STOP THE SOAP SLAP?

It’s been a slap-happy soap week as, on Days of Our Lives, Jen let Eve have it for sleeping with Jen’s son, and Adrienne smacked Will for cheating on her son (lesson learned: Don’t mess with a soap mom’s precious baby boy).

Meanwhile, Quinn slapping Brooke over Deacon on The Bold & the Beautiful, is being treated like some major event. As if Brooke isn’t a slap veteran....
Here’s the thing, though, this past Sunday, March 8, International Women’s Day, in New York City, as well as other cities around the world, thousands of people, including actors like Paul Bettany and AnnaLynne McCord, marched to support a variety of women’s issues, including ending domestic violence.

Bettany, in particular, said that he brought his son with actress Jennifer Connelly, to drive home for the boy that violence against women was also a man’s issue.

So, men hitting women is bad, while women hitting other women (and men, for that matter) is… entertaining? Funny? Acceptable?

How does that work, exactly? (To be clear, I am not saying soaps are the only offenders. Primetime shows are just as bad at portraying this double-standard, as are movies and pretty much every other form of media.)

None of the slaps above were treated as physical assault. Was it because they were administered by women? Puny, helpless women can’t possibly be aggressors, can they?  Or was it because, in the case of the men they hit, the slap was perfectly justified in story (would the men have been justified in hitting back?)? In the case of women hitting women, well, you know how women are. They were probably just being petty or catty or bitchy or hormonal. No one should bother taking their violence seriously. They can’t be held responsible for their behavior. They’re women!

Daytime is the only television genre created for women by women (though, these days, both the creators and the audiences are much broader). Soaps were intended to be a heightened reality. More romantic, more dramatic, more passionate and more emotional. If that’s the case, then why aren’t we getting more upset about casual violence against women, no matter who’s dishing it out, instead of cheering them on and looking forward to the inevitable cat-fights?

What do you think? Is it time to retire the soap slap (and the cat-fight)? Tell Entertainment Weekly at: http://community.ew.com/2015/03/10/soap-opera-slaps/

On the other hand, if you just can't get enough soap-slapping, you can also click the above link for over a dozen videos of classic soap slaps, including scenes from GH, DAYS, B&B, Y&R, AMC and more!