Ethnic Minorities in Soaps
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Hi all, im doing an essay on the representation of ethnic minorities in soaps and was wondering what you all thought? Do you think ethnic minorities are sterotyped? Do you think soaps provide a realistic portayel of ethnic minorities or do you think ethnic minorities are subject to tokenism? The main soaps i am discussing in my essay are EastEnders and Hollyoaks x
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The Foxes/Johnsons are a strong unit too lead by one of the show's feistiest females. I don't think there's really any stereotyping at all with that family. Denise's character would surely be exactly the same thing if she were white.
If black or Asian characters are portrayed as criminals, murderers or drug dealers, then they are deemed as stereotypes. Likewise, if black or Asian characters are shown to run businesses, be taxi drivers, or even doctors, then they are again deemed as stereotypes.
The Masoods in EE for example are not a stereotype of an Pakistani family because there is no such thing as a stereotypical Pakistani family. They may run a business selling ethnic food, and now want to run an Asian restaurant, but this is more of a cultural link in much the same way Patrick always drinks rum.
People like to say that Dev in Corrie is very sterotypical because he owns a corner shop. He also runs a takeaway and once part-owned a taxi firm, both of which could also be said to be stereotypes. The corner shop used to be run by Fred Elliott, and just because the new owner is Asian (or rather his parents were Asian) is of no relevance.
Open a chinese takeaway and pop down to chinatown etc would be good considering they have the masoods and the foxes and truemans.
Oaks is actually a small village so it makes sense they have very few.
Over the years EE have had some great characters. The Osman's were a brilliant family and had one of the shows hardest hitting storylines ever with the first british soap cot death story. The Carpenters weren't so great, mainly due to the awful acting. But Dr Legg, who was jewish was always popular even though he was more of a semi-regular.
The Taviners (sp) weren't the biggest of success' either. But up until the 90's many ethnic miniority characters sailed through, the most popular being Alan and Blossom I think. There was also Felix the polish barber and the DiMarcos. Beppe and his brother were quite popular but underused as a family before the axe fell.
In more recent years The Trueman's, for the most part have been a success. Audrey and Anthony were a bit, crap. Due to the acting, but Anthony in particular was used in some high profile storylines especially his relationships with Zoe and Kat, two of the shows biggest characters. Paul Trueman, I would say is probably the best ethnic character the show has EVER had, but thats most likely an unpopular view. Paul was a good man, who got himself into dark places and very insecure, it made for great viewing and I adored his relationship with Janine as it was just so complex. It was such a shame that they axed Gary and that Paul was killed off, but Paul's death gave Patrick his first proper chance to shine. Before he had just been used for comic relief with the odd serious storyline but Rudolph worked his ass off with that storyline and cemented Patrick's role in the show for me. Yolande was also a fairly popular character until the Pat/Pat affair when they made her very misrable.
The Fererrrasss (SP) the less said the better really. They did have potential, and the departure of the dad because of deportation laws led to their whole story being messed up. Originally they were supposed to kill their dad and Adai was supposed to be gay (Syed?), they should have went ahead with the story and then done the death as a flash back and just had the dad missing for a long time. That could've been good. But no they were wasted and soon thrown in the background because they were hated. Then axed.
Gus and Juley were also awful. Actually Gus had potential to be a Ricky type but no storylines were given to him and he was basically nothing more than an extra. It was a shame, but Juley was just hideous and putting him with Ruby was the biggest horror I've ever seen.
We then met the Foxes, who I think are brill. Chelsea is one of my favourite younger characters the show has had. Tiana was so natural and Chelsea was a very realistic character. Denise is also fab. Libby was okay but never really developed outside the geek role so I can understand why she was axed. Lucas was one of the biggest storylines for ethnic characters and I thought it was fantastic. I loved his warped sense of religion, made the story different and stand out. Diane Parish was incredible. I also love the addition of Kim, she's a fun and warm character and I'm sure she will soon be developed.
The Masoods are one of the biggest success stories of a family introduced since the Slaters. Nina Wadia and Nitin Ganatra are fantastic together. I love the whole history with the fire etc and bringing it back up recently has made for great viewing. Tamwar is also a great creation. Syed has been very contraversal and Shabnam had huge potential. Amira was also a good character. I also love the additions of Bushra and her clan, Inzaman and her clan and Afia and her father.
Finally we've had others in the past few years such as Mercy, Grace, Fatboy, Billie and of course Morgan. I actually really like Mercy, Grace and Fatboy and think they have potential, plus Billie's death was the best story of this year.
I'll do Oaks later
I think the Masood family are a brilliant representation of an Asian Pakistani family. They've had strong SLs [with the exception of Masood and his 'hanky panky'], there's a certain level of authenticty around them... It's the little details such as the outfits, speaking in Urdu, cooking traditional food and so on
There would also be more than one Indian restaurant, and far more Polish shops, a lot more kebab and chicken style take aways and Indian run mini markets, and those shops would not be as neat and clean as the only shop on the square. I'd expect to see boxes of veg on the pavement.
So, it's not really representitive of London or of ethnic populations.
e.g .From National Statistics for London Borough of Brent from April 2001 (obviously before the relaxing of east europeans entering Britain)
"Brent's predominant ethnic groups were White British (29 per cent), Indian (18 per cent), Black Caribbean (10 per cent), Other White (9 per cent) and Black African (8 per cent)."
I think they are stereotyped to some extent, partly because of the numbers of people involved. In real life, the population of somewhere like EastEnders would be more like 50% Asian, but there aren't enough Asian actors available - so the few that they have have to be stereotypical a bit.
From my time watching the show. I remember Norman, Lee and Steph's old school friend who lived with Jack. He seems a bit pointless.
Then there was Ali, Darlene and Richard who were part of the Burton family. Only Darlene could axe but she was an awfully written character and all were axed. The minute they went, the Burton's popularity went through the roof.
Then we had the Valentines, they were awful to begin with. Leo was probably the best, though totally underused. Sasha was awful, Calvin was a mess of a character especially towards the end. Lauren was quite good at times. Danny and Sonny both had potential but the actors ****ed up.
We've had a huge influx of the irish in the last few years. Kris, Malachy, Cheryl, Brendan and Lynsey are all great characters. It's a shame Kris and Mal have gone.
The Roys had potential as well. The dad was a bit shit, and I was never keen on the oldest lad even though everyone cried that he had the most potential, I thought the actor deserved the axe as he was attrociously panto. Ravi isn't the best either really but I quite like him. The women were good though, Bel, Anita and Leila were all good characters. Anita has come into her own the last few weeks though at last.
Charlotte I also loved. As the lesbian, chinese character, she had potential but it was wasted once again like many Oaks students who come and go.
How is Brent part of the "east end"? Anyway apart from the issue of using Brent as an example its true that the white population of the end end of London would be much lower than shown on EE. However, that is not the aim of EE. They are not representing the reality of the east end but reflecting the make-up of the people watching the show that is majority white. If you wanted a show about white working class neighbourhoods in the south-east you would probably have to set it somewhere in Essex.
If the show did show the EE as it is, then they wouldn't get the viewers. The British public aren't going to watch a show that is 50% Asian - it wouldn't appeal to a great number of people who don't live in London. This is why EE is the way it is now, to keep the viewing figures up.
The irish are one of the largest ethnic minority groups in britain but they aren't represented as much in Soap- I know Hollyoaks do but those characters are mostly forn Northern Ireland and ciaran in corrie
however I like the way Michelle Connor is 2nd generation irish- born in britain of irish parents which would be the case for a good few people
there are loads of asian and black families in soap esp in EE
Emmerdale doesnt seem to though
It's set in Chester, though, which is a pretty white place. I was there a few weeks ago and that really struck me - how white it was. So if Hollyoaks isn't diverse, it's about right.
Similarly, the Yorkshire Dales are very white, so it's not surprising that Emmerdale is mosty white
Coronation St is the least realistic in terms of cultural diversity - Manchester is a properly multicultural place, and Coronation St does not reflect that at all.
That's where 'Walford East' is according to the EE map, in real life.
Although there are probably a lot of immigrants in Brent now, it's not like the EastEnd which has traditionally being an immigrant area for hundreds of years, due to the docks and being the industrial part of London where all the smelly industries were located.
As someone else said, you'd probably expect to see the some Polish beer on sale in Patricks shop and a few Polish, Romanian or Irish builders in the pub occasionally, that sort of thing.
They did have a Chinese character in EE Lei wasn't it, they did seem to be developing some sort of storyline/backstory for her, then binned her off.
Fat Elvis hasn't been seen for ages either.
Is Bromley By Bow in Tower Hamlets or Newham?
You covered the viewer demographics thing in an earlier post didn't you?
Tower Hamlets.
The asian families are also stereotyped. For example, the masood own that masala queens place.
I think it's good that both ee and h.oaks have ethnic minorities in them but I think they are stereotyped.
Just an opinion ;-)