When I was thirteen, my sister proclaimed, “There is going to be a brand new serial starting on television, and if we start watching it now, we will know everything happening from the beginning when we are old ladies. Wanna watch it together?”
I’m not much for soap operas, but Joan would explain the storyline to me and I got drawn into it. “You see, that is a house of ill-repute and Snapper accidentally went there and discovered his sister was working as a prostitute”.
I continued to watch for the next twenty years. It’s the only soap opera I watch. Sometimes when my sister and I would talk on the phone I’d ask, “Have you been watching our soap opera?” and I remember the feeling of betrayal when Joan nonchalantly answered, “Nah, nothings happening on there and the storyline has become boring.” It had become MY soap opera more than hers now. At times, I wasn’t watching it very much either. It seems that the more that is happening in my own life, the less I feel like I need the show.
I have been upset with the show lately. Isn’t it silly that I would get angry with a fictional character? There seems to be no distinction between the good girls and the bad girls. Phyllis is the bad person, right? She tricked a man into marrying her, stole a man away from his wife, and as a result of it, people stand back and observe, “See, you’ve been bad. That is why all this terrible stuff is happening now” Phyllis admits what’s she has done and calls people on their own mistakes too. She speaks her mind but uses logic to make her points, stating facts to back up her philosophies (Phyllisophies). It is slightly discomforting because nobody listens to her simply because she has a reputation. She is still being punished for mistakes from 20 years back.
Meanwhile, Sharon retains a spotless reputation for being a sweet girl even though she stole some husbands, had a history of stealing, kissed her own father-in-law, and recently was pregnant by any of three men. She has a perfectly nice son, but ignores him to mourn the death of her daughter. She calls her ex (Who happens to be Phyllis’s husband now) and calls him over to help her whenever she is in a crisis, even though their youngest child is practically grown and out of the house.
It is as if these women have been labeled as good or bad and whatever happens afterwards cannot change that label. Even if Phyllis does a kindness for somebody, it will not be appreciated or noticed. It is considered incidental on her pathway through life or an act provoked by ulterior motives. Sharon can steal while her son’s girlfriend takes the blame and sleep with three men during the same week, since she is only acting this way because she is suffering so much. She is fragile and has blonde hair so a lot of men have to help her.
Sharon has had a baby now with Phyllis’s husband and nobody thinks badly of it. People please! This upsets me so much, I may still be thinking about it when Joan and I are old, watching the soap opera from our wheelchairs the nursing home in a couple of years.
It reminds me of real life sometimes because I have known people who have made a few mistakes in their young years and never were forgiven. I have also been amused by some of the people who have our undying respect.
