Telenovelas: just entertainment?
Originally published in the magazine Ahora of the Dominican Republic, this article was written by the sociologist Magaly Pineda who has involved herself in the investigation and broadcasting of the problems concerning the economic and social development of the Dominican woman.
In the famous tale of Cinderella, a beautiful young woman is rewarded for her patience and humility through the generous intervention of outside forces who help her to conquer and marry the attractive prince of her dreams. A comparison of this plot with those of the telenovelas shows an astonishing lack of creativity in this audiovisual medium. (Telenovelas are television series or 'soap operas').
Telenovelas are no more than fairytales aimed particularly at a female audience. Imprisoned in the routine and suffocating life of housework, women see in telenovelas, as children see in their fairytales, a way of escaping, even if for a few hours, from everyday life.
Yet this is the essentially manipulative function of the telenovelas. Its repetitive message eats away like a slow poison, at women's already socially discouraged aspirations for active participation in collective projects which, in our country, result in social change.
The Telenovelas, a Mechanism of Social Demobilization
Women are a disfavored social group in our country. They constitute the greatest percent of unemployed and the largest number of illiterates. Their participation in paid employment is marked by low salaries, lack of adequate conditions (cafeterias, creches, transportation), the mockeries of labor laws, and the abusive practices of bosses and supervisors.
This reality of most women's lives is obscured by the privileged situation of the small group of women who, thanks to the social position of their fathers or their husbands, lead very different lives. These women can choose study or leisure over work. When they work, they enjoy the better paid jobs or the professions which generate a certain measure of independence. But even here everything is not roses. To be wife of a nobody can mean total personal annihilation. The absorption in him and for him leaves enormous gaps which are not filled by playing canasta (a game of cards) or by doing charity work; gaps which force the woman to rely on pills, psychiatrists, or a superficial life.
Professionally, too, it is clear what it means to be a woman. Everything is more difficult, from recognition of abilities to receiving raises or promotions
All these situations are explosive to a greater or lesser degree,
and may thus strengthen the movement toward collective action designed to improve or change women's lives. The force and importance of the women's movement in industrialized countries are obvious evidence of the potential of women's struggles. Their dedsive participation in processes of profound social changes as in Vietnam or Nicaragua are a demonstration of the even greater possibilities of women's participation in revolutionary change.It is clear therefore that women are a social force capable of mobilizing themselves when circumstances allow them to unify their demands and clarify their interests. The ideological task, then, is to prevent this unity. Beginning in the homes of women at infancy, this task continues into adult life through mechanisms such as the telenovelas.
If we accept that the goal of the telenovelas is to defuse the potential of women for united action in social organization, and to reinforce traditional roles and the particular attributes of the "ideal" woman, we will be able to see how the telenovelas form a part of a whole and are not fragmented unconnected pieces. Thus we can see, how, in differing situations and among a wide range of personalities, the messages are always the same.
First Woman - Glorification of the Submissive Woman
The heroines Cristina, Raquel, La Gata, Rhina, or La Zulianita are characterized by their extreme kindness, bordering on foolishness, which makes possible the most unlikely sacrifices. They are able to accept, for example, the motherhood of another woman as if it were their own in order to "help" her (See Cristina Bazan) or, more generally, to renounce the love of a man in order not to hurt others or her social position, etc.
Heroines almost always come from the working class - servants, orphans taken in by a rich family, illegitimate children abandoned by their parents, etc. This part of the plot is designed to generate the identification of feminine characters with large sectors of women of the working class, although ultimately this is only an illusion, since at the end of the telenovela the heroine is revealed to be a rich heir or the daughter of parents who receive a large bequest from an inheritance.
Passivity is the fundamental characteristic of the heroines of the telenovelas. They are leaves which destiny lifts and carries. They do not have the strength to defend their own desires and interests. And when they try to defend those they love, their attempt spoils everything. This is the case of Raquel who, thinking that her son has killed a woman, declares herself guilty. This causes her son to reject her because her act has implicated him in a crime of which he Is innocent. In this same telenovela a traffic accident, which injures and leaves blind the 'lover' of Raquel, is the external force which prevents his marriage with another woman.
Examples like the above can be found in abundance in all the serials, always creating the same characterization of good women: patient, sacrificing, poor, dreamers, weak, weepers, manipulated by outside forces, and generally beautiful. Some heroines are presented as independent or very free, either through ignorance as in A Girl called Milagros, or because they possess money and prestige. However, they always end up suffering grave injuries as a consequence of their free style of living. They may be raped, become pregnant outside of marriage, or be rejected by the man they love as a consequence of their independent characters
Second Woman - Love Between Women is an Impossibility There are usually several villains, and they are always women. In the most recent series it is not only the classic mother-inlaw, the stepmother, or the friend-in-love-with-the-same-man, but with more frequency it is a cousin, a sister, or even a mother. The evil of these women knows no limits. They can resort to treachery, to extreme cruelty, to the most refined hypocrisy, to the use of outside and diabolical forces
This villain can be the confidante, the best friend, who because of this friendship can weave nets which catch the dreams of the heroine. She can be the future mother-in-law, angered by the bride who doesn't measure up to the level of her aspirations, or she can be the stepmother, furious because the beauty and kindness of the heroine overshadows the virtues of her own daughters
From Lina in Raquel who kills her own sister as part of her plans to conquer Albert, to La Dona Rosaura of Cristina Bazan who resorts to witchcraft, these women appear as
embodiments of evil, a pointed demonstration of what one can expect of one woman toward another. Friendship, family, loyalty, solidarity don't exist in the characters of the telenovelas. To help another woman or to confide in her only leads to disaster, to suffering, to losing everything.
This is the central element in all the messages — that friendship between women is not possible. It is a myth, a dream. We have to be vigilant and careful among ourselves because beneath any stone may be a scorpion.
It is important to point out that as a technique of emphasizing passive behavior as a characteristic of the ideal woman, the villains are on the contrary, generally audacious, cold-blooded, capable of making rapid and intelligent decisions, and of elaborating battle tactics in order to reach their goals. They are women who strongly defend their own desires and interests.
So it is that the women around Cristina — her stepmother, her sister and Taina have strong characters, definite ideas, recognize their problems and those of others with extreme realism, and are also individualists, villains, drug addicts, liars or witches. (It doesn't matter that Taina is a good witch, she is a witch just the same).
Telenovelas depict as evil (in a woman) those qualities which would enable her to build her own destiny or that of society, and attribute them to women without scruples, to women deserving contempt, to women condemned to failure
Third Woman - Because He is a Man He is Forgiven Everything
The masculine characters are generally the typical prince, dreamed of by middle-class women and, by extension, also those of the working class. He is young, attractive, professional, and from a prestigious or rich family.
He is presented as a real human being who commits errors but who can redeem himself. Thus in A Girl Called Milagros Juan Miguel rapes the heroine. But this act changes his life — he helps her and wins her love and her pardon. In Cristina Bazan, Rodolfo, dazzled by the beauty of Ambar, leaves by the wayside Cristina who continues to love him despite what she has suffered. Alberto mistrusts Raauel.and treats her with contempt, but her love for him continues unaltered.
The men, in the end, can do it all: rape, despise, break a promise, marry a rival, abandon them to the chance of being unmarried mothers, fall in love with the mother or the sister, etc. But if they recognize their error, they can and will be pardoned with the approval of the television-watching public. Neither mistakes nor weaknesses detract from their inherent worth. The man is the prince, he is rich, he Is attractive... he is a man.
Again the traditional role of the male is reaffirmed. The preestablished order proclaimed anew, his supremacy confirmed. In any case, a man's defects are not considered because the male element itself is rare and desirable.
In the majority of the series the rest of the male characters are nearly always good and faithful. When they commit evil acts, it is almost always instigated by a woman. Nacho and Migual in Cristina Bazan, for example, are employed by Ambar and Dona Rosaura. And here again, the way is almost always left open for them to mend their error or the damage caused.
This benevolent treatment accorded male characters is not usually given to women villains who generally end up in jail, in insane asylums, or dead in horrible accidents. There is no redemption possible for those who follow their path.
Ideology and Capitalism
Despite the innumerable similarities which we find in stories of today and yesterday like Cristina Bazan, Raquel, etc., which would make them appear to be part of a coldly calculated plan, this is not the case. The script writers and the story writers at times do not know one another, and the producers and television companies simply buy the merchandise which they know will sell.
It is the logic of capital, the social reality and the ideology which generate the forms of reinforcement and reproduction of the system, and which induce the twisted plots.
From this point of view, they (story writers and producers) are mere agents of the system's ideology. An ideology which finds in its more lucid representatives — intellectual creators of public opinion and owners of television — its ardent defenders. It is they who speak to us, between irony and hysteria, of the "right" that each one of us has to be alienated daily, from 6.00 to 8.00, comfortably seated in front our television sets.