If you follow me on social media, you probably are aware that I’m a big fan of the GH Sunday Shift podcast. For those out there who haven’t checked out Sunday Shift, you’re in luck- I’ve embedded this week’s episode further down in the post.
Over the past year, I’ve been lucky enough to get to know one of GH Sunday Shift’s insightful and hilarious co-hosts, Tracey E. Corder. Outside of adding to the GH fandom experience with the podcast, Tracey’s an activist and organizer fighting not just for a better tomorrow, but for meaningful changes in the system that are actionable in the present.
Outside of being a soap fan and a freedom fighter, Tracey’s incredibly kind and thoughtful- I can’t stress that part enough. For example, I was no more than an online acquaintance on Twitter when she offered me her spare ticket to a soap fan event- my very first soap fan event. Not just any event. It was the #VannaLive with GH’s Finola Hughes and James Patrick Stuart. She didn’t ask for money, refused when I offered and probably doesn’t even think of it as a big deal. I’m still very grateful and still blown away by the gesture.
In short, Tracey’s awesome. In this week’s episode of Sunday Shift, Tracey and her (delightful) co-host Tonya Love discuss diversity in daytime and how the soap press fails to see it as anything more than clickbait. Tracey references an article she wrote on the topic from March 2022, and she’s been kind enough to let me publish it here.
Check out this week’s episode of the podcast and the article below.
Thank you, Tracey!
Diversity in ABC Soaps
From Kesha to Trina: The State of Black Women on ABC Soaps
By Tracey Corder
There is no audience like a soap audience. This is just a fact. While other fandoms commit to their shows 1 week at a time, with season breaks in between, soap fans get new episodes 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. The dedication to the drama, the angst and the couplings outweigh the complaints about the pacing, the retconning, and the occasional (what we see as) out-of-character behavior of our faves. If you ask a soap fan why they stick with it the answers vary but for me it is the nostalgia of sitting next to my older sister on the living room floor and sneaking a peek at storylines I was far too young to know about.
As the media evolves our demands for representation evolve as well. It is not enough to have diverse characters present, diverse stories must also be told. That is uncomfortable for some in our soap viewing family. Soaps are about escapism. The community built around a shared language and set of experiences can feel over the top for non-soap audiences but barely register as a cliffhanger for us. Regardless of our background we have a shorthand with other soap viewers; we understand what it means for a kid to be SORAS’d or share a wink and a smile when a character is killed off screen but we don’t see the body.
That camaraderie can make it hard for white soap fans to understand why there was an uproar last month on Twitter when the General Hospital account tweeted a picture captioned “The women of Port Charles are not to be messed with…” but only featured white women from the cast. The pushback of the critiques came as quickly as the critiques themselves. “Don’t we all love these heroines,” people wondered out loud? This was clearly about scheduling, “you know no one behind the scenes intended to exclude the other actresses of color, right?” Well, intent and impact are two very different things.
With generous assumptions about the team behind the scenes I do not believe that there was any malicious intent behind the photo. Commitments to inclusion demand eyes and ears toward the impact on the audience. Having someone on the social media team who took a beat and questioned why a show that highlights their diverse cast would ever have a promotion that didn’t also highlight that diversity would have made all the difference.
Diverse stories make our shows richer, and General Hospital certainly has the talent on cast. There is an excitement every time Lydia Look’s Silina Wu is on screen, many Black women clamored for Jordan and Portia to be friends instead of romantic rivals, and Phyllis deserves to be more than just a confidant for Sonny and Nina. The online fandom surrounds the character of Trina Robinson with so much support because the history of Black characters on ABC Soaps, even beyond General Hospital, is a sore subject. In many unfair ways the weight of a whole genre’s worth of history sits on the shoulders of her former and current portrayers.
Take All My Children’s Reggie Montgomery who showed up to Pine Valley in 2003. Though Michael B Jordan played the character for 3 years, the role was originated by our beloved Chadwick Boseman, who in a now famous story was replaced by Jordan for refusing to play Reggie as he was written. Saddled with every stereotype you can think of (absent father, juvenile criminal record, gang member, etc), Reggie was pitied by a white character who grew up in the foster care system. There was little analysis of the racial dynamics that made their situations very different, instead the common and unchecked white savior trope of the 80s, 90s and early aughts became the focus. Despite all of this Reggie became a central member to very important families, even calling THE Erica Kane his step mother. Then one day, as quickly as he came, Reggie disappeared from the canvass.
I was born the year that Angie Baxter married Jesse Hubbard and I know their story as if I watched it in real time. The show that gave us the first Black supercouple could have and should have done better by Reggie Montgomery.
A few years later, in 2009, One Life to Live introduced Destiny Evans. Destiny was a smart and kind outcast who had an unrequited crush on legacy character Matthew Buchanan. The outcast girl who gets the guy in the end is not an unusual story arc for soaps, but when a young Black girl is made to be further “othered” when she is already in the minority the story feels different for audience members. Destiny went on to win Matthew’s affections before becoming pregnant from their first sexual encounter. Another sour note for fans was the recasting of Destiny to a thin, light skinned Black woman when the show moved from broadcast television to a streaming platform.
Long-time General Hospital viewers remember back to the 90s when Jason Quartermain woke from his coma and treated Keesha Ward like not only a stranger but an enemy unworthy of respect. In the early aughts on One Life to Live Evangeline Williamson and John McBain were known for their intense chemistry, yet Evangeline was on the losing side of a love triangle in favor of pairing John with a white character. It is possible that those behind these decisions did not even consider race to be a factor in the pairings, but not considering race often leads to out-of-touch storylines and characterizations. With Keesha and Evangeline at the top of mind, it is no wonder that fans are protective of Trina Robinson. The current General Hospital “teen scene” is carried by five characters, 4 white and 1 Black who are now college aged. While the show has done a great job of highlighting Trina as brilliant and accomplished, she has been lacking in romantic pairings. Aside from the supernova anticipated coupling of Sprina (Spencer Cassadine and Trina Robinson) every teenage male who has been in and out of their friend group has shown favor to her blonde best friend, Josslyn Jacks.
In a move to transition the teen set into more adult storylines, the writer’s made the decision to send Trina, the only Black character, to a secluded cabin where she was isolated with all white characters. Trina was portrayed as the fifth wheel as she was secretly drugged and humiliated by her potential love interest’s now girlfriend. On its face this could be considered typical soap behavior, after all we once saw Greenlee Smyth throw a girl overboard a boat for getting between her and the object of her affection on All My Children.
But Trina is not just another soap character, she is a Black girl, and the optics of isolating, drugging and humiliating her echoed real life stories in a way that could not be ignored. Going into the weekend after the story aired fans mobilized online to call the General Hospital comment line and voice their concerns on what many found to be a triggering and callous plot. Did anyone think that the writers pulled painful stories from the real life headlines? I surely did not. I think they were writing a story they found interesting without fully thinking through the impacts, which is still inexcusable.
Even prior to the now-infamous cabin trip, many online raised alarms about Trina being the 3rd wheel. The object of her affection, who returns her affection in spades, currently has a girlfriend. The other 2 teens on the show are also coupled up, leaving Trina alone. Having the only Black girl in the crew seen as “undesirable” by her peers is not a story that allows for the escapism we crave.
The arrest of Trina will see a young Black woman navigate her way through the legal system after being falsely accused of a crime by a young white woman. General Hospital has shown nuance and care with their approach to gender in the current revenge porn storyline. While the leak of an intimate and private moment happened to both Josslyn and Cameron, the fallout for the two will be different. It would serve the show, and the audience, to take a similar nuanced and thoughtful approach to race with Trina’s storyline from arrest, to arraignment, to exoneration.
None of this is to say that General Hospital has not done some things right, on the contrary, I believe there is opportunity for improvement and the willingness to do so. The building of the Ashford Family is a delight to see onscreen and Vernee Watson-Johnson as Aunt Stella is a gift to daytime. Trina is beloved onscreen and off, she is a well written and well rounded character who is truly a breath of fresh air. The fact that she began as a side character and had family and storyline built around her shows a commitment to telling more diverse stories. The departure of Sydney Mikayla leading directly into the recasting of Tabyana Ali illustrates the depth of the show’s investment. There are not enough words for me to express my excitement over Sprina and the potential their story has to bridge newer and veteran actors. Though his portrayer just left the canvass, getting Shawn Butler out of jail for a crime that he didn’t commit and showing the bond that he has with his son TJ is excellent. There are endless possibilities to build on this genre and this show we all love.
Here are some things that all daytime soap operas can do to show a commitment to diversity and inclusion :
- Make sure you have diverse voices in the room AND that they are empowered to speak up. It’s not just about the demographics of your writer’s room, it’s about whether they have the power and job stability to create and dissent when necessary.
- Characters from diverse backgrounds are not ornamental, tell stories that display and respect every part of their humanity. Collaborate with actors so they can bring in their real life experiences and the experiences of their communities.
- Remember that the status quo got us to where we are now and our charge is to do better. If you find yourself saying “well this is how we’ve always done it” follow it up by asking “and who has that excluded?”
- A commitment to diversity is not a one-shot, it has to be weaved throughout your storytelling. It should actually shift what you write and the way that you write.