The Language of Marital Inffidelity
THE LANGUAGE OF MARITAL INFIDELITY: SOAP OPERAS IN CONTEXT
GLORIA P. GEMPES Researcher
INTRODUCTION
Marital fidelity is one of the most important symbols of commitment in a marriage. Yet it is increasingly under attack from new pressures, and few of us understand why people have affairs or how best to recover from them. Therapists approximately counted three-quarters of men and one-quarter of the women they see individually in their consulting rooms are going through marital difficulties in part because of an affair. Indeed, infidelity appears to be so common today (Campbell & Wright, 2010) that it’s now more likely than not to occur at some point in a long relationship. In fact marital infidelity is often depicted in the television, in several soap operas. The wife and the mistress are the more popular and more widely depicted stereotypes in the media, specifically television. These two stereotypical characters and the phenomenon of marital infidelity have been depicted in various ways throughout television’s history. The housewife is often depicted as a bore or a nag, as someone who is plain and unsophisticated who suffers and struggles in the love triangle in order to save her marriage while the mistress is often cast as a temptress, a loose woman who uses her wiles and subtle seductions to ensnare the married man. Whatever the stereotype, both women are strong stereotypes and have multi- faceted personalities which the media have explored from various angles. The conflict between these two women characters often become the center of conflict and make for spell binding entertainment, not to mention the language used by each character.
Every Filipino household has practically a television set and it becomes the “central cultural arm” of the society. The effect of programs aired in television is far reaching (Ahmed & Khalid, 2012; & Zia, 2007) specifically, the TV series entitled:
GLORIA P. GEMPES Researcher
INTRODUCTION
Marital fidelity is one of the most important symbols of commitment in a marriage. Yet it is increasingly under attack from new pressures, and few of us understand why people have affairs or how best to recover from them. Therapists approximately counted three-quarters of men and one-quarter of the women they see individually in their consulting rooms are going through marital difficulties in part because of an affair. Indeed, infidelity appears to be so common today (Campbell & Wright, 2010) that it’s now more likely than not to occur at some point in a long relationship. In fact marital infidelity is often depicted in the television, in several soap operas. The wife and the mistress are the more popular and more widely depicted stereotypes in the media, specifically television. These two stereotypical characters and the phenomenon of marital infidelity have been depicted in various ways throughout television’s history. The housewife is often depicted as a bore or a nag, as someone who is plain and unsophisticated who suffers and struggles in the love triangle in order to save her marriage while the mistress is often cast as a temptress, a loose woman who uses her wiles and subtle seductions to ensnare the married man. Whatever the stereotype, both women are strong stereotypes and have multi- faceted personalities which the media have explored from various angles. The conflict between these two women characters often become the center of conflict and make for spell binding entertainment, not to mention the language used by each character.
Every Filipino household has practically a television set and it becomes the “central cultural arm” of the society. The effect of programs aired in television is far reaching (Ahmed & Khalid, 2012; & Zia, 2007) specifically, the TV series entitled:
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