Christine Geraghty; Soap Opera and Utopia

The relationship between the text and the reader: Fiction and Escapism

It is Women who are the subjects in Geraghty’s argument and it is through their actions in prime time soaps as the’ central protagonist’ that the audience view the relationships between men and women, not in the ideal way of ‘values traditionally associated with women’ but rather the portrayal of how a women could help the relationship if she was allowed to do things differently. Soap operas are about building and maintaining relationships between their characters, and conveying these ideal utopian values to the audience, therefore the story and narrative comes secondary. The audience are more interested in the events that take place rather than the activity itself.

Geraghty moves away from a psychoanalytical model of the utopian ideal and alternatives offered in women’s fiction and from a U.S feminist critic’s analysis. By studying Richard Dyer article ‘Entertainment and Utopia’ Geraghty investigates the correlation between these utopian ideals in soap operas and how fictional entertainment provides escapism and fantasy for the viewer from their mundane day to day lives . (Geraghty: 247)

Dyer offers categories of utopian possibilities in women’s fiction and within it there are five ‘utopian solutions’
According to Dyers entertainment is an escapism which he provides five categories evaluating the utopian factors within soap operas and their characters as ENERGY, ABUBNDANCE, INTENSITY, TRANSPARANCY and COMMUNITY .within each category Dyer provides ‘utopian solutions’ of escapism for the viewer which are ‘related to the specific inadequacies in society’.

For example “The experience of scarcity and unequal distribution of wealth is set against the utopian satisfaction of ABUNDANCE and material equality.” (Geraghty: 247)

In the category of abundance U.S Soaps compared to the U.K soaps particularly operates as though poverty does not exist. In Dallas and dynast poverty and deprivation are completely ignored ‘the audience is invited to enjoy the spectacle of abundance through the emphasis on sensuous luxury’ and ‘however unhappy the characters, they have at their disposal the abundant fruits of western capitalism” (Geraghty: 250). This is the ‘utopian solution’ watched on these soaps offer the viewer “A feeling of what it would be like to have all material needs met, to conquer scarcity and enjoy abundance.” (Geraghty: 250)

Dyer stresses that “what entertainment offers is not a representation of what an ideal world might be like but what it would feel like; the utopianism is contained in the feeling it embodies”. (Geraghty: 247)

Reading Christine Geraghty, ‘Soap opera and utopia’ what struck me was the special relationship the viewer has on a private level that only the viewer can experience with the character from the INTENSITY category. An example of how emotional and expressive female characters who also contribute to the COMMUNITY category “ there is some evidence that families use soaps as a way of raising awkward issues and easing discussion on them” (Geraghty: 250) Females are the main focus within the soap opera as they provide the heightened basis of drama. Within the public sphere a strong female character like Angie Watts from the U.K soap EastEnders puts on a brave face in the Queen Vic pub in front of her customers and especially in front of her husband who is the a cause of her problems. Where as in private the viewer is the only one exposed to the characters pain, ‘the authenticity of her emotions’. These intense characters are often women and can be seen in soap operas in the U.K other characters are in Coronation Street Bet lynch. (Geraghty: 252) The viewer feels like they know theses characters better than the others because of the grief and despair the audience goes through with them and the are a ‘source of particular interest and pleasure (Geraghty: 252) . Characters like Angie are key and very popular especially to a female viewer because they can relate to them but it is also entertainment ‘thus offers the experience of a different utopian world and, one which is escapist precisely because it is based on the inadequacies experienced in day-to-day-life. (Geraghty: 247)


Dyers categories and Geraghty’s analysis seems to follow the same type of structural approach as Saussure’s binary system. Although there are utopian signifiers in the example of abundance in Dallas this does not mean that the viewer accepts the character to only signify one particular meaning. It may be that the reader negotiates the abundance category and the ‘utopian solution’ of materialism, glamour and luxury as ugly, greedy and crass. Therefore the viewer continues making meaning from meaning according to Derrida’s post-structuralism analysis where the signifier (fluid and not fixed) creates more signifiers to the viewer.


Watching an episode of the U.K soap Hollyoaks I felt like I was watching a show at the circus it’s female characters are identified more with the Dyers category of abundance reflecting the ‘utopian solutions’ closer to the values of the U.S soaps than that of the U.K explained by Geraghty. The relationship between Max and Claire is the main dramatic story, The energy ‘evil’ Claire who is trying to take max for all of his money by lying and deceiving him, Claires character displays strong emotions from the intense category which are deceiving to Max she cries to get what she want and her main aim is making Max feel sorry for her through her motional stories that he will give her whatever money she wants. Here Claire manages to make the viewer hate her because the utopian possibility of transparency is missing with her character; her dishonesty has made Max the male character look like the ideal husband because of his honest and sincerity, therefore the viewer would sympathise more with him than her. This also maybe an encoded message from the producers that the traditions and values between men and women in relationships are disappearing, Max and Claire’s relationship does seem to be constructed on materialism and abundance from the day they met it was a physical thing from Max’s perspective , gifts, the house, travelling and business is all their lives contain. The producers have encoded a message that ‘evil ’women who once would have married for love are now only interested in money and power I don’t think this is the utopian solution Geraghty meant when she wrote that women should be given the space and expression to organise ‘particularly’ relationships between men and women on women’s terms. (Geraghty: 247) But I believe that the portrayal of Claire is a negative stereotype and Max is as much to blame for his utopian ideals as she is. Now here is where Stuart Halls (1980) encoding and decoding positions: dominant, negotiated and oppositional help determine how the viewer reads the utopian solutions presented and if while the viewer is watching the soap opera does the relationship between them and the character mean that the viewer is experiencing escapism ‘what it would feel like to be them the utopianism is contained in the feeling it embodies” (Geraghty: 247)

As the viewer my decoding of this soap does depend on my cultural and social experience, my life, my friends and my values, I actually only ever watch Hollyoaks because I am interested in the way it is structured. Although it is more for a viewer, maybe this is why I am so cynical or weary of the constructions especially of females in the soap. I am an oppositional viewer and I felt really angry at how yes a character like Claire does exist but that all the other female characters are very similar to her. The energy is mainly the girls but they are not strong in a positive way, their strength over boys is through manipulating them, the events around the female character revolves around trying to get a bloke to sleep with them, being up for it, getting drunk and straightening their hair and are more important than their actual activity I do not as a viewer watch Claire and escape into how I wish my life was less like mine and more like her ‘ideal’ utopian one. What I do feel as a viewer is that she is no more than a prostitute, she does not represent me, Claire is being represented as a negative female stereotype by the producers who are all male; the rhetoric is that she is young, blonde, attractive; slim therefore loves money and all things glamorous. Unfortunately Claire’s character may be a reflection of the status quo and for some viewers, Hollyoaks is the an example of entertainment is utopianism, but I hope that young girls are negotiating her position as degrading, that their thoughts would be that Claire should make her own money, get a career and empower 'HERSELF' and stop depending on a man to give her the things she wants as that would seem more entertaining and utopian to me.