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

Sex and Sexuality: A Content Analysis of Soap Operas
(1994) found that soap operas in 1994 had an average of 6.64 incidents per hour,
whilst Heinzt-Knowles (1996) reported virtually a similar average of 6.12
behaviours per hours. It is, however, not clear what constituted an ‗incident‘ or
‗behaviour‘ in the two studies, or whether one or more incidents of behaviours or
talk occurred within one scene. But nonetheless, they gave percentages that were, it
is safe to suggest, in reasonable agreement with those of more recent studies 31 .
This study found an average of 6.5 scenes per hour of soap operas, which is
higher than the average scores provided by Kunkel et al, (2005) 4.9 scenes, and
MacKeogh (2005) 4.5 scenes. But when the contribution of Hollyoaks in the City—
which was quite substantial, accounting for almost half of the overall sexual content
found—was excluded, the average shrunk considerably to just 4.2 scenes per hour,
which is more in line with MacKeogh‘s findings.
None of the studies mentioned above included programmes such as Hollyoaks in
the City, or even classified them under the soap opera genre. They invariably
considered programmes of such nature under the drama genre. Further, it is doubtful
whether or not they came across any programme, regardless of genre, which
featured and revolved mainly around adult themes. Perhaps Sex and the City would
be the equivalent of Hollyoaks in the City in terms of the adult themes featured.
Often, studies like those would flag up in their analyses the existence of programmes
that frequently portray and feature strong adult themes. Hollyoaks in the City had a
sizeable average of over 16 scenes per hour, which clearly highlights the extent to
which sexual themes were central to the overall plot in the series, as well as the huge
disparities between the six main soap operas and Hollyoaks in the City in terms of
the distribution of sexual scenes.
As far as the amount of sexual content is concerned, it is self-evident from the
findings presented in this chapter that both day-time and prime-time soap operas
portrayed far less sexual activity than pot-watershed drama series. The average
numbers of scenes containing sexual content found, say, in Coronation Street and
31 Olson (1994) found 4.8 scenes per hour; Lowry and Towles (1989) reported 7.4 behaviours
per hour.
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