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

Sex and Sexuality: A Content Analysis of Soap Operas
towards media sex are always observed: in a 1999 survey, just under four in ten
(37%) of British respondents said that there was ‗too much sex‘ on television and
felt that what was shown was too explicit; and respondents ranked soap operas in
third place, after ‗talk shows‘ and ‗dramas‘ as containing considerable amount of
sex (Millwood-Hargrave, 1999). The study findings show fairly clearly that daytime
and prime-time soap operas contain moderate amounts of sexual scenes (4.2 scenes
per hour) especially when compared with other TV genres (16 scenes per hour in the
late-night drama Hollyoaks in the City in this study; 9 and 7.8 scenes per hour in
‗news magazines‘ and ‗comedies‘ respectively in MacKeogh, 2005). Although it is
quite difficult to deal with the concept of what constitutes ‗too much‘, for whom too
much is ‗too much‘, and how reliable opinion surveys can be when it comes to
sensitive issues such as sex and sexuality, it can be said here, especially given the
further findings on the types and nature of sexual content, soap operas contain very
moderate levels of sex. We also do know that sex on television has often been cited
as a source of embarrassment and as source of causing offence to some viewers.
However, such views tend to change over time. For instance, in a 1999 survey fewer
respondents 24% (rather than 39% in the 1992 survey) claimed to have found sex
scenes offensive; while just under seven in ten (68%) of respondents said they did
not find watching sex embarrassing, just over seven in ten (71%) said they did not
mind watching ‗occasional‘ scenes of sexual activity on television, and just under
eight in ten 78% thought that sexual activity should be depicted if it was part of a
storyline (Millwood-Hargrave, 1999 and 1992). Although, the findings of those
surveys are somewhat outdated (and there is a need for more recent surveys of the
public views on sex on television, particularly with the changing habits of
consumers and changing media landscape, in order to get a clearer picture of
whether or not attitudes and perceptions have changed over time), they provide
some insight into what the current study‘s findings may suggest. If the there is a
trend of more relaxed attitudes towards sexual content as time goes by, then it can be
argued that soap operas‘ portrayal of sex and sexuality is now less likely to be a
source of embarrassment and offence to great many viewers, particularly when we
know that soap operas predominantly portray sexual activity as part of their
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