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Soap Summit VII

On October 24 and 25, producers, writers, and network executives from daytime dramas gathered to compare the roles of women on the soaps with women's lives in the real world at Population Communications International's Soap Summit VII.

The Soap Summit annually brings together the individuals responsible for the content of the ten American daytime drama serials to reflect on their roles as mass communicators.

Arianna Huffington, author, nationally syndicated columnist, and on-air personality, opened the Summit at the Friday night keynote dinner by challenging the creative forces of the soap medium to tell stories that would uplift viewers and help to change lives. Ms. Huffington discussed what has changed for women since she "started to notice." She cautioned the audience that while we used to idealize career women, today we are "schizophrenic" in that regard. As a society, we want strong, aggressive women, but then we chastise them and call them ruthless. She implored women to "live in your own truth and not to care what everyone else thinks."

PCI illustrated the point that on the soaps women are "living their own truth" with an informal comparison of the 118 women's roles on the soaps with census information about real women's occupations. PCI pointed out that women on the soaps have a significantly higher percentage of professional occupations and often arrive at those professions in unorthodox ways. For example, several women became highly successful business executives after first being secretaries and one women became a boutique owner after first being a carnival worker!

Judith B. Rosener, Ph.D, author of America's Competitive Secret, Women Managers and a professor in the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Irvine, gave credence to the notion of how far women have actually come today with some facts about gender differences in the workplace. She reminded the audience that today 85% of women work and increasingly women make more money than their spouses. Of course, she also pointed out that this has also resulted in more marital tension in the home.

Calling soap operas, "original American programming that has changed the sexual politics of television," Martha Nochimson, author of "No End to Her," examined the unique definition of women as developed on soap operas. Ms. Nochimson proposed that by challenging male-dominated Hollywood formulas and inventing strong, active female characters, soap operas have created unorthodox narratives of femininity and women's desires.

Ms. Nochimson believes that the open-ended format of soaps has led to portrayals of women that are unique to these daytime dramas. Instead of the neat wrap-up in a movie, which most often ends up with women playing more or less traditional roles in society, soaps have had to continually invent new places for their female characters to go. When a story ends, the heroine often loses what power she had in the beginning; however, the fact that there is no closure on soaps allows women to continue to explore their power and reinvent themselves (as evidenced by our carnival worker). She ended her talk by encouraging the audience to tackle other controversial and sensitive women's issues that could also be served by this format.

Dr. Florence Haseltine, Director, Center for Population Research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Founder, Society for Women's Health Research, brought the audience back to reality by discussing the very real uniqueness of women as exemplified in health issues. Dr. Haseltine was instrumental in bringing the issue of research on women's health to the attention of senior federal officials and by doing so placing it on the nation's priority research agenda. With a great deal of information and a wonderful sense of humor, Dr. Hazeltine fascinated the audience by enumerating many of the biological differences in the bodies of men and women, including the differences in the brain function of the two sexes.

The morning session concluded with a discussion of an exciting new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study on the HIV storyline on The Bold and the Beautiful. The CDC tracked calls to the national AIDS hotline after a public service announcement aired at the end of each of two The Bold and the Beautiful episodes. The AIDS hotline received approximately 16 times the daily number of calls. The number of calls also outstripped all other similar hotline tie-ins on "60 Minutes" and MTV for the entire year. This study once again proves how powerfully the soap format impacts health behaviors.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also presented its third annual Sentinel for Health Award for Daytime Drama. The award recognizes exemplary portrayals of daytime dramas that inform, educate, and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier and safer lives. The Bold and the Beautiful received the 2002 Sentinel for Health Award for its HIV storyline.

This year, the CDC presented its first Sentinel for Health Pioneer Award to Agnes Nixon, writer of "The Guiding Light" and creator/writer of "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" for her work incorporating important health messages in daytime dramas. She received the Pioneer award for her ground breaking storyline in 1962 on "The Guiding Light" on cancer and the importance of women having Pap tests. It was the first time a daytime drama had attempted to discuss a serious health issue. Ms. Nixon colorfully described her difficulty in getting that storyline on the air including the fact that she was prohibited from using the words cancer, uterus, or pap test.

PCI announced that, for the first time ever, it will conduct a study that examines the impact of health storylines in American daytime dramas on foreign audiences. Everett Rogers, Regents Professor, Department of Communication & Journalism, University of New Mexico, announced the start of this unique CDC-funded two-year research project that will be undertaken by Population Communications International, Ohio University, University of New Mexico, and USC Annenberg's Norman Lear Center. The research is expected to demonstrate ways to make these programs become a more effective tool to improve the health and quality of life for people in the developing nations of Latin America, Africa, and Asia

The purpose of the Summit is to heighten the awareness of the creative community as to its importance in shaping attitudes and behavior in this country. By the end of Soap Summit VII, the attendees were the first to admit that they were inspired, exhilarated, and ready to meet the challenge of interweaving accurate health and social content into soap operas.