Chapter 4 Sexual Content in Soap Operas - Leicester Research ...

Sex and Sexuality: A Content Analysis of Soap Operas
references, whether endorsing (positive) or discriminatory (negative), were made to
various aspects of homosexuality, regardless of the sexual orientation of characters
or the overall sexual activity. For example, a general dialogue/discussion between
two gay characters or one heterosexual and another homosexual in a portrayal of
either talk or behaviour was not coded as containing reference to homosexuality
unless a clear reference to ‗gayness‘ or homosexuality was made.
This measure was applicable to a total of 483 (95.5%) out of all 506 portrayals
found across all seven soap operas. Meanwhile, the remainder (23 portrayals) were
excluded as they either depicted primarily sexual risks and responsibilities (R & R),
or included no dialogues at all. Of those 483 codable portrayals, just over 15%
(N=74) included references to homosexuality, as opposed to nearly 85% (N=409) of
portrayals which contained no references whatsoever. Further, the findings showed
that there were major disparities between the two types of portrayals, talks and
behaviours, in terms of the prevalence of references to homosexuality across their
portrayals (X 2 =22.264, df=1, p