Soap Operas and The Black People They Need

In the mid 90s daytime soap operas did something miraculous, it began to tell rich diverse stories about communities I recognized. The Wards were introduced on General Hospital, Brenda and Sonny became the supercouple we adored, and Tea Delgado became to romantic lead that we yearned for. Black and Latino families became a mainstay on daytime television. The trend in daytime coincided with the increased presence of Brown/Black people on prime time television. New York Undercover and Living Single helped establish Fox as a network. The Wayans Brothers were happy, singing, and colored on The WB. Even the daytime programming on Saturdays represented some aspect of me, (Hi City Guys). Those diverse changes in programming from the mid to late 90s eventually became a part of a fad practiced by networks before they truly established their networks. But in daytime television those rules do not apply. Once a family is introduced they become a part of the fabric of the story, if the family stays more than five years they are not easily forgotten. Family is a through line of any story regarding a place or space.

The Wards were one of those families that could not quite become untangled from the General Hospital tapestry. The remaining members of the family floated in and out of the cast into the 2010s.  Justus Ward was unceremoniously killed when I was in high school. The death of Justus was the end of storytelling for middle class Black families in Port Charles. Maya Ward popped back into town for a couple of years only to be regaled to a forgotten side chick in the end. The Young and the Restless was one of my favorite soap operas simply because of the Barber/ Winters clan. Victoria Rowell brought such a familiarity to Drucilla that I felt I knew her. I definitely knew a version of Neil in my father who struggled with substance abuse and fostered children with his wife. The Winters were grounded in something familiar, in most ways they were Black on purpose. As an adult I realized this was due to the work of the actors. Kristoff St John and Victoria Rowell elevated the work they were given. Despite the popularity of these Black families and the abundant talent of their portrayers, soap operas have failed to hire Black writers to run the shows that are propped up by a large Black audience. Why are the same 7 white writers rotating through these shows as their man voices?

The Aging Woman and the Death of the Matriarchal Family

When One Life to Live was still on air one of its great draws was the Cramer Women. The Cramer Women were a matriarchal family centered in the soap opera headed by the indomitable Dorian Lord. The Cramer Women may have bickered amongst themselves but they closed ranks when outside forces attacked on their own. There was no doubt they loved each other. The Lord family had a matriarch of their own in the form of Victoria Lord, after years of being ruled by the abusive and hateful Victor Lord.. Vicki Lord was a welcomed change. She was loving but firm. Katherine Chancellor led not only her family, but also the family company.  Matriarchal families dominated the landscape of soap opera for a couple of reasons. Soap Operas made their bread and butter on showcasing the talent of older female actresses at a time when showcasing the humanity of women over the age of 35 on television seemed abnormal.
Frances Reid started work on Days of Our Lives at the age of 41. She became the mother to the core family in Salem (the Hortons). The job was significant because it allowed Frances, a experienced stage actor, to work consistently until the end of her life in television.
After the death of Frances Reid, Suzanne Rogers (Maggie Horton) took over the role of "guiding grandma" within the Horton family.
Part of the brilliance in telling an intergenerational story is the ability to showcase/ display the roles of the women within their families. As a society we often disregard the emotional labor women provide to their families, but  soap operas in their prime celebrated the complex inner lives of women. They dramatized the daily struggle of acting as an emotional backbone of a large interconnected family and it  served as the basis for an engrossing drama.
I revered the women in soap operas. Lainey from General Hospital was the therapist I aimed to be. She was capable, self assured, and competent. Robin held her dignity so close to her chest I thought it would crumble, but instead it constantly grew. It grew as she was challenged by her professional and personal relationships.
When I started writing this, soap operas seemed to have strayed from honoring the complex inner lives of women, then the story of Victoria and JT took hold on Young and the Restless and reminded me that soap operas can never stray too far from the women the built it.

Blac Chyna and Nikki Newman

In a tale as old as time a woman engaged in sex work in order to feed herself and her family, then exits the industry once she has began a relationship with a powerful man ("who rescues her"). This story is the thread that connects Blac Chyna, a real woman from DC, and Nikki Newman, a fictional character on Young and the Restless for over two decades. Nikki Newman, aka Nicole Reed entered the soap opera world in dramatic fashion, as a stripper that Victor Newman eventually falls in love with.
Nicole Reed becomes Nikki Newman soon the veneer of wealth and extravagance engulfs her life. Nikki has two children with Victor and embraces the respect and power that is attached to the Newman name. When it comes to Victor Nikki is rarely allowed to forget where she came from, how she married into the Newman money, and that she can be easily dismissed.

Blac Chyna shares a similar story to Nikki without the benefit of white skin. Blac Chyna met a then prominent rapper, who sought to "save" her. Blac Chyna had already been a name in hip hop because of a couple name checks in hip hop songs. Soon Blac Chyna experienced the same conditional support, Nikki often received from her partner.  Blac Chyna is not allowed to forget where she came from, how she received support because of her connection to her more respected male counterpart, and that she could be easily dismissed.

The media recreates narrative about women in sex work. The narrative is usually degrading and dehumanizing. Women are not allowed to seek agency. Women are not allowed to seek security. They are labelled as gold diggers no matter how much energy they dedicate to support their partners' dreams/ careers. The narrative of women can be even more vicious, when that woman comes from a field generally disrespected by mainstream society. Black women no matter how much their male counterpart is respected, rarely get the public amnesia, Nikki was seemingly offered.

Where is the social commentary?

Soap opera are reflective of the time in which they were created. Soap operas evolved for the period of time they exist in. If the 1960s were dominated by the sexually repressed housewife who constantly searched for a more enticing life, than the 1980s bore the weight of extravagance and untold fear. Soap operas confronted and humanized those fears to educate their audience. When Robin contracted HIV in the 1990s, she was a middle class white girl from a good family. Robin Scorpio was directly responsible for helping provide accurate information on how people can contract the disease to a portion of the population in this country, who wanted to look away from the crisis. When Claire Labine wrote Delia's character, it helped define and portray an accurate account of Borderline Personality Disorder. Soap operas comments on society, character, morality, faith, and money like no other genre. I say this as a science fiction fan. 

You can imagine my disappointed at the way soap operas have veered away from this practice.  Soap operas apt to follow the quickening pace of primetime story telling have swayed away from its biggest strength: long form story telling.

The pacing may change but telling intergenerational stories about families or towns will never get old. The success of primetime shows like Jane the Virgin, or This is Us supports this claim. Primetime shows are encroaching on territory daytime soap operas use to occupy. 

Daytime soap operas need to take more risks on their content and writing. Having people who are not white, cisgender, or heteronormative may help.

The Missing Scientist from The Bold and the Beautiful

     Brooke Logan entered the canvas of Bold and the Beautiful as a young college student working her way through school via her parents' catering business. Brooke Logan became a chemist. According to the show, Brooke became a such a strong scientist that she developed a product that she leveraged for control of Forrester Creations. Brooke has multiple layers. She is conniving in efforts to regain the attention and love of Ridge Forrester, but she is naive about his own character flaws. She believes in the enduring bond of marriage, while her relationships are living proof of the faultiness of the commitment. In recent years her background as a chemist is barely mentions, and her identity outside that of the sexual object for a man is non existent.
      Brooke Logan was a rare breed of a character in 1987. She was beautiful, smart, and passionate about science. In an era where there is a massive push for women to enter the STEAM field, Brooke could be a character leading the charge on how art, design, and science converge. Instead of that nuanced depiction of a woman in science, we get one dimensional character with no interest outside of the men that she is with. What a shame that is!
       The Bold and the Beautiful have now recreated this dynamic with the introduction of Nicole Avant. Nicole was introduced as a college student studying computer programming. Since being paired with a love interest, her integration of her computer programming background and fashion has been non existent.

General Hospital and the Lone Woman of Color

       General Hospital, a soap opera created in 1963, has experienced many creative eras. The show has gone through several incarnations as a result of the differing leaders behind the scenes of the show. Head writers and executive producers have changed by the dozen, while actors come and go in hopes of new opportunities. General Hospital remained the center of the American cultural zeitgeist for over forty years as a result of a commitment to telling intergenerational stories as shown by a compelling cast of characters. I grew up falling in love with General Hospital during its most diverse era. The Wards, a subset of the Quartermaine family, were introduced to the audience. The central love story, probably the most significant romantic relationship since Luke and Laura, was portrayed by two Latinx actors. You can imagine my surprise and disappointment at the current state of women of color in the landscape of General Hospital.

        General Hospital currently has ONE woman of color as a contract actor on the show.  For a show that relied on the legacy of two Latinx actors to retain cultural significance, this number is egregious and frankly disgusting. Primetime television, over the last five years, has benefited from the rise of women of color in leading roles. Soap operas have declined in ratings and pop cultural revelance, while scaling back the roles of women of color. Daytime soap operas used to portray progressive, forward facing content before primetime shows risked showing a narrative that centered anyone other than a white cisgender man.

       A daytime soap opera exhibited a woman choosing to have an abortion. A daytime soap opera found a creative way to encourage women to get pap smears. A daytime soap opera dared to center the stories of (white) women over the age of 35. A daytime soap opera showed a teenage girl get HIV from her first and only sexual partner. Soap operas humanized marginalized people to a larger audience, which is why the loss of women of color in these narratives is devastating. 

     Jordan Ashford, portrayed by Vinessa Antoine, is the lone woman of color on contract for General Hospital. Jordan's story caused much derision and frustration as an audience member because for months her romantic counterparts were focused on two white women, whose stories and characters we're better written. Teresa Castillo, who played Sabrina Santiago, a love interest for central character Michael Quartermaine was written off after returning from maternity leave. Michael's love interest then became a white blond woman. The message these creative decisions sends is clear. Women of color are not the future of soap operas. Women of color, who are queer, definitely are not the future of General Hospital as shown by the absence of Kristina Corinthos Davis. General Hospital introduced Kristina, a Latina character discovering her attraction to women only to let the story fall to the waist side.

     Women of color are not written in dynamic or compelling was in part because they are not written by women of color. To my knowledge General Hospital has never had a woman of color as head writer, now might be the time.