SEX, LIES AND SOAPS

PROGRAMME 4: APPEARANCE

ACTIVITIES

Before watching

Which soaps do you watch? Conduct a small survey amongst members of your own age group to see who watches what, and why.

With your friends, list the soap characters you find most appealing. See if you can find any patterns in your list – for example, a particular colouring, or body shape, style, type of voice, behaviour. Keep your list as a reference point.

Here are some comments about soap opera. Discuss each statement in turn and decide how far you agree with them, using a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree.

Download printable version of the exercise [PDF, 36KB]

• Soaps offer escape from the boring reality of everyday life
• Its enjoyable to watch young and beautiful characters in cool clothes and glamorous settings
• Teenagers in soaps help young people to identify the sort of person they'd like to be
• Girls are more influenced by what they see in soaps than boys
• Soaps can help people to deal with difficult situations they face in real life
• Some people can be influenced by what they see in soap operas
• Watching soaps gives people something to share and talk about
• Soaps can set unrealistic standards of beauty or behaviour which can make young people anxious and dissatisfied with their lives
• It's the storylines in soaps which keep us watching
• Soap characters can encourage bad behaviour and dangerous ideas
• Soap characters can become our friends and role models
• Soaps are only for sad people who have nothing better to do with their time
• Most young people aren't that easily influenced by what they see in soap operas.

And finally: How influenced are you by the ways soap characters look, behave and dress? Mark a cross on the line below where you feel you stand:

not in the least influenced	mildly interested	envious	a total wannabe

After watching

To view 4Learning video clips you will need Windows XP/2000 and Windows Media Player 9, 10 or 11. Unfortunately, the clips are not supported on Macintosh computers.

The video clips may contain a few seconds of extra material at the beginning and end. We have therefore included opening and closing descriptions to help identify the intended scene.

Attractive actors and adoring audiences
Clip 1: 03.14 – 07.43

• Opens: 'The teen audience is hugely important…'
• Closes: '…aspire to be the young person in that soap.'

Are you surprised to hear that soap producers cast young actors on the basis of looks rather than acting expertise? Talk about recent examples where you feel this is the case. How does this affect your ability to relate to the characters, or identify with them?

Go back to the lists you drew up before watching. Sun, sea, bikinis, beautiful bodies… Do your lists confirm the students' view that soaps should be aesthetically pleasing and uplifting?

What kind of soap does Hollyoaks trailer seem to be selling? And how accurately does it represent the programme itself? Try storyboarding a trailer featuring only the teenage characters in another British soap you're familiar with – say, for example, EastEnders or Coronation Street. How different would it look?

Role models, mags and marketing
Clip 2: 08.53 – 13.05

• Opens: 'Having fashionable characters…'
• Closes: '…these people have been specifically chosen for that.'

Discuss what role magazines play in the ways audiences relate to soap stars. Conduct an audit of a range of magazines read in your class – for example, Heat, Now, Bliss, Sugar etc. Find examples of the various different ways soap stars are featured. Use them to make a poster montage showing the ways TV soap, fashion retailers and the magazine industry feed off each other. Discuss who's making money out of this relationship – and who is spending it! Annotate your montage to show the potential messages and values behind these representations.

Look closely at the party scene from The OC featured in this clip. Using the Internet, research the following roles involved in soap production:

• Costume design
• Make-Up design
• Lighting
• Publicity

What is the contribution of each of these roles to the glamour of this sequence?

Your 'tweenage' sister/brother is a soap fanatic whose role models are Marissa/Ryan/Becca/Justin etc. You are worried that she/he is becoming obsessed with body image, depressed and possibly anorexic. How would you deal with this situation? What would you say to your sister/brother? Use the internet to research sources of support and guidance.

Soap's effect on self-image
Clip 3: 13.20 – 16.59

• Opens: 'Soap opera producers are caught in a dilemma …'
• Closes: '…their body image is affected by what they see in soaps.'

• 'Does my bum look big in this?'
• 'I'm getting a new pair of boobs for my 18th birthday.'
• 'There are far too many blondes in Hollyoaks Community College.'
  

These familiar phrases are usually spoken by girls to other girls. Can you come up with any equivalents for boys?

Greg and Josh are interviewed working out in the gym while swearing they're not influenced by male role models in soaps; meanwhile, the Hollyoaks extract shows two boys spraying themselves with fake muscle definer to attract girls. Is this a serious attempt by Hollyoaks producers to tackle the question of body image, or just a bit of audience-grabbing fun?

Design a 'reverse makeover' for a good-looking male soap character, such as Justin or Dino. Describe how your chosen character would have to change in terms of looks, hair, clothing and mannerisms. Then talk about whether or not his storylines would still be plausible, or whether you might have to write him a whole new storyline to fit his looks.

Pressurised or patronised?
Clip 4: 17.39 – 19.13

• Opens: 'For girls the influence of soaps is much deeper…'
• Closes: '…get to that unrealistic weight or whatever.'

One in five girls suffers from an eating disorder, and the numbers of anorexic boys is rising. With a partner, pick a soap you are familiar with and a character you know well. Write the outline for a storyline about this character in which she/he becomes anorexic. Share and compare your outlines with the other pairs. Which stories would work successfully, and which would not? Why?

Psychologist Aric Sigman is convinced soaps have a direct influence on young people's behaviour and self-image; what other views are expressed by the young people in this segment?

Make a list of the different factors you think can affect young people's perceptions of their body image. Draw a line like the one below and then plot each of these factors along the line.

not very significant	very influential

How far along the line would you place soaps? Discuss why you think soap is so often considered to have harmful effects on its audiences. Where do such criticisms come from, and why are they so controversial?

Different stories
Clip 5: 20.30 – end

• Opens: 'But are pretty faces and perfect bodies on screen enough …'
• Closes: '…It's nice, it's very nice.'

The soap producers in this clip are convinced it's the story-telling and writing that really matter to soap viewers. Are they right?

Discuss the Molly and Tyrone clip. How does it differ from conventional teenage relationships in soaps? Would you welcome more of these more realistic sorts of storylines – or would the appeal of soaps be diminished without the elements of escapism and eye-candy?

Many broadcasters issue guidelines to producers to ensure they represent particular social groups or situations fairly and offer equal opportunities. Devise a set of guidelines for soap producers that ensures they will represent a full range of characters and reflect the full diversity of different shapes, sizes and styles of appearance.