The entertainment industry would be impossible to imagine without daily soap operas. Naive, silly, or ridiculous, they remain popular among women all around the world. Reflecting family life and daily routine, however, these series do not convey real roles of men and women in the modern society quite faithfully. East or West, soap operas are top-rating series almost everywhere. Certainly, their content and the main message depends on the culture and social realities.
Having a look at the Indian soaps, we will find out that women’s issues such as marriage, family, attitudes, relationships are represented in a stereotypical manner. The institute of marriage is traditionally very strong in the Eastern societies which put the family life in the forefront. The Indian soaps are exceptionally androcentric which corresponds to the socio-cultural background of the country. Positive female characters are always timid and obedient while negative characters move away from traditions and follow the behavior of Western self-sufficient women.
In the West, writers of soaps are more concerned about rich, successful, and self-sufficient women. Male characters who try to dominate and command are usually negative. The ideas of feminism have greatly influenced American TV series, however, they frequently add reverse discrimination to the plot.
Characters of daily soap operas mostly confirm stereotypes of every particular society. Western women are too perfect and unrealistic in the TV series which makes viewers unsatisfied with their way of life. In the Eastern soaps, female characters are not enough ambitious and tolerate dominance or even violence of male characters. That is how television makes these TV series lopsided – leading characters usually support false values and do not express attitudes different from the opinion of major society.