Research investigation

Explore how women are represented in the TV shows EastEnders and Hollyoaks

I have decided to conduct my research on how women are represented in soap operas. I will be looking at the different ways female characters have been constructed and mediated by text that I will be using. In addition to that I will also look at how and why female characters are portrayed in a particular way.

Men and women in TV shows are shown as binary opposites. This is often associated with traditional stereotypes such as “Men are strong.” Women are weak” the list goes on. Media text has been constructed in a way that people consume the text and interpret it in their own way, which they then use to implement biased information, which forms the negative gender stereotypes that are seen in day-to-day life.

EastEnders is a British soap opera that has been broadcasted on BBC One since 1985, which was created by Julia smith and Tony Holland. Since The creation of EastEnders there have been thousands of storylines highlighting various different issues that happen in day-to-day life. Hollyoaks is also another soap opera that was broadcasted on channel 4 in 1995 that was created by Phil Redmond. According to the aims and objectives of the organization the sole purpose for the two soap operas is to inform educate and entertain.

There are a numerous amounts of representations of women in these two TV shows; the first one I will be looking into is the stereotypes of women. Stereotypes play a huge part in the construction of female characters in TV shows. The stereotypes that have been associated with women are often things such as “women are weak”, “all women are housewives”, and “women are only good for one thing". In Hollyoaks we see a fictional character called Maxine Minniver played by (Nikki Sanderson) being abused by her fiancé Patrick Blake (Jeremy Sheffield). During this storyline Maxine made numerous attempts to leave her fiancé, but decided to stay with him despite everything because she “loved him”. The storyline portrays women as vulnerable, easy and stupid. Women are seen as so desperate for attention and for someone to love them, that they become susceptible to anything because as said by the brainwashed society women are “mentally and physically weak”.

However, in EastEnders we see female characters trying hard not to be the “typical” women that the society has branded women as; an example of this is when Fictional character Denise Fox played by (Diane Parish) decides that she wants to sit her GCSE English at the age of 48, despite many people making jokes about her sitting GCSEs, she didn’t let that discourage her and she went on to passing. This represents women as strong, determined individuals who don’t need help from anyone.

The traditional stereotype that women are weak is shown in an episode where character Phil Mitchell (Steven McFadden), races to find his daughter Louise Mitchell played by (Tilly keeper) after she had been taken from the hospital by her unstable mum Lisa Fowler played by (Lucy Benjamin) who is known for her mental illness. The scene shows Phil Mitchell burst into the hotel room that Louise and Lisa had been staying at for the past week. Tensions rise high when Louise becomes unresponsive, out of anger Phil shouts out “You stupid weak pathetic woman”.  A vulnerable Lisa is left erratically shaking and crying in the corner of the room. The position of the camera shows Phil on the floor and Lisa standing up, theoretically Lisa is supposed to have the most power because she is standing. However, in this case she is portrayed as a weak whereas Phil seems to have more authority even though he has a lower status.

During my research I discovered that the majority of the female characters in soap operas have a mental illness and just a few men have a mental illness. The examples of the characters with mental illness are Stacey fowler who has bipolar disorder, which her mother Jean slater also has. According to mental health foundation In “England, women are more likely than men to have a common mental health problem and are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders.”  The mental health foundation also stated that in 2013 6,233 Suicides were recorded in the UK and 78% of these were male and 22% females. These findings show me that mental illness in men is under represented which gives Men in soap opera appear as a strong-minded superior being and as a result of that have left women looking incapable of being able to cope in life and inferior.

In the Two soaps women often play subordinate roles compared to men for example in Hollyoaks and EastEnders we see women play typical motherly house wife roles. Character Zainab Masood is traditional housewife that most people expect everyone to be. Zainab is also a well put together women who looks after her household and her children, which shows that she is caring and would go above and beyond for her children. These false perceptions of the women have left female audience feel like that they would end up being a typical housewife.

Hollyoaks Character Goldie McQueen is not the typical stay at home mum that every mother is suspected to be. The character Goldie is represented as a loud mouth red head that thrives off attention but besides from that she tries to be the best mother she can. The representation of this female character is quite negative because the soap kind of reinforces the stereotype that all women do is go around drinking, smoking and sleeping with random men. Hollyoaks often show characters like Goldie as good for nothing home wreckers. Also most of the young women are often sexually objectified, and they’re looked upon as trash and damaged goods.

A prime example of a sexually objectified women is the character Mercedes McQueen. The character is wearing a tightly fitted short dress in a casual café where she seems to be overdressed for a café. The producers have made the character this way to attract different viewers in this case the main target audience would be men, because if the character was fully clothed head to toe it wouldn’t appeal as much to the male audience. According to the Huffington post “female characters are side-lined… and there’s not enough female characters working in STEM fields.” The reason for this is because characters in TV shows have been created to appeal to a wide variety of different audiences, because if the producers made female characters inspiring character it may only appeal to women.

In contrast to women the representation of men is not that bad compared to women, but most men are shown as hardworking businessmen for example character Phil Mitchell is shown as this big important man that provides for his family and also jack Branning is another key example of a typical businessman yet there seem to be any female business women in EastEnders however there are some business women in Hollyoaks such as grace black that challenges the stereotypes. According to The Masculinity and Popular Television Book “men are socialized to be ambitious competitors estranged from their feelings. Also stated that ‘’ men and women possess interchangeable emotional, intellectual and psychological traits, so that any conversational differences between the two is simply a matter or sex role stereotyping and cultural conditioning.” This quote is suggesting that women naturally emotional human beings and men put up a front to show that they are not weak.

In conclusion to my initial research I found that women in soap operas in general are shown really in a negative light. Referring to the hypodermic needle a lot of people that watch these shows are influenced in such a way, that it makes them believe that what they see on TV is reality this then embeds false imagery into people’s head and has formed the traditional stereotypes that women over time have been branded as. In addition to that I discovered that men in soap operas have been constructed in away that makes that make women seem less of value and importance. Another thing I discovered was that female characters are underrepresented when It comes to playing roles that are considered to only be designed for men, because EastEnders characters such as Ian Beale, Phil Mitchell and Jack Branning are business men that own their own well established business, whereas women such as Zainab Masood are seen as a typical stay at home house wife Living of minimum wage. The media constructs women as social objects that have been moulded and shaped in a way that appeals to various audiences so that they can get more views. Also I feel that the representation of women in both of the soaps are negative because I feel like narrative of the two soap opera is quite bias because the producers mostly show the audience negative characteristics that some females have.