I was watching “Beyond the Gates” yesterday and I am horrified by what I saw. Sparkplug Leslie Thomas (Tricia Mann-Grant) came to visit the otherwise elegant Anita Dupree (Tamara Tunie) and the two got into a bitch-slap fight. Oh no!
Bitch-slap fights, and the catfights they frequently degenerate into, have long been a feature of daytime soaps. And going back to 1987, the first year I wrote this column in Soap Opera Weekly, I have deplored violence amongst women. My initial column condemning violence between female characters was headlined “Ban Catfights.” I got a huge reaction.
Marlena loves soaps but she also loved participation in the women’s revolution of the 70’s. Yes, I am an ardent feminist. What’s the corollary? As I’ve always written, “soaps are a woman’s medium.” Ergo, violence and catfights on soaps are an insult to the dignity of all watchers, male and female.
There are lots of examples in soap history. “The Young and the Restless” has had so many girl fights: Kay and Jill, Lauren and Tracy to name two. On “All My Children” (created by the great Agnes Nixon, herself a very early feminist) Erica fought with Ceara. On “Santa Barbara,” Gina fought with nearly every woman on the canvas. However, daytime’s best adversaries Viki and Dorian on “One Life to Live” spotlighted the immense talents of Erika Slezak and Robin Strasser. On “Dynasty,” the catfights between Krystal and Alexis, especially the one at a lily pond on the Carrington mansion, became television legend.
What do soap women fight over? The usual answer is men. Or perhaps these fights are written just as ratings grabbers. My colleague Mike Poirer insists that advertisers don’t care that catfights are wrong as long as they get ratings.
Sorry sir, a woman hitting another woman is just plain wrong. I’ve had my disagreements with other women (yes, it has happened in my long career in the soap press), but I would never hit another woman. When people get violent in real life, it’s often a reason to call the cops.
Calm down, Ms. Marlena. Soaps are not real life — or are they? There’s one reason we love our shows so much: soaps are all about love. Pulling hair, bitch-slaps and catfights have nothing to do with love. And in the best of all worlds, they’d never occur in the afternoons when we watch soaps.
What do you think, mes cher readers? I’d really like to know.
Just to expand on this:
Actors often times enjoy them from the interviews I’ve read. It gives them a chance to release some adrenaline and have fun filming them.
Execs know clips like this play well in commercials, and more currently short clips on social media. It brings attention to the show. Just remember, much of these existed under female daytime execs, producers, and writers.
Some of these fights came from character. The attic fight with Kay & Jill as well as the mausoleum altercation with Viki & Dorian weren’t gratuitous, but decades of animosity bubbling to the surface.
I think part of my problem with catfights are they are holdovers from the years when daytime soaps were commonly thought of as being stupid. Marlena has most of her long career persuading people they aren’t.
I’m sure its fun to write and portray catfights. Again, they distract from the seriousness of the show. I personally have never seen (or been in) a real catfight. I just don’t like writing about people–women–who are being potrayed as brutes in their own medium.
I tend to agree with you. In my adult life, I don’t think that I have once witnessed women in a cat-fight. Though scenes like this have played out for decades on soaps, I think there is more of a tendency for them to be over-the-top nowadays to compete for attention with the likes of The Real Housewives shows. I hope that situations like this will be infrequent, even if I do think that Leslie deserved a pop. Haha
Thanks as always, G.L. I know these Real Housewives show are very successful. But they are also brainless. Marlena prefers smart women on soaps!
I, too, hate that cat fights have become a defining feature of soaps.
Even in Natalie Moore’s recent 6-part podcast, Making: Stories Without End, the second episode, “Women’s Stories Take Center Stage” opens with “Soaps and Women. What do you think about? Probably catfights.”
I believe the trope actually began with that legendary lily pond cat fight between Krystal and Alexis, which then migrated to daytime.
Regarding “Beyond the Gates,” beyond (no pun. intended:) the first episode, which ended with wife #1 (Dani) punching wife # 2 (haley) in the face with a closed fist (which I found gratuitous, and frankly disturbing), the two example of violence have been character driven.
In both cases — the slap between Anita and Leslie, and previously, Nicole trying to strangle Leslie — those scenes were constructed so physical contact was the inevitable end.
Leslie baited and goaded Nicole so relentlessly that Nichole’s only choices were to walk away — givie up — or attack her.
Of course, either way, Leslie wins.
And as for Anita and Leslie: since Leslie was in the Dupree home, Anita couldn’t have just walked away even if she wanted to.
And while I agree that soaps are about love, they’re also about life — in all its messy complexity.
So great to hear from you old friend. I’m so glad you don’t like catfights either. They are just a very cheap and anti-feminist way for soap writers to stir up trouble.
Growing up our TV only got two channels through a analog antenna. Besides Saturday morning cartoons soaps was probably the most entertaining thing I could watch and that is coming from a guy. So yes I watched fights with Carly on GH and Sammi on Days of our lives. They were on when I came home from school.
So later when Angelina Jolie did Tomb Raider – when Michelle Rodriguez did Fast and Furious – when Ronda Rousey did UFC – when WWE did the women Evolution – it was not a shock or surprise cause I already saw women in physical roles. These are smart women – they showed they can do it.
Soaps should not promote violence with either gender. However life does not always show love and violence does sometimes happen – search on YouTube to see. It’s the writing of the story that is the key. If one is going to write a physical altercation between two women on a soap, then ask why or what it is the motive and does it make sense.
Agree the term should disappear – the cliche look needs to stop. But if Jason on GH can fight and Bill on Y&R can fight = Bradey on Days of our lives can fight – and women shouldn’t. The only place that logic gets somebody is Chuck Norris being an action legend and Sandra Bullock having trouble driving a bus. My point is #METOO did not remove a trope – just another ceiling in Hollywood women may never overcome.