Representation Of Women Essay Research Paper Utilising

Representation Of Women Essay, Research Paper

Utilising one of the approaches to representation from the lecture programme, analyse a media product. How useful is this critical method?

In this essay I am going to investigate the feminist approach to the representation of women in the soap opera.

Television soap operas are long-running serials traditionally based on the close study of personal relationships within the everyday life of its characters. Soaps are a consistent set of values based on personal relationships and on women s responsibility for the maintenance of these relationships.

The modern feminist approach to this predictable role of female characters, is that it is a way of perpetuating the patriarchal ideology into its largely female unquestioning audience. Feminist, Deborah Rogers wrote, I argue that the fragmentation of soap narrative form reinforces the status quo with respect to the nature of sex roles and of interpersonal relationships in a patriarchal culture. She goes on to discuss the unquestioning audience, Although the mixed messages of soap operas allow scholars to construct subversive readings, actual viewers fail to respond in this manner. (p325)

Rogers also discusses the difficulty feminists have in agreeing whether or not the soap opera should be celebrated only because it is a female genre, when it is in fact potentially harmful. The cumulative effect of introducing in a fragmented text messages that reconcile women to traditional female roles and relationships is to reinforce patriarchal cultural behaviour in a way that is difficult to identify during a typical – that is, casual – viewing experience. However Terry Lovell agrees that the soap opera is made with a patriarchal ideology but maintains that this may be of comfort to its female viewers.

Soap opera has a rather ambiguous relationship to patriarchal ideology: it provides a context in which women can express both good humoured acceptance of their oppression and recognition of that oppression, and some equally good-humoured protest against it. (108)

If we look at some female characters found in soap operas, we will see patterns emerging from their lifestyles to their feelings about their families, these patterns are, feminists argue to encourage the female audience to internalise these values in order to maintain the patriarchal ideology.

Soap operas are made up of stereotypes. This is because of the large cast and possibility of casual viewers, which necessitates rapid characterization and the use of recognisable types. Typical types that have been put forward as being used extensively in soaps by Marion Jordan include, Grandmother figures: Marriageable characters (mature, sexy, women; spinsterly types; young women; mature, sexy men; fearful, withdrawn men; conventional young men); married couples; rogues (including ne er-do-wells and confidence tricksters)(p67), other terms that have been used include, the gossip, the bastard, the tart, the decent husband, the good woman and the career woman.

One of the most well-known female soap stereotypes is the matriarch. This character could also be given the label good woman .

An example of this character is Pauline in Eastenders. She is very typical of this type , she was married the good wife and even forgave her unfaithful husband in order to retrieve her stable family. She had children during her marriage and has worked mainly in the home all her life, and sometimes worked part-time at the laundrette – which can be seen as an extension of Pauline s duties in the home. It is also typical of this matriarch character to become sexless because they have a family. This is demonstrated in the way that she dresses (Pauline s cardigans are infamous) and the conversations she has with her husband – these are very mundane and domesticated sex is not mentioned. Viewers often see little more than a rare hug and a peck on the cheek between them.

Pauline s character is an interesting one to look at with a feminist approach. She has led the life of the perfect wife and mother, which is highly regarded in the strongly patriarchal soap land. She has sacrificed personal happiness for that of her children and lived in the same house in the same low class area for most of her life. As all Eastenders viewers well know, Pauline is very rarely seen to be happy even though she has achieved the goal that many female soap characters aim for. I think this is because she is widowed and her life is now incomplete without a man. Rogers argues that in soap land children are the ultimate achievement for women. She gives the example of an episode of The Young and the Restless when a character, Nikki, tells her husband Victor , I am so lucky. I have everything a woman could want I have a beautiful daughter, and a loving husband, and a wonderful marriage 1(p327)

Another of the female character stereotypes is the young, single woman. This character tends to conform to the model image being tall, slim, conventionally beautiful, and usually they are portrayed as being the girl next door type character, friendly, happy, not very intelligent, and seldom aiming high in a career. When these characters do try to further themselves in a career, they seem to fail. An example of this character is Lindsey in Brookside, this is a particularly interesting example because she was living a life