Brazilian soap operas and birth control - a strong link

A bit of CNN news on how Brazil's soap opera are linked to a dramatic drop in birth rates in Brazil, was brought to my attention by fellow ‘handpicked’ blogger Mark Palmer, as I’m the Brazilian blogger at CABI. Although the CNN news is reporting a new study result on the subject, this is actually quite old news. I remember attending a seminar in the late 1980s, delivered by a Brazilian sociologist, on how the population census had greatly over-estimated the population increase in various South American countries, especially Brazil, because the census hadn’t allowed for the effect soap operas would have on influencing people’s behaviour with regard to birth control. Read on to find out the results of recent research on the subject.

Many Brazilian soap operas (novelas) tend to portray middle and upper-class consumer families who have no more than 2 children. Soap operas followers consciously or subconsciously aim to achieve the life styles they see in these soap’s and having less children is one aspect of the life style portrayed. The CNN article quotes a study by Joseph Potter, a University of Texas sociologist, who has published various papers on population issues in Brazil. The study analyzed 115 Globo novelas aired between 1965 and 1999. It showed that 72% of the main female characters had no children, and 21% had only one child. As Alberto Chong, one of the study's co-author pointed out “they have been a powerful medium through which the small family has been idealized." Despite a religious culture that condemns modern family planning methods, birth rates in Brazil have decreased from 6.3 children per woman in 1963 to 2.3 in 2000. This drop is of a similar scale to that seen in China, where the government has played an extensive and controversial role in controlling population numbers.

As well as fashioning lifestyle choices, the novelas contribute to an increasing awareness and tolerance of difficult social issues. Bruno Gagliasso is the star of one of the most popular novelas in Brazil, where he plays Tarzo, a recently diagnosed schizophrenic fighting not only himself but the stigmas of mental illness. "We're showing a disease that people ignore," he told CNN. "And we're able to expose it to society as a whole." I must also add that many Brazilian soap operas also portrays other more interesting and inspiring issues, including historical issues, such as slavery, for example.

As I searched the CAB Abstracts database for more articles on the subject, I found four, and one of them by Laveaga et al. entitled “Let’s become fewer: soap operas, contraception, and nationalizing the Mexican Family in an overpopulated world” discusses a soap opera aired in Mexico City aiming at deliberately lowering birth rates in the country in the 1970s and 1980s.

Finding opportunities to insert health themes into novelas is described by some in the industry as 'social merchandising' and its effects are quantifiably real. Globo TV executive Luis Erlanger says that one episode, which featured a young girl in tears as her head is shaved in preparation for chemotherapy, prompted 23000 bone marrow donations in the month after it first aired. Despite this, Erlanger is quick to assert that Globo's priority is always with entertainment and that social issues will never dictate plot. But perhaps it should!

The power of the media to change people’s opinion and behaviour is no new finding to any of us, and this is true not just for Brazil or South America, but just about anywhere in the world. We can see how people’s perception and action with regard to being environmentally aware to save the planet has changed in the past decade or so, and more so recently owing to the prominent place global warming and climate change have taken in the world media. Perhaps it’s about time soap operas and film producers, not just in South America but everywhere else in the world, place important environmental issues such as global warming in a prominent place in their soap/film plots, too, to achieve even more action toward protecting the planet. However, there's hope because, as mentioned by Manoel Carlos, Brazilian writer of novelas since 1978, in the CNN news article, he sees the inclusion of health themes and information as a personal responsibility. "Novelas are used to sell cars and freezers, so why not sell some good information?" 

Link to CNN news article

Reference

Laveaga GS, Carrillo H, Bliss KE, Gutmann MC. (2007). Let’s become fewer: soap operas, contraception, and nationalizing the Mexican Family in an overpopulated world. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 4(3), Pg 19-33.

Photo credit: Globo TV web page showing a picture from the penultimate episode of the latest soap.

 

Comments

[Soap opera spoilers All my children]

My Grandmother has watched soap's for as long as I can remember. I would sometimes find myself watching bits and pieces of it whenever she watched it and found it to be very dramatic. I do believe that reality shows have taken over most television stations. For example MTV started out being a place to watch music videos but throughout the years it has become more of a reality t.v. station.

[Soap opera spoilers]

The power of media to change people's opinion and behavior is not new to find any of us, and this is true not only for Brazil or South America, but anywhere in the world.

[Cartuse]

Find opportunities to insert health issues in the novels is described by some in the industry as social marketing and its effects are real, quantifiable.