Modelling or muddling Perceptions of sexual relationships in popular television

1. Modelling or muddlingPerceptions of sexual relationships in popular television Sex, Soaps and Sensationalism!Multiple and concurrent partners in the popular mediaWits HIV and the Media Project • JHHESA Johannesburg, 4 March 2009 Warren Parker, PhD

2. What is ‘popular’ television? • Programming that is on at a particular timeslot vs programming that is compelling to watch? • What is compelling…- news (‘immediate’ ‘real’ life out there…)- documentary (‘real’, but less immediate…)- talk shows (‘real’ with ‘talking heads’ / ‘experts’)- drama’s (elements of ‘reality’, emotive engagement…)- enter-educate / edutainment (elements of ‘reality’, emotive engagement, knowledge / lesson oriented…)- ‘Soap’ opera’s (‘unreal’ but include ‘romance’, ‘betrayal’, family secrets…) • Quiz question: Why are ‘soap opera’s’ called ‘soap opera’s’?

3. Audience ratings in SA… • Couch night – 19 May 2006…

4. Does media influence MCP? Facilitator: Do you think media contributes to the behaviour of having more than one partner at a time? All: It does, it does! Participant: Especially these days, it is worse. We watch these night movies. Now it happens that this man of yours hasn’t been up for it for weeks. So you feel like ‘No, I must go and find myself something’ [laughter]. Yes...So maybe you will be just walking down the street and you meet someone who will say ‘Ey, Sisi; how are you?’. You say ‘Yhaa, no problem…’. It’s not that you were hunting for this. It is just that you saw it on that TV…. You just tell yourself ‘Should I get stopped by anyone I will take him in!’ [laughter]. (Mixed FGD, 30-40, Mpumalanga)

5. And then there’s Brooke… • Brooke Logan meets and marries Ridge (after his fiancée dies from cancer). • Brooke has affair with Eric, divorces Ridge, marries Eric and has two children with him (Rick and Bridget). • Ridge marries Taylor. • In the meanwhile, Taylor ‘dies’ in a plane crash but isn’t really dead. • Brooke falls in love with Ridge again and they have an affair. • Brooke divorces Eric and marries Ridge (for the second time). • Eric marries Sheila. • However, after some time the marriage is invalid as Taylor reappears quite alive. • Ridge divorces Brooke and gets back together with Taylor. • Brooke moves on and gets married to Grant (her attorney). • Grant dies and leaves poor Brooke alone. • Brooke has affair with her psychiatrist, James. • Taylor ‘dies’ during childbirth…(Special thanks to Helen Hajiyiannis, CADRE)

6. Soapies and MCP (1) • Are soapies compelling and do they influence communities? • You look at Days of Our Lives and Generations… When you look at what is shown in Days for example… This one gets married to this one, the stepmother is married to the father but has an affair with her stepson. The stepson has an affair with the stepsister. (Male, 30-40, Free State) • Participant 1: Just like in Generations. Mashaba’s son had sex with his stepmother. Mashaba has actually taken his son’s girlfriend to be his wife. Participant 2: Then the son came back to claim his share while his ex-girlfriend was married to his father. Participant 3: Those are the things that are causing a lot of confusion in our communities… They are written in such a way that they grip your attention… (Male, 30-40, Free State)

7. Soapies and MCP (2) • Perceived influence on ‘youth’: • Participant 1: Yes, those ones...because they show a lot of romance - kissing and all that, and also these youth soaps, what do you call them?...Backstage...Yhaa, those ones contribute because it’s mainly youth who act there. So these young people will watch that stuff and then tell themselves ‘I want to test this. I want to see if what I saw there will happen to me too.’ So they go and test it, and from there they don’t stop. They go on.(FGD, Males, 30-40, Free State) • Participant 2: You look at Days of Our Lives and Generations. You find a young child of fourteen religiously watching those soapies. And when you look at what is shown in Days for example, there is lot of bofebe that goes on there. This one get married to this one, the stepmother is married to the father but has an affair with her stepson. The stepson has an affair with the stepsister. Can you see how much bofebe goes on there? And this is what the young children are glued to everyday.

8. Soapies and MCP (2) • Do they influence youth? • Participant 1: Yes, those ones...because they show a lot of romance - kissing and all that. and also these youth soaps, what do you call them?...Backstage...Yhaa, those ones contribute because it’s mainly youth who act there. So these young people will watch that stuff and then tell themselves ‘I want to test this. I want to see if what I saw there will happen to me too.’ So they go and test it, and from there they don’t stop. They go on.(FGD, Males, 30-40, Free State) • Participant 2: You look at Days of Our Lives and Generations. You find a young child of fourteen religiously watching those soapies. And when you look at what is shown in Days for example, there is a lot of bofebe that goes on there. This one get married to this one, the stepmother is married to the father but has an affair with her stepson. The stepson has an affair with the stepsister. Can you see how much bofebe goes on there? And this is what the young children are glued to everyday .(FGD, Males, 30-40, Free State

9. Soapies and MCP (3) • Do they influence individuals? • I used to watch Bold and the Beautiful a lot, you see. So there were characters there that I liked – Phillip and Chloe. So I used to like Chloe, Phillip’s girlfriend. So I used to watch what they used to do and would also try that in real life. For example, it made me change girls a lot. Like there was a time when this guy took Phillip’s girlfriend, and I mean Phillip and his girlfriend were very serious. So I told myself ‘Ey, what's the point of being serious with my girlfriend while someone else might be having an affair with her?’. So I took what was happening on TV and did it in real life. • (Mixed FGD, 18-25, Mpumalanga) • People call me Brooke Logan because they say I love men a lot. And truly speaking I do take their men and they end up being very jealous for me. You find that girls like saying that they are no longer interested in a man when they are having problems. But when I take the man they get angry. (Mixed FGD, 18-25, Free State)

10. Soapies and MCP (4) • What do they say about HIV? • Participant 1: Like the people who write and direct soapies, they never put HIV in their productions. We have, for example, Karabo in Generations, who has been involved with many sexual partners. Why don’t they show her as someone who has been infected because of her sleeping around? That will teach girls who have many sexual partners that if you have many sexual partners you will get HIV and AIDS. That will be the best approach because if you just have an AIDS program people will get bored, so you just have to work the HIV and AIDS message into the daily soapies. Imagine Karabo Moroka being HIV positive because of her many partners – the impact that will have on Generations lovers. • Participant 2: Or else they should let someone change partners until he gets sick of HIV. (Mixed FGD, Free State, 30-40)

11. Soapies and MCP (5) • Is this form of entertainment a good thing?: • You know it seems as if nowadays both the young and old love sex too much. For a change of mind and focus we need the media to turn the wheel and instead of encouraging us to see sex as the Alpha and Omega, we should see it as dangerous as it is. Like the soapies that we are talking about here. We all agree that they are misleading us, so they should be changed and show something positive. They should stop showing sex as part of the daily life of soapies. (Mixed FGD, Free State, 30-40) • If you look at those old movies, when the guys approached girls in those movies and tried to get laid the girls in those movies were wild, they did not agree to have sex willy nilly as it happens in today's soapies. So they should have shows like that, the ones that shows girls refusing sex, not welcoming or even inviting it as it happens in today's shows. (Mixed FGD, Free State, 30-40)

12. Soapies and MCP (6) • Actors as role models: • I can say they promote such relationships. In a magazine I was reading the other day they had this guy who acts on Isidingo or Muvhango. The story they had on him is that he is having some problems with his wife and he already is thinking of marrying some other girl who is also in the acting business. He is going out with this actress while he is still married… What it tells us is that this guy has been seeing this actress long before he had problems with his wife because he would not be thinking about marrying her if he had just met her now. He has been cheating on his wife all this time. It only came out now that they are having problems.. (FGD, Mixed, 30-40, Free State) • People also look at the lives of the celebrities and the kind of stories that get written about them and think, ‘Oh, maybe if I can also have two, three partners people will love me’. (FGD, Mixed, 18-25, Gauteng)

13. Soapies and MCP (7) • Actors as role models for HIV prevention: • Female participant 1: There are these films, like for example Bold. You see her doing these things… She doesn’t lose her appeal. She remains intact. So you tell yourself ‘let me try it too’, you see. • Female participant 2: you forget that the person is only acting this. • Female participant 3: Some of these celebrities are hypocrites. Some would appear on TV warning us about HIV – ‘HIV kills; you must protect yourselves’. Now the next thing you hear is that this very same person died from AIDS. Now you get really confused…. (FGD, Mixed, 18-25, Western Cape)

14. ‘Soapies’ and television programming • The dominant ideological function of television programming is to draw in audiences with a view to maximising exposure to advertising • ‘Soapies’ were specifically formulated to address this ideological function • It is well understood that audience numbers can be increased through programming that involves sexual intrigues and it is no mistake that ‘Soapies’ occupy prime-time viewing slots to maximise this opportunity • ‘Soapies’ involve daily exposure and have a particular power because they become part of daily life – of lived experience (in contrast to weekly and series based ‘educational’ dramas)

15. ‘Soapies’ and legitimation • The concept of legitimation has to do with framing particular social phenomena as ‘true’ but also as ‘valid’ expressions of social life • The expressions of sexuality as found in popular ‘soapies’ are embedded in popular consciousness as legitimate sexual practices • Stars of ‘Soapies’ represent a lifestyle that is desirable and worthy of emulating as the consequences of risky sexual behaviours are muted or non-existent • ‘Soapies’ legitimate sexual practices that fall within the definition of multiple concurrent sexual partnership – a high risk practice in the context of a severe HIV epidemic

16. Modelling or muddling… • In the context of the severe HIV epidemic in South Africa, there is a need to take the lead on delegitimating representations of sexuality in ‘Soapies’… • Interviews conducted by Ben Makhubele and Sakhumzi Mfecane. • Data gathered as part of ongoing research by CADRE funded by JHHESA