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Did you see? Soaps, teenage talks and gendered identity

Chris Barker and Julie Andre Young 1996 4: 21 DOI: 10.1177/110330889600400403 The online version of this article can be found at: http://you.sagepub.com/content/4/4/21

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Did you see? Soaps, teenage talks and gendered identity

CHRIS BARKER & JULIE ANDRE
The purpose of this paper is to discuss research into the role of television soap opera as a resource employed by teenagers in an identity project. We explore teenage talk about relationships in soap opera and argue that such talk instanstiates aspects of gendered identity. Soap operas, we would argue, are an appropriate vehicle to explore these issues given that they draw huge audiences, are popular with young people, and centre on the sphere of interpersonal relationships and sexual identity (Buckingham, 1987; Geraghty, 1991). The young people in our sample most often chose to talk about British realist soaps like EastEnders and Brookside, though others, such as the Australian teensoap Heartbreak High, also figured.

Methodology
Our central methodological strategy has been to enable young people to do the research themselves. We have recruited young people, all in the 14-15 year old age bracket, to carry out research amongst their peers on the theme of soap operas and relationships. The aim has been to have young people talk about soaps within friendship groups without an adult presence. This methodology has required a considerable leap of faith and willingness to give up control over the conversational process. Initially we contacted a small number of secondary school teachers who us to address their classes. We explained the nature of the research to the young people and asked for volunteers. Subsequently, we met volunteers independently of teachers and discussed the mechanics of the research. Each self selected group of young people were given a tape recorder and asked to have a discussion on soap opera at a time and place of their choosing. Most carried out the activities in school at lunch times or with teachers permission in class time, though in

allowed

private.
While there can be no unmediated subject matter and no objective overview, even ethnographic descriptions are fictions, there is in our research a methodological supposition that we are more likely to get closer to young peoples perceptions and uses of television the less it is mediated by adults asking questions. We aim to loosen at least somewhat the monological control of the executive writer/anthropologist (Clifford, 1992:100) and are making the reasoned assumption that young people will

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talk to each other in ways that they would not do with adults present. Our methods have sought to reduce the interviewer effect of adult presence and agenda setting interrogation. In this we have had a degree of success. There are moments when the conversations seem to take-off in a way which suggests the participants have forgotten the tape recorder in the corner. At other times the tone is more contrived and it is clear that the problem, while mitigated, has not been wholly resolved. Further, while the methods we employed give us access to the resources of language deployed by the young people, they do not of course allow us to consider the non-verbal communication that might be in play. Recruitment has taken place through schools, involving 20 groups of young people and 77 individuals most of whom, though not all, are British Asians. Though the participants Asian cultural background is not the subject of this paper, and will not be discussed at any length, it may be a contributing factor to what appear to be rather traditional views of gender, especially amongst the boys. By chose of the participants all but one of the twenty groups were single sex groups. This would seem, since it was by choice, to promote more relaxed talk than might have been the case with mixed sex groups, though it may also have contributed to consensual gender stereotypes. Recruiting our participants through schools poses two problems. Firstly that television soap operas are watched at home in a domestic setting and not in school. Secondly that the ordered and authoritative environment of schools is unconducive to young peoples freely structured talk. It is certainly the case that the study of television has begun to stress the place of television in everyday domestic routines and practices. At the same time we would want to argue that routine talk about soap opera, is very much part of the everyday life of schools. We are not claiming to have the last word on television and soap opera but to illuminate the nature of school based TV talk. Further, since the participants have been free to carry out the discussions away from adults and with the assurance that teachers will not have access to the tapes we do not, as yet, regard the atmosphere of schools as a major problem. We set out to listen to young people in as unmediated a set of circumstances as is possible. Yet, in trying to understand the conversations we use a range of theoretically loaded words like ideology, gender, and identity project which our subjects would not use or necessarily understand (though they could in principle). While we seek to understand our subjects in their own words, from their own lifeworld, we continue to understand them in a way which is clearly rooted in our own lifeworlds. Further, to have a degree of mastery of theory or theories supports our identities as intellectuals with a coherent grasp of an imagined objective world. Such coherence is in contrast to the experience of everyday life as messy, political, uncertain, contingent and opaque. Through researching the identities of others we are also making our own.

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Identity talk
Language has meaning because of the indexical properties of its use, embedded within appropriate narratives. Meaning in language is situational and context specific since the meaning of a word is its use in the language (Wittgenstein, 1957: 43). For Wittgenstein, a meaningful expression is one that can be given a use by human beings and is directly implicated in human forms of life. In describing the meanings of words in use within particular language games, we will also be describing a form of life. From this account we can derive the view that identity is something which we achieve in and through language as a part of our everyday interactions. As Widdicombe and Wooffitt put it,
We have begun to see identity as a fluid accomplishment, instantiated in the procedural flow of verbal interaction. Our claim is therefore that identity is an active, practical and situated accomplishment. (Widdicombe & Wooffitt, 1995: 218)

Talk can be understood not as representing pre-formed ideas but as formative of them in the context of constructing and maintaining social relationships in which we respond to others and produce practical-moral resources and activities (Shotter, 1993). Teenage talk about soap opera is constitutive of identity in that young people negotiate through such talk shared understandings about how to go on in their society (here with specific reference to relationships). This involves discourse about experience (Gergen, 1994; 71) through which one moves into an alternative discursive space, which is to say, into yet another domain of relatedness (Gergen, 1994; 48). Identity talk involves a range of discourses and relationships so that identity is not to be seen as an already existent fixed thing but as identity-in-process. Identity can be seen as what Hall (1990) calls a cut or positioning in the ever unfolding process of meaning production where meaning is never finished but keeps on moving to encompass other supplementary meanings. Our research explores talk about talk, a double hermeneutic involving young peoples interpretations of soap opera and our interpretations of their talk. Indeed, in so far as our account and the accounts of other research permeates lay thinking so we are involved in a triple hermeneutic. From such an interpretative maze we produce communicative and interpretative achievements, of soap and of soap talk, but not a picture of reality, for we are engaged in producing that reality. The value of textual interpretation of young peoples talk cannot lie in giving an objective and totalising account of their lives or identity projects. Rather, its value lies in exploring the resources of language, and the consequences of the specific organisation of discourse, which young people bring to bear.

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Soaps, talk and gendered identity

A recurrent mode of talk employed by the group participants centred on favourite characters. Through examination of talk about such characters we can identify emerging attitudes towards gender and identity. The EastEnders character Grant Mitchell was a frequently discussed favourite irrespective of gender or ethnicity. Consider the following extract from a discussion between three Asian boys,

A: I like EastEnders more, like down to earth, I just like itcos more realistic. IViy favourite character is, from there is, Grant because, did you see when the BNPs came and like he was the main man to sortem out like, but they made him a jerk since the affair, now the storylines gone a bit dull. Pat and her new friend and Cathys gone off somewhere. Whose your favourite in EastEnde.S? C: Well, EastEnders is quite good but, well Nigel in EastEnders is a fat, fat Pratt. B: Pratt, hes a proper pratt C: What about when the BNPs were coming and Nigel and the boys B: What about Sanjay C: Nigel agreed to go and talk to Rod in the pub, he was scared

Here the speakers construct a model of masculinity around Grant by comparing his admired characteristics with those of less traditionally masculine men. Speaker A sees Grant, like EastEnders itself, as down to earth and realistic, he is earthy and the main man. His status is based on his physical strength and mental toughness, his ability to sort em out. Since the participants in the conversation are Asian, we may infer that sorting out the fascist British National Party (BNP) is of particular significance. Interestingly, Grants appearance-tall, muscular, cropped hair-is not a million miles from the stereotyped BNP skinhead and its associated version of masculinity. We may conclude that it is not just physique that makes Grant appealing to this young man (A), but his moral position also. Grants masculinity is, of course, a feature of the public sphere-sorting out the BNP In the private sphere, centred on his relationships with women, they made him a jerk. The achievement of masculinity occurs through comparison of Grant with other characters. Nigel is seen as both fat and a pratt. The most obvious point of contrast between Nigel and Grant is one of physique; Grant is hard, powerful and muscular while Nigel is soft and rounded. These physical appearances become metaphors for attitudes; Nigel is a more considerate person, more attuned to interpersonal relationships, than the bullish male-public oriented Grant. Further, while Grant is generally regarded with admiration for his fearlessness and willingness to sort out the BNP Nigel is mocked for being scared of them. In another conversation a white boy compares Grant to Geoff, Grant makes me laugh, hes the best actor in it now. In direct contrast he goes to argue that, Geoff was a pratt. Having a laugh is one way boys survive the school environment and seek to subvert it (Willis, 1977). That Grant is able to do this is a major asset for the boys in
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sample. However, Geoff was not a character with whom it would be possible to a laugh. On the contrary, he was the very icon of the serious, educated, controlling middle class. Again, physical differences embody important values for the participants; Geoff, as a slightly flabby middle aged person, has more in common with Nigel than Grant. Disliked characters are equally revealing in terms of the these particular boys images of masculinity.
our

have

A: Who do we individually hate from soaps? I hate whats his name, Ricky, hes a loser, a proper loser B: Mechanic A: Yea, look, he doesnt even know whats going on B: His girlfriend pushes him around! A: Pushes him around man! B: And they go, her friends they say to Ricky, are you coming? A: Shes a saucy cow, Bianca is A: I know man C: I say Ricky should be better off with someone else
.

According to these boys Ricky displays characteristics which are quite undesirable in men. He is regarded as a loser when, by implication, as a man he should be a success. This is a theme which reoccurs elsewhere in the conversation. The reason that Ricky is regarded as a loser in this instance is because of his relationships with women. Ricky allows himself to be pushed around by his girlfriend and treated as a subordinate by her friends. In turn, the girl in question, Bianca, is regarded as a saucy cow with all its implications of unacceptable sexual assertiveness in women. Such a relationship appears to these boys as the world turned upside down. As speaker B later remarks, Its stupid, the girl taking the boy. The construction of masculinity centred on Grant is not just a matter ofboys talk. Our tapes reveal an equal fascination with the character amongst the female participants.
B: I like EastEnders best, I like Grant C: Grant in EastEnders A: I love Grant our (sister) fancies Grant like mad B:....I like all the Dickheads D: Oh I really liked Grant. I didnt want him to go, even though he was the violent type. I didnt like him before, in like, before, but once he came out of jail, I really liked him

For these girls Grant stands in a tradition of rebellious men characterised by strength, energy, self-assurance and the ability to stand alone. Grants wayward status as a Dickhead is admired. These are characteristics which, as we shall see later, are less tolerated in women. A contrasting approach adopted by girls was to express a growing interest in Grant as he became more embroiled in plots centred on romantic, marital

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and interpersonal themes. While girl D formally disapproves of the violent type, the character is really liked later when his altered position in the text makes it more acceptable. It is relevant to say that this girl was especially committed to the conventions of love and the quest romance. Most soap pairings were allowable As long as they love each other. Grants positioning in storylines that connect with this theme makes him more agreeable. That girls appropriate Grant in different ways, on the one hand as a symbol of rebellion and on the other as a more sensitive figure located in discourses about love, expresses a tension in girl culture between attraction to the traditional private world of interpersonal relationships, traditional both to women and soap opera, and the desire to take up more assertive characteristics in the public sphere. Some of the tensions within girl culture manifest themselves in discussions that centred on two other EastEnders characters; Natalie and Bianca.

B: I like Natalie, I think her and Ricky should get together A: Yea well, they, they can like relate to each other and Natalies a much nicer person, she cares for other people, she doesnt just think about herself and, I dont know, shes been there for Rick more than Bianca has C: What about Biancas dress (Laughter) did you see that (Laughter) A: Biancas Biancas dress it was pink it clashed with her hair C: She makes me laugh shes so stupid B: Shes so stupid

Natalie is constructed as a nice person in contrast to Bianca. Natalie is a nicer person, she can relate to Ricky, she cares for other people and doesnt just think about herself. These qualities are constitutive of the traditional identity of women, skilled in the private world of interpersonal relationships, but excluded from more assertive roles in the public domain. This is an identity to which these particular girls seem to be orienting towards. For these are the very same girls for whom all is forgiven if you do love the person. Bianca was universally disliked by our participants. She was described by one group of girls as a right slag and a bit of a cow. In describing Bianca in these terms the girls appear to be attacking her in two ways. First, for being over-assertive, pushy and self-centred. Second, for her confident sexuality. The term slag suggests the perception of inappropriate sexual behaviour for women. Given the apparent sexual nature of the assault on Bianca it is significant that some speakers attack her appearance. What is deemed to be Biancas bad taste is a cause of mockery and marks her out not only as different but as trashy and even tarty. Elsewhere, the hint of forbidden sexuality is more overt. Urm, what do you think of herwalking into the pub like that, shes practically wearing a slip. Many of these girls do not accept assertive women in the same way as they warm to assertive men. Readers may recall that Grants waywardness was an admired feature. While there are other examples of what might be seen as traditionally sexist
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judgements, Cody from Neighbours was criticised (by girls) for having a weird voice, a deep voice and a rough voice, we would be mistaken to see these discussions as simply re-enforcing traditional gender roles. The tension to which we have already
alluded, between tradition and a desire to be more assertive, continues to manifest itself. Thus one girl criticised Helen, also from Neighbours, for her apparent commitment to domesticity. All Helen does is sit there baking casseroles, giving advice. In a not dissimilar vein, Beverley from Brookside, having been criticised for her social

pretensions, was praised for her assertive past. But shes changed, remember when
she first, she came in, she was like, urm, sort of like, urm, a man-eater (laughter). One could interpret man-eater as a derogatory term. However, in this context we see it as a form of praise for her self-assurance and sexual confidence.

Exploring sexual identity

Soap talk provides young people with a forum for discussion of topics that are difficult or embarrassing to talk about. One such issue is sexual identity, and in particular homosexuality that falls outside these young peoples norm of heterosexuality As the conversations develop a range of positions are taken regarding sexuality. Some speakers try to secure themselves a fixed heterosexual identity while others, adopting a more flexible position, are open to the plasticity of sexual identity (Giddens, 1992). During the early part of the research the lesbian characters, Beth in Brookside, and Della and Binny in EastEnders, were involved in prominent storylines and appeared in almost all the conversations. During discussions of lesbian characters the young people explored their ideas of what constitutes lesbianism. Amongst girls there was little outright hostility towards gays and lesbians though there was a degree of ambivalence. The girls sought to understand what lesbianism is. The main tension occurred between those who needed to produce explanations for the character being a lesbian and those who accepted it as a given.
B: I think the lesbian thing Beth and all that, I think, I suppose it could be real life. I wouldnt really know. I dont know any lesbians C: Well, I dont think I dont know any lesbians anyhow but you never know, but anyway B: And I dont know if its real life, but I suppose, yea, well you can understand why because of what happened to her, the rape and all that its probably made her feel that way about men, but she isnt admitting that shes just saying thats how it is. In EastEnders I think that Della and Binny they make me laugh. Anyway I think theyre good for each other in a way. I dont think Della is that much into it. I think she should have just gone off with Steve or gone with another fella. Binny is more, like in it into their relationship, but Binny she is just like, no, now Ive got confused, no Della, shes just like, she I dont think shes a fully, what do you call it, like a whole hearted lesbian, if there is such a thing as a whole hearted lesbian, but I know what I mean A: Well shes probably one of these people who thinks, hate men yea yea yea when she sees everybody else, but on the other hand when she is with different people, when shes with a male, she probably thinks no, maybe Im not, shes probably confused. She doesnt know what shes doing. D: That programme really (pause) showed what I feel really angry about because people just expect

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people to be different if theyre gay and I dont think thats right, that people should expect people to be different because theyre not, and that really bugs me when people treat people differently cos it (raises voice) really gets on my nerves. B: What about when Della kissed Binny in the middle of the road cos Natalie C: Yea when I was talking to me brother he said urgh.

Speaker A expresses the ambivalence found amongst girls. There is a certain distancing from lesbianism by questioning its reality and denying any personal knowledge. Further, she questions whether there is such a thing as a whole hearted lesbian. Confusion over Dellas sexuality arose from her friendship with the male character Steve. Elsewhere they sought to clarify whether Della was going out with Steve or still going out with Binny. The reading of doubt into the characters sexuality arose because of her friendship with a heterosexual male, something they may have perceived as not constituting homosexual feeling or behaviour. It was used to confirm the correct normative solution (for these young women) of heterosexuality The puzzlement attributed to the characters, apparently when in the company of men lesbians may realise that they are really heterosexual, is arguably a projection of the girls own confusion and insecurities. In another discussion, made possible by the audiences knowledge of her childhood experiences, the participants need to explore reasons why Beth from Brooksidewas a lesbian. The young women spoke ofbeing able to understand [why she] became [a lesbian]. A consensus developed that Beth became a lesbian because of the sexual abuse she had suffered as a child, at the hands of her father, and because she had slept with a boyfriend who was subsequently accused of raping someone. Clearly assumptions are being made about her (and lesbians in general) alleged hostile feelings towards men. Even though the speaker acknowledges Beths explanation that she is just how she is, she still needs to maintain that there is a reason behind Beths sexuality, of which the character is unaware. At the same time the girls are supportive of the relationship between Della and Binny. They are seen as good for each other in the same terms that the girls discussed the appropriateness of heterosexual relationships. Whether for example, as we saw earlier, Ricky is best suited to Natalie or Bianca. Indeed, girl D above clearly uses the conversation to express her support for the right to freely choose ones sexuality. Further, she took a positive view of a kiss between two (male) friends in the serial Byker Grove. I know people that, thats happened to and I, I think that they should let, they should let them carry on like that. While the girls are at least prepared to discuss lesbianism in a reasonably open way, the reaction of girl Gs brother, a straight forward urgh! is not untypical of the boys reactions. For one group of young men, issues of homosexuality, although appearing throughout the conversation, were quickly categorised in negative terms.

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A: But I dont think they should have introduced that lesbian thing B: Thats out of order. Who wants to see that A: Lesbians, they shouldnt have done that lesbians. Im not against, Im not scared of them, you meet people who are really scared of them ,but I dont want to kill them and everything but if your born like that youre born like that, but most of us dont want to see lesbians on the TV B: Nah! C: Theyre not really born like that, its just the way they think B: I reckon that Beth became a lesbian A: Because of her father, and that guy she used to go out with raped somebody....Why do they always have to make, you know, the people, the lesbians, why do they have to make them like good looking like, like why cant they make them like...

For these young men lesbianism is something which should not be seen on television but, at best, kept locked in the closet. Speaker As denial of being scared of lesbians is unconvincing and serves rather to underline his very insecurity about sexuality that does not fit his map of the sexual world. Indeed, they are threatened by feelings of attraction to a lesbian, rather such feelings should only occur within the norm of heterosexuality. Perhaps they believe that in real life lesbian women are held to be good looking only by other women. As with the girls they need to seek out explanations for why people should become lesbians. For these boys sexuality outside of the norm requires drastic explanation as a phenomena brought on by the trauma of her father (who abused her) and her rapist ex-boyfriend.

Teenage talk and gendered styles

One of the most striking gender related differences was the significantly shorter duration of the boys groups conversations in comparison with the girls. Three explanations seem to be most likely. First, that boys are simply less interested in talking about soap opera than girls. Second, that boys are less willing or able to talk to each other in a sustained way about anything than are girls. Third, that boys are less willing or able to talk to each other about the kinds of issue that soaps most obviously raise, that is to say questions of relationships, sexuality and morality. The fact that boys are able to talk at length amongst themselves about some subjects, for example sport for those so inclined, does suggest that the specific subject matter of these conversations played a part. That the boys clearly did watch soap opera with some enthusiasm undercuts the argument that it was soap per se which inhibited talk between the boys. Rather, our participants soap talk suggest that girls are simply more skilled at relationship talk, which is central to soap opera, than boys. Not only were the girls more able to sustain longer conversations than the boys, but they were able to stick to and explore a given issue for a greater duration. Boys seemed to be more prone to distraction than girls. They would drift off a particular

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subject more quickly than girls, sometimes by changing conversational direction, at other times through a notable tendency to resort to interpersonal insults and banter. An alternative strategy employed by two groups of quieter, seemingly less confident boys was to interview each other about soap opera using the generic conventions of news and current affairs interviews. We would suggest that the use of a formulaic conversational mode is a relatively safe framework for boys to talk to each other within when they might other wise feel insecure. In other words, the use of the interview form as a security net reflects their unease at talking to each other in general and about relationships in particular. Generalisations about gendered talk should be understood as just that, generalisations from which many participants departed. There were examples of sustained conversations by boys on issues of relationships in soap opera (though never as long as those of girls) and some fairly riotous and loud girls groups whose participants continually interrupted each other. At the heart of the matter is the girls use of soap opera as a spring board for discussions about relationships and morality which they related to their own lives. The conversations centred on who was going out with whom, whether they were right for each other or not, who would make better parings, who had been sexually active amongst the characters and amongst themselves, whether affairs were justifiable or not, the significance of love, pregnancy, babies, sex, gays and lesbians and a whole range of other related issues. While some of these topics occurred in the boys conversations they were less prominent and less sustained than amongst girls. Rather, boys seemed to have a whole repertoire of strategies for avoiding such themes and by implication avoiding potential intimacy. The very centrality of such concerns to soap opera does suggest that it is avoidance and not simply lack of relevance. It requires sustained effort to talk about EastEnders, Coronation Street, Brookside, Neighbours, Home and Away etc. without engaging in conversation about the morality of relationships. A distinction can be made within the conversations between narrative re-telling and moral exploration. The former involves a re telling of the story so far usually along the lines of X did this and Y did that. In contrast, moral exploration involved the asking of questions about whether particular characters should have acted in the way they did. The overwhelming predominance of narrative re-telling amongst boys and the relegation of moral relationship talk to the sidelines is quite remarkable when compared to the interweaving of narrative re-telling and moral relationship exploration
amongst girls. Excitement amongst boys was more likely to occur when either action or serious issues were raised. These include murders, racism. HIV, drugs and football. The boys were noticeably more action oriented than girls. By this we do not mean that girls did not discuss action or issues of the public sphere, they did. They talked about class, racism, HIV, murders, downs syndrome and drug use, perhaps even more than boys by dint of the fact that they talked for a longer time in any case. Rather, we mean that this was the exclusive concern of boys and provided them with much safer territory than relationships and sexuality. Girls were skilled at relationship talk and public
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issues talk.
on

They could move from one to the other. Boys were more likely to focus public issues and de-centre relationship talk. That theses young men feel both less comfortable with relationship talk and are less open and flexible about sexual identity than girls can be seen as an outcome, at least in part, of their relative emotional deprivation and insecurity about their own sexual and gender identities. As Giddens (1992) argues, men have traditionally seen

work as the prime source of self-identity and have fled from both emotional reconstruction of themselves and from intimacy. Thus mens position in the public domain has been achieved at the expense of their exclusion from the transformation of intimacy (Giddens, 1992: 67). This is predicated upon an institutional division between reason and emotion, a division that closely followed gender lines (Giddens,

1992: 200).

Intimacy is above all a matter of emotional communication, with others and with the self, in the context of interpersonal equality (Giddens,1992:130). The difficulties boys have with relationship talk, a mode of communication which depends on emotional security and communication, is rooted in a socially produced masculinity formed within a specific socio-cultural and historical context. It is argued (Chodorow, 1978; Giddens, 1992) that boys are treated as independent and outgoing persons by mothers while girls are loved more narcisstically as like the mother. Boys separation involves identification with the father and symbolic phallus as the domain of social status, power and independence. A form of masculinity is produced which stresses externally oriented activity but at the price of covering over an emotional dependence on women and weaker skills of emotional communication. This basic emotional narrative is built on through the learnt social language and practices of gender (Hite,
1994).
In contrast, girls have acquired a greater surety with the intimate and the communicative skills thereof through introjection of, and identification with, aspects of their mothers own narratives. The traditional cost is a greater difficulty with externally oriented autonomy. Giddens suggests that the quest romance for girls, is a seeking after the elusive father, not simply in terms of loss but the active attempt to control the future. It is the counterfactual thinking of the socially dispossessed and a bid for power. One does not have to accept the scientific claims of psychoanalysis (and I would want to argue that psychoanalysis is productive of that which it seeks to explain) to agree that we build up emotional narratives of ourselves from birth and that men construct different kinds of narratives from women given their differential experiences (and language resources) in specific socio-cultural contexts. Such narratives have emotional force and consequences, they are not just stories.

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Realism, gender, ideology

disquiet about the almost stereotypical coherence of the gender described above. This is attributable to a number of factors which may include the traditional Asian background of many of the participants, the relatively young age of the speakers, the possibility that group talk tends towards consensus, the selective nature of the extracts discussed and a degree of potential over-interpretation by the researchers. Despite recognition of the limitations of our work we would still argue that the young people are engaged in the reproduction of aspects of gender ideology. Ideology is understood here as discourses which support the power of specific social groups-in this case men. However, recent audience research has suggested that audiences do not simply take on board ideological meanings that have been identified by critics as structuring the programme. The audience is understood within this research paradigm as being active decoders of meaning. Studies of the soap opera audience (Ang, 1985; Buckingham, 1987; Liebes & Katz, 1990) confirm the genre competencies of the audience. The young people in our study were indeed an active audience, they moved easily between discussions centred on the plots, as if it was the Real World, to recognition of the constructed nature of the text within a television production context. They were able both to play the game of plot prediction and at the same time discuss plot inconsistencies and episodes from the past (screening in the present) thereby demonstrating their understanding of the constructed nature of soap opera. In other words they had a sound grasp of TV World. For example, in the sequence below three 15 year old girls discuss possible plot directions in EastEnders.
some

We feel

positions

C: Apparently Natalie commits suicide B: Yeah thats what I heard, you told me I think someone told you and you told A: I heard that

me

The phrase apparently Natalie commits suicide refers to a future story line and thus acknowledges its construction outside of real time. Further, the role of previous extrasoap talk is acknowledged, thats what I heard from which we can infer recognition of the fictional nature of a narrative already prepared for screening on television. At another moment it is quite clear that the nature of soaps, in this case Neighbours, as fictional constructions of television is understood by the same speakers.

A: B: A: B: A:

She (Helen) has survived a stroke shes been gassed fallen down stairs broken her arm she They should kill Helen off No listen right how far are they ahead of us in Australia how far
Meanwhile about 10 million people have come and left and shes been in it from the Ive been watching the old ones on UK Gold Im waiting for Daphne to get killed
start

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In this sequence the girls seem to be hinting at the unreality of Neighbours in terms of the roll call of accidents that have befallen Helen. The phrase They should kill Helen off acknowledges that the programme is capable of being altered by they. It is a made up story! The fictitious nature of the soap is underlined by the observation that the episodes are screened in Australia ahead of the UK showing. The ability to watch old episodes on the satellite channel UK Gold and wait for a known event further underscores the narrative as fiction. While the participants recognised soap opera as fiction, they are not fooled in to thinking that Soap World is the Real world, nevertheless, as Hodge and Tripp note The closer the message is judged to be to reality by the receiver, the more it will be responded to both emotionally and cognitively as though it were reality (Hodge & Tripp, 1986: 116). The perceived realism of soaps was certainly an issue for our participants. Criticism of particular soaps was frequently introduced with the phrase Its not realistic enough. British soaps were consistently held to be superior to Australian soaps by virtue of their greater realism. Realism was a high status phenomena for these young people. It was one of the characteristics of valued soaps and associated with the serious over the trivial. However, as we have already noted, the participants know full well that soaps are fictions. Realism for these young people does not, therefore, simply mean unmediated reality. Rather, we have identified six uses of the concept which we want to explore further here. 1. Mimetic realism whereby the soap is deemed to be a copy of the Real Worldby virtue of the fact that it looks and sounds like the participants known everyday life.

C: Do you think thats real, like the story? A: I dont know, it sounds, it looks kinda real (Asian

boys)

2. Naturalism or literal realism which involves not only questions of the appearance of physical reality but crucially the plausibility of action and linear causation in terms of the regime of signification (Abercrombie, Lash, Longhurst, 1992) of everyday life. The judgement as to whether a given event does or does not happen in real life was the touch stone of naturalistic realism.

B: Those are realistic things A: Yea realistic C: Those kind of things could

happen (Asian boys)

3. Narrative realism or Soap 4Yorld realism whereby action and causation are plausible within the bounds of the soap narrative and characterisation. This is essentially a question of internal narrative consistency and came to the fore most often in its negative form, as a criticism of Australian soaps in particular.

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B: Yeah you know Cody in Neighbours she went to America A: She was in Todds year B: Yeah and came back and Todd A: Todd would probably have been twenty B: Yeah if he was still in it and imagine back in the beginning a sixteen year old A: Now shes supposed to be the same age as Michael and that lot, doesnt that mean shes actually lost A&B: About three years A: Cos when she left she was supposed to be about fifteen

(Girls:

two

Asian,

one

White)

identified by Ang (1985), whereby the narrative while not necessarily conforming the rules of naturalism or even narrative realism does appeal to a recognisable array of personal and interpersonal problems to which we respond and identify emotionally. This is where the classical central concerns of soaps; marriages, divorces, affairs and pairings, come to the fore. The young people never say this is emotionally realistic, but it is clear that many emotional and moral dilemmas in soaps are discussed as being relevant to their lives. That is, they are realistic and plausible emotional situations. For example, the girls below discuss dancing and sexuality as it relates to Vikram, an Asian male character in Neighbours, in a way which suggests that aspects of the situation bring the girls own sexual and emotional dilemmas to the fore. The question of what is acceptable dancing and sexual behaviour is clearly linked to the identities of the speakers as Asians and girls. The feeling of being left out contrasted to the dangers of getting a bad reputation appears to be an emotional dilemma which these girls orientate towards.

4. Emotional

realism,

as

to

B : you know Vikram, hes a hypocricecos do you remember when it was that party, I cant remember when, and he was dancing with Philips wife Julie and he cant talk that his daughter, I mean sister
A: no but he didnt fancy her C : he didnt fancy her, that was just a normal dance A: he doesnt mind her having friends like, normal friends, but not like you know, boyfriends and trying to have it off with them B : yes I think thats wrong, its the influence of everybody around her, you know Lahta she doesnt want to feel, you know, left out A : yes thats why Asians do this stuff sometimes

B : yeah, sometimes, yeah C : why not Asians, most girls D : get a bad reputation and that stuff

(Asian girls)

5. Mythic realism. As Miller argues in relation to a study of the consumption of The Young and the Restless in Trinidad,

it is clear that the &dquo;realism&dquo; with which it is identified has little to do with the environmental context of domestic presentation; the scenes cannot look like Trinidad. Realism rather is based on the truth

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of the serial in relation to key structural myth. (Miller, 1995: 219-220)

problematics of Trinidadian culture.

It is the realism of

This realism is not the realism of verisimilitude rather it embodies a form of depth ontology by which reality is equated with forms of deeper truth. The creation of mythic realism, whether it is intended by producers or not, is ultimately an aspect of localisation in consumption. It depends on the audience perceiving the deeper truth and its relevance to their lives.

B: I think its (Ea,rtEnders) urm, I think its the most realistic programme I see on TV nowadays C: Its got a lot to do with us right B: Yes, it talks about racism, relationships, urm, women not getting jobs and really everything (Asian and Afro-Caribbean girls)

This kind of realism was frequently associated with the handling of social issues in a way which connoted seriousness and which was also a marker of the superiority of British realist soaps over Australian fantasy. Yea and another thing, the AIDS issues that they do in EastEnders and that are much more realistic than the one with Michael (in Neighbours). However, while realism of this kind was welcomed, a cardinal sin was the adoption of an overt didactic voice. Any perceived attempt to educate was rejected as

preaching.
A:

Nothing like that evers happened theyve all got little tales

in

Neighbours or anything

its all moral, have you noticed

B: Yeah A: Like you mustnt do that you mustnt, dont joyride I mean thats thats a true enough thing but theyre such goody-goodies in Australia B: And theyre all perfect arld.... A: Have you noticed that every single person who gets pregnant finds someone to marry before they have the baby A: Yeah I know (Asian and white girls)

Just

as styles of talk and conversations about characters were constituted by and constitutive of gender, so conceptions of realism appear also to begendered. There was evidence to suggest that the boys held a more hard news conception of realism than girls. The boys more obviously associated realism with serious issues of the public

sphere.

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B: Like Australian stories they all do love stories and teenagers but these British ones do, are into, like serious things, actually real life stuff. A: Did any of you watch Heartbreak High yesterday B: Nah man I was watching the news

more

(Asian Boys)

In general terms we may say that the conceptions of realism held by boys tended towards the mimetic and naturalistic end of the realist spectrum described above. This allowed those social issues which could be described as mythic to be taken seriously by boys. For girls, realism could equally be a characteristic of the depiction of the dilemmas of interpersonal relationships. The girls conceptions of realism tended to cluster around the emotional and mythic end of the realist spectrum. We may recall the greater stress put on discussions about relationships and morality amongst girls. There is thus an interplay between gender identity and gendered styles of talk, as discussed earlier, and conceptions of realism. However, the picture is more complicated still. Gender was not the only factor in varied understandings of realism. Gender was cross-cut by issues of class and ethnicity. Realism was frequently associated with working class communities, characters and lifestyles. Fantasy, or simply being unrealistic, was seen as a characteristic of the depiction of rich or middle class lives. Further, the experience of being Asian or Black in Birmingham led many of the speakers to criticise the depiction of Black and Asian characters and their motivations as unrealistic. Thus, whether a particular story is seen as realistic depends on how viewers position themselves within the complex discourses of gender, class and ethnicity (amongst others). To accept that a character, storyline, or viewpoint is realistic by any of these versions of realism is to legitimate them. That realism takes a number of forms, that it is in a sense plastic and malleable, underlines the complexity of the process. Identity work increasingly draws its resources from a range of social practices which involve absent others, and thus our conceptions of ourselves and society necessarily engages with the social imaginary. If the print media was instrumental in summoning up the imagined community of the nation (Anderson, 1983) then so does the electronic media contribute to our understanding of an imagined social reality. Television may be said to naturalise an ideological view because it is presented as a mimetic copy of the social world told in a narratively consistent and coherent way. However, it would be insufficient as a strategy for combating gender ideology to simply say that it is not in actuality true or real since it may appeal to a persons sense of emotional or mythic realism. Besides, it is not watching television soap opera per se which introduces gender ideology into the equation. Our discussion is not about, nor does it assume, that the conversations are effects of the programmes. Rather we view the programmes as a resource used by the participants in the conversations. The young people bring previously formed ideas to their viewing experience and subsequent talk. There is a complex process involved in which ideas are circulated and modified. For any ideologies to be meaningful to actors they must be constitutive
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of ourconceptions of ourselves and our place in the world. Teenage talk about soap opera is thus also about the production of ideologically inflected identity. Ideology is not simply imposed on young people but is produced and reproduced through young peoples active engagement with soap opera and interwoven with their own identity project. Ironically, it is through the very process of being active that ideology is reproduced. As Silverstone (1994) has argued, audiences are always active but this does not necessarily mean resistance to ideology. Of course, the ideological aspects of such an identity project are not monolithic. The complex interdiscursive nature of the self means that identity is a site for ideological competition.

Concluding reflections
While there is always the danger of homogenising diversity we would argue that, * Soap talk is used as a resource for young peoples identity work * The more a soap is regarded as realistic the more seriously it is taken * Soaps are used to work through and clarify issues of gender and sexual identity * Young people are both a skilled, active audience and reproduce forms of ideology pertaining to gender and sexuality Such conclusions need to be qualified for, in contrast to messy and contingent experience, they seem too coherent and clear cut. The arguments put in this paper are based on textual interpretations of the words of others. While such textual interpretations are not illegitimate, it is difficult to see what we could do other than interpret, we need to remember that they are also productive of what they seek to explain. We and the young people are not simply describing identities, whether it be of soap characters or our own, but are making them in and through language. Identity is an opaque set of processes and not a thing. One is tempted to say that we can walk around it and explore it from many angles. We can find identity in texts, in speech, in autobiographical accounts and through psychoanalysis. Yet we cannot walk around it because it does not exist, though it is instantiated in language. However, we may be able to understand the power of language and the power in language as it gives or lends form to us and our chaotic practices.

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CLIFFORD, JAMES (1992) Traveling Cultures Lawrence Grossberg et al (eds) Cultural Studies London: Routledge. GERGEN, KENNETH (1994) Realities and Relationships Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. GIDDENS, ANTHONY (1992) The Transformation of Intimacy Cambridge: Polity Press. GERAGHTY, CHRISTINE (1991) Women in Soap Cambridge: Polity Press. HALL, STUART (1990) Cultural Identity and Diaspora J Rutherford (ed.) Identity: Community, Culture, Difference London: Lawrence & Wishart. HITE, SHERE (1994) The Hite Report on the Family London: Bloomsbury Press. HODGE, ROBERT & DAVID TRIPP (1986) Children and Television Cambridge: Polity Press. LIEBES, TAMAR & ELIHU KATZ (1990) The Export of Meaning Oxford University Press. Oxford: MILLER, DANIEL (1995) The Consumption of Soap Opera: The Young and the Restless and Mass Consumption in Trinidad R C Allen (ed.) To Be Continued..Soap Opera Around the World London: Routledge. SHOTTER, JOHN (1993) Conversational Realities London: Sage. SILVERSTONE, ROGER (1994) Television and Everyday Life London: Routledge. WIDDICOMBE, SUE & ROBIN WOOFFIT (1995) The Language of Youth Sub Cultures Hemel

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WILLIS, PAUL (1977) Learning to Labour Farnborough: Saxon House. WITTGENSTEIN, LUDWIG (1953) Philosophical Investigations Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

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