Volume 96, Issue 40
Friday November 8, 2002
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Y&R? Why not?
Double
latte
Kristina Lundblad
Deputy Editor
There is a certain type of stigma associated with people – namely women – who watch soap operas. Most people assume soap operas are just for lazy, depressed housewives, who don't have a life of their own and, therefore, must live vicariously through the television set every weekday.
I have been watching The Young and the Restless for almost 10
years. Throughout my Y&R days, I have gone to high school, graduated university
and now work 50 hours a week. Stick going to pubs, reading and working-out
in between that, and my schedule is – and always has been –
packed.
I am not a housewife, one could hardly call me depressed and, as for me being lazy – I wish I had the time.
No, my world does not come to a standstill every day at 4:30 p.m. when
Y&R airs, although I can't say I've ever missed more than five
episodes.
I've only been able to feed my obsession because I set my VCR to tape it every day at 4:30, and it never fails.
I tape it so I can indulge in Y&R when I have the time (of course,
with taping a show, you can fast forward the commercials, thus watching
two episodes in the time it would usually take to watch one – efficient
entertainment to say the least).
As for women watching soaps to live vicariously through their TVs to make up for their boring lives, I guess there could be a little truth to that.
My life is far from boring, but Y&R is, well... less boring.
People always criticize soaps for being filled with shallow, beautiful, rich people and their overly dramatic lives.
But that's why fans watch!
This world of escape I enter when I can't sleep at 2 in the morning or when I'm lying on the couch on a Sunday afternoon nursing my hangover may be unrealistic – but it is wonderfully so.
It's romantic, scandalous, suspenseful and even a tear-jerker at times – it's entertainment, after all, just like any other.
Like The Simpsons, Monday Night Football or a really
intriguing novel, soap operas pull you in and leave you wanting more.
Maybe your favourite hockey team is getting better each day and making
it into the playoffs. Maybe my favourite Y&R couple is about
to get married after three years of a torrid love affair. See? It's the
same thing – neither of us can stop watching now.
So, you choose Marge and Homer; I choose Victor Newman and Nikki – it's as simple as that.
Now let me go home in peace and find out if Victor will ever find out that his ex-wife Ashley stole his sperm and artificially inseminated herself.