faded, the world of soap opera reverted to its previous domain. To date, the main consumers of "soaps" continue to be women at home. Media research on women and soaps is extensive, ranging from the portrayal of women on the soaps (Cantor, 1987) to how female vjewers interpret the narrative (Livingstone, 1990a). Soaps have been analyzed for the way viewers construct their 'realness' (Barbatsis & Guy, 1990) and have been described as having an 'open text' into which viewers can read anything they want (Allen, 1985). Feminists have taken a particular interest in this field because of the belief that the soaps are offering women yet another myth of love and romance (Ang, 1982; Brunsdon, 1984; Modleski, 1979). The question of the appeal of soaps to women is an intriguing one, and to this end, many attempts have been made to sketch a profile of the 'typical' viewer. Does a particular 'type' of woman turn to soaps? A study on Politics and TV Viewing in England (Piepe, Charlton & Morey, 1990) for example, noted a correlation between heavy viewers of soap opera and those who described themselves as being working class. Cantor (1987) argues that the age group of the 'traditional viewer' has changed, becoming progressively younger as soap opera producers introduce a younger generation of actors and actresses in the plots.In another correlational study, Matabane (1988) concludes that there is an association between the amount of TV viewing and the extent of one's activity in the community. Above all, because soap opera viewing is prevalent throughout the world, studies on the way different cultures interpret the genre have been on the increase, providing material for important cross-cultural comparisons; Alfaro Moreno's (1988) study in Peru and Dohnalik's (1989) study in Poland are just two of the examples cited by Lauri (1993).