Telenovelas as a Reflection of Society

      It's no surprise that our social and political values are portrayed on television. It's not an unfamiliar fact that television reflects the values and ideals of our society.  We turn on the television to see many plots dealing with social issues such as sexuality, sexual assault, gender identity, and many more. We also see many plots and commentary on politics that serves as a critique. In my opinion, these topics have been represented in telenovelas as well as television since their beginning. It's only natural that the viewers want to see plotlines that relate to the challenges they face in everyday life and I think that we as the viewer have come to expect plot lines that we can identify with.

In my opinion, the societal issues are present in telenovelas and television as society's way of coping with change and normalizing new beliefs.  For example, in recent years, there have been many transgender characters featured in telenovelas such as Imperio Brasil. If you look at telenovelas from ten or twenty years ago, the issues portrayed are things such as homosexuality and sexism. I think that this plays a pivotal part in broadening the view of the telenovela's audience. Whether the issues is portrayed positively or negatively can be extremely formative to developing our own opinions on the topic as viewers.

It's interesting how writers use a wide range of tools to represent and deal with these issues in the fictional worlds they create. In class, we spoke about how these stereotypes were portrayed in telenovelas. I found the example of using stereotypes to break those very same stereotypes particularly interesting and thought-provoking. From a writer's standpoint, it is probably difficult to portray sensitive issues and must be done very carefully in order to not offend anyone and convey the proper message. I imagine this to be very difficult as there are so many differing opinions surrounded by many emotions. That being said, there is a lot of power in a writer's hands as they are essentially shaping society's outlook on these issues. For example, in class, we discussed how the telenovela was used a critique on the Venezuelan custom of getting a lot of plastic surgery and young people getting plastic surgery. If the writers simply chose to include a plastic surgery storyline, they could be perpetuating the societal norm in Venezuelan society that it is socially acceptable to have plastic surgery at a young age. However, instead, they chose to critique this choice, creating a powerful and thought-provoking message for it's audience.

It's interesting to me that social issues aren't the only type of issues represented in telenovelas. I also found it particularly interesting how politics found their way into telenovelas. I think the perfect example of political issues portrayed in telenovelas is the case with Venezuela in the early 2000's with Hugo Chavez. What I found most remarkable about this example is how telenovelas acted as a commonality between two differing parties. For one hour a day, it didn't matter if you supported Chavez or not. I believe that this moment truly demonstrates the power that Telenovelas have on influencing culture.

Can you think of any other ways telenovelas influence our culture and thoughts towards issues?