> 14 year olds with 14 year olds are not underage > sexual dramas. 14 year olds with 20 year olds? > Okay, you might have a point there. But > teenagers are going to be hormonal and they're > going to fall in love with other teenagers and > they're going to express themselves sexually with > other teenagers and there is nothing wrong with > that.
Except that, cariad, it's breaking the law for both parties, no matter how much they want it, if they indulge in sex below the age of consent in whatever country they are in.
Doesn't matter how romantic it seems, underage sex is illegal as all hell, and participants in it are technically known as paedophiles (even if they are both 14) because, below the age of consent, they are still regarded as children in the eyes of the Law.
And soaps do little or nothing to actually point this truth out to the audience. Where are the cautionary tales? Where are the STIs? The unwanted pregnancies at age thirteen? The heartache of being the promising student being forced to leave school before her time, to bring up a child unwanted and unacknowledged by her own parents?
These consequences are never mentioned in any soaps, because they're not glamourous stories. They are not romantic stories. And they do not, generally, have happy endings.
And where are the ratings in that, eh?
This is about the topic of soaps, not about underage sex.
It's about how soaps glamourise topics and never explore consequences; it's about how they show entirely the wrong sorts of people becoming undeservedly successful, while the intelligent, driven individuals are quickly written out of the script and replaced with more unimaginative drone characters whose motivations could have been generated by a computer program, like RPG character generator software.
"Okay, so the English Professor who really gives his students motivation to study ... he's out. Word from on high is, the audience doesn't need to actually hear lines from Yeats and Shakespeare. Long hair stuff's bad for the ratings."
"Okay, then. Schedule the fatal car crash for next Friday's episode. Who've we got to replace him?"
"Er, what's the next character on the Rolodex?"
"Single Mum, blonde, pretty at 21, baby boy, looking for love. Gets married to the Lonely Bachelor."
"Oh yeah, we've got one of them, working down the pub. Had him since three months ago. I've been looking for a plot for him."
"Good one. We'll hook him up with her. All right, schedule the wedding plot for ... oh, Autumn."
"Good idea. New season starts then. Reel 'em in with yer standard happy weepie wedding show."
"Er, didn't I start that guy off on a plot where he explores his sexuality and discovers he's actually gay?"
"Did we do that?"
"Sure. he got a gay kiss scene last Monday. Ratings through the roof."
"Sure, but that was last Monday. He can recant now, turn straight again."
"Gays don't recant out of the blue. It's genetic."
"The viewers wouldn't know the difference. You think anyone smart enough to figure that out's going to be watching drivel like this?"
"Okay, then ... Lonely bachelor loses his boyfriend ... *inspiration dawns* ... as boyfriend runs off with the English Professor. Kid always fancied the old screamer after all."
"Oh great. Lots of flames, too. Make it look like the flames of Perdition."
Re: Well...
> Okay, you might have a point there. But
> teenagers are going to be hormonal and they're
> going to fall in love with other teenagers and
> they're going to express themselves sexually with > other teenagers and there is nothing wrong with > that.
Except that, cariad, it's breaking the law for both parties, no matter how much they want it, if they indulge in sex below the age of consent in whatever country they are in.
Doesn't matter how romantic it seems, underage sex is illegal as all hell, and participants in it are technically known as paedophiles (even if they are both 14) because, below the age of consent, they are still regarded as children in the eyes of the Law.
And soaps do little or nothing to actually point this truth out to the audience. Where are the cautionary tales? Where are the STIs? The unwanted pregnancies at age thirteen? The heartache of being the promising student being forced to leave school before her time, to bring up a child unwanted and unacknowledged by her own parents?
These consequences are never mentioned in any soaps, because they're not glamourous stories. They are not romantic stories. And they do not, generally, have happy endings.
And where are the ratings in that, eh?
This is about the topic of soaps, not about underage sex.
It's about how soaps glamourise topics and never explore consequences; it's about how they show entirely the wrong sorts of people becoming undeservedly successful, while the intelligent, driven individuals are quickly written out of the script and replaced with more unimaginative drone characters whose motivations could have been generated by a computer program, like RPG character generator software.
"Okay, so the English Professor who really gives his students motivation to study ... he's out. Word from on high is, the audience doesn't need to actually hear lines from Yeats and Shakespeare. Long hair stuff's bad for the ratings."
"Okay, then. Schedule the fatal car crash for next Friday's episode. Who've we got to replace him?"
"Er, what's the next character on the Rolodex?"
"Single Mum, blonde, pretty at 21, baby boy, looking for love. Gets married to the Lonely Bachelor."
"Oh yeah, we've got one of them, working down the pub. Had him since three months ago. I've been looking for a plot for him."
"Good one. We'll hook him up with her. All right, schedule the wedding plot for ... oh, Autumn."
"Good idea. New season starts then. Reel 'em in with yer standard happy weepie wedding show."
"Er, didn't I start that guy off on a plot where he explores his sexuality and discovers he's actually gay?"
"Did we do that?"
"Sure. he got a gay kiss scene last Monday. Ratings through the roof."
"Sure, but that was last Monday. He can recant now, turn straight again."
"Gays don't recant out of the blue. It's genetic."
"The viewers wouldn't know the difference. You think anyone smart enough to figure that out's going to be watching drivel like this?"
"Okay, then ... Lonely bachelor loses his boyfriend ... *inspiration dawns* ... as boyfriend runs off with the English Professor. Kid always fancied the old screamer after all."
"Oh great. Lots of flames, too. Make it look like the flames of Perdition."
"Great. That's a wrap. Where's the cocaine?"
And so on.