Are They For Real?: How Do Fictional Soaps Deal With Real-Life Situations

How have soaps dealt with certain issues such as rape, abortion, AIDS, cancer, and eating disorders? Do they show realistic portrayals, or do they tend to sweep these issues under the rug?



Every once in awhile, soap operas have a storyline where a character has been raped. It is always difficult for soap opera writers and directors to portray a rape because they cannot graphically show a woman being raped due to TV censorship. In the past, rape was not as graphic as it is today. In the late 1970s on General Hospital, the character of Luke Spencer raped the woman he loves, Laura, on the dance floor of a club. The way, though, that the rape was portrayed was as if it was a seduction rather than a rape. Luke is dancing with Laura, and he slowly drags Laura to the floor and rapes her, but the camera does not show that part. What’s interesting about after the rape is that Luke and Laura’s love not only survived, they married, had children, and became the most famous soap couple of all time. An interesting anecdote to this is the actor who plays Luke, Anthony Geary, has said that he would be bothered when he would go to fan club events, female fans of Luke would cry,” Rape me! Rape me, Luke.”



Another example of how rape in soaps was portrayed in the past was in the soap opera Guiding Light in the early 1980s. The character of Holly was raped by her husband, Roger. At least in this case, as opposed to the Luke and Laura case, Holly is shown struggling on the bed with her husband. What was interesting about this rape was that it was the first time on television viewers could see that rape is rape, even within a marriage.



In later years, the subject of rape in soap operas still remains a delicate issue, but the difference between now as opposed to the past is that: 1. The rapes are a little bit, but not much, more violent and graphic and 2) The soap opera shows the repercussions of the rape. This means that viewers don’t just see the rape and it is forgotten. There is the rape, and then comes the constant reminders of the rape spanning from months to even years. In 1998 on General Hospital, the character of Elizabeth Webber had been raped by an attacker, and viewers of the show saw how, after the rape, Elizabeth had been affected mentally and emotionally. Her rape led her to fall in love with Lucky Spencer, who is not only Luke and Laura’s son (who was not the product of Luke’s raping of Laura), but he also happened to find Elizabeth after she was raped. Elizabeth’s rape lead to Lucky eventually finding out that his father had raped his mother twenty years before, and after many years, viewers were not only subject to Laura’s anger at Luke over being raped but also Lucky’s anger at Luke for raping his mother. In other words, General Hospital had finally shown the repercussions of the rape, even though it was long overdue.



Like rape, another serious issue carefully dealt with in soaps from time to time is abortion. Because of censorship rules, soap operas cannot show the graphic details of an abortion. Because of this, and the political issue of pro-life versus pro-choice, is why abortion is an issue rarely discussed on soaps. Whenever a soap character has an abortion, the show is quick to move on with the storyline and forget that it ever happened. For example, both General Hospital and Days of Our Lives had young, female characters that had abortions, were anguished about it for awhile, and then moved on with life. This is great for the characters, but perhaps not so great for young girls watching these shows because they may think that having an abortion is not a big deal and there are few repercussions.



Medical conditions on soap operas like AIDS and cancer are discussed every once in awhile, but there seems to be more of a bias in soaps towards discussing cancer over AIDS. In the past, soap characters, particularly the female ones, have had leukemia, breast cancer, and lupus. In the 1990s, One Life to Live had made strides by featuring a character with a little-known disease such as lupus. But two other ABC shows, All My Children and General Hospital, are noteworthy for their portrayal of AIDS in soap operas. In the early 1990s, a character on All My Children learns she is HIV positive, and she is later a victim of an attack because of her HIV. General Hospital also featured the character of Robin Scorpio, a character whom long-time viewers had seen grow up from a child to a teenager, contract HIV from her boyfriend. Viewers later saw her boyfriend die from HIV-related complications, but the Robin character is not only still alive, she has become a doctor despite having to live with being HIV positive for the rest of her life. Robin is a very important General Hospital character for a few reasons: 1) She is the daughter of a popular couple, so viewers feel like they have known Robin all of their lives. 2) She is an example that people who contract HIV are not social deviants but normal people. Anyone can get it. 3) Having HIV does not equate a death sentence. 4) Robin is a woman, and statistically, women contract HIV and AIDS more than men.



Compared to life-threatening diseases, eating disorders are mentioned comparatively less often. All My Children’s Bianca, the same character who had come out of the closet, was a bulimic in her pre-teen years. On As the World Turns, pre-teen Faith is suffering with a bit of anorexia, a bit of bulimia, and body image issues in general. As with other heavy issues like rape and abortion, eating disorders can never be accurately portrayed, especially the vomiting that is involved with bulimia, which may be a reason why it is not shown very much on daytime soaps.

Even violence is a delicate issues on soap operas. The producers of ABC's One Life to Live scrapped a bunch of episodes about a student shooting up his high school in light of the Virginia Tech shootings. Usually in soaps, when violence such as shooting or stabbing is involved, there is either a killer on the loose or there is spy/mob activity going on. General Hospital is probably the best example of this because of the character of Sonny Corinthos, who is a mobster. Ever since Sonny came to town years ago, Port Charles, the fictional New York town where General Hospital is set up, has experienced non-stop shootings which are usually between Sonny and a rival mobster.


A tactic soaps often use is to implement violence in a situation where all or most of the soap's characters are involved, and this is usually done during a sweeps period to get ratings. The situation is usually very emotional and intense, more than usual for a soap opera. For example, during February sweeps, General Hospital had a hostage situation where the majority of Port Charles' citizens were being held hostage at a hotel. By the end of it, one person was shot (It happened to be HIV-positive Robin), a veteran character was dead from heart complications, and the hotel exploded due to a bomb. This is exciting and entertaining television but not all that realistic. Port Charles in particular has had so many fires, bombings, shootings, and virus scares that it makes one wonder why anyone would want to live there if it really existed.