How Daytime Television Brings Social Awareness to Your Home

Through the years, soap operas have been an untouted force towards social awareness of interracial couples, sexual assaults, sexually transmitted diseases and homosexual awareness.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½ Soap operas, as early as 1970’s, have been a platform to discuss such taboo issues as abortion, infidelity, divorce and drug abuse.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½

Though normally viewed as “fluff” television with their outlandish storylines of mistaken identity, amnesia, demonic possession and miraculous ressurections, soap operas also reach out, five days a week, to teenagers dealing with sexuality, women in abusive relationships and men unwillingly separated from their children.

For many years, soap operas have been viewed as mindless, overacted dramas that appeal to housewives with nothing better to do than sit on their couch eating bon bons and escaping their own dull life to one of love, lust and betrayal.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½ In fact, the daytime drama that attracts those housewives was so strong that in the 1980’s it carried over to nighttime with serials such as “Dallas”, “Knots Landing” and Dynasty.

It is unfortunate that for a long time daytime soap operas were not given their due for bringing home such issues as Don Jr.’s, death from SIDS on “Days of Our Lives”; Laura’s rape by Scottie on “General Hospital”, to Cindy Parker giving AIDS a face on “All My Children”.

These were growing issues at the time and not ones that were discussed on prime time television.�¯�¿�½ Soap Operas gave audiences a chance to connect on a day by day basis to characters who were struggling like they were.�¯�¿�½ These were not people they met for a couple hours (as in a movie) or once a week for thirty minutes or an hour.�¯�¿�½ You were given the opportuntity to see a character learn and grow�¯�¿�½ and take adversity and stigmatism and demystify it in a way that all could relate.

In fact, the concept of soap operas and their reflection of real life has become so popular and impressive, that many colleges use soap operas as part of their curriculm in their communication and media studies.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½ In fact, the soap operas themselves realized the impact they were having on the general population and in 1990 Soap Opera Digest created the “Outstanding Storyline” category to recognize storylines which have an impact on society.

So before you laugh at your mother, aunt, girlfriend for “wasting her time” watching those daytime dramas, take a moment to sit down yourself and see what they have to offer.