Taming the Victim: Rape in Soap Opera

Abstract

Feminism has increasingly shaped cultural criticism of soap opera. Critics now commonly read soap opera as a feminist form. They point to its open-ended narrative, the shared experience of its female fans, the domestic space at the core of soap opera, and the medium's attention to women's experiences. One such experience, rape, formed a part of the discourse of soap opera long before its acceptance into that of the larger society. Given the purported feminism of the genre, one might expect soap opera to echo Susan Brownmiller's ground-breaking feminist assessment of rape as “a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear” (15). But soap opera, while paying lip service to the feminist stance, actively popularizes the rape myths of patriarchal culture.