Sex On Soap Operas

September 09, 2006 (PRLEAP.COM) Entertainment News
When millions of people tune in to "The Young and the Restless," "General Hospital," "Days of Our Lives," and the other six daytime soaps every afternoon, what are they seeing on their TV sets? Is it a sexual free-for-all featuring steamy scenes between muscular, bare-chested men and scantily clad, voluptuous women or is there something more (and intriguingly, perhaps even less) than meets the eye actually going on?

Soaps have their critics, and a loud bunch they are too. Many think that the soap opera as an art form is not one worthy of their time and attention. However, a medium that has been around in its present form for approximately seventy years deserves a serious examination of what goes out over the airwaves every afternoon, five days a week, fifty two weeks a year. Many people, even communications scholars, don't realize that there is actually research available produced over the years studying various aspects of soap operas and their effects on their loyal audiences. A subgenre of those studies deals specifically with sex on soap operas.

A newly released article presents material which examines the quantity and quality of sex on soap operas while it also looks at how men and women perceive sex on soaps differently as well as how they think this portrayal may be affecting them. (Research results are broken down by gender to assist with this analysis.) Other areas covered include the consequences of soap opera sex for the characters and attention to how soaps handle various social issues related to sex such as abortion, rape, prostitution, homosexuality, sexually transmitted diseases, and teenage pregnancy.

Writer Matthew W. Grant (www.MatthewGrantOnline.com) utilizes a wide variety of resources including books, professional communications journals, magazine articles, websites, soap opera episodes, and original research from soap opera viewer surveys (a mock version of which is available on the website for review) to analyze the complicated phenomenon of sex on soap operas. A check of the Works Cited section reveals over forty sources.

Matthew says, "I have been both a fan and a student of soap operas all my life. I'm glad to be able to share the research and findings that were part of earning my degree in mass communications. I've recently updated and expanded the work to include events and information newly available since the original version was completed. I hope that this article will add to the existing literature on the subject as well as entertain and inform the readers about this endearing and enduring medium."

The Sex On Soap Operas research survey and article as well as the companion piece titled Soap Operas: Silly Suds or Social Conscience, which examines the question of whether watching soaps can be good for the audience, are available in their entirety at:
http://www.MatthewGrantOnline.com/Soap_Operas.html http://www.MatthewGrantOnline.com/Sex_On_Soap_Operas_Introduction.html