Sunday, February 16, 2014

Q3 - Marxism and Social Classes

In our last entry, we discussed about the common plots that Teleseryes are tackling at the moment - and one of those is the Rich Man falls in love with Poor Lady, or vice versa, or the rich people are more powerful than the poor ones - in short, Inequality between the social classes.

Last Thursday, we discussed in our Pop Culture class about Social Classes, Marxism and Hegemony. Marxism, which was proposed by Karl Marx, is a method of socio-economic analysis and worldview based on a materialist interpretation, and is also an analysis of class-relations and conflict within society.

In teleseryes, even though we are used of these genres, the rich man-poor lady love affair plot still sells. Numerous teleseryes have been produced using this plot but they still win in the viewers' hearts. Examples are: Walang Hanggan, Mula sa Puso, Ang Lalaking Nagmahal Sa Akin, Villa Quintana and Gulong ng Palad among others. Gulong ng Palad, for one, is the first ever soap opera in the Philippines which started in radio and spawned two television remakes. It's plot is simple - Rich man Carding falls in love with poor lady Luisa and there is Carding's mother Menang who's bound to hinder their love and make Luisa's life a living hell.

In 2005, QTV and Viva Television produced a teen show that was quoted to follow the footsteps of the successful teen-oriented program TGiS - POSH. It's story is about two groups of college teens - the POSH or the rich ones, and the Ka-POSH - or the less rich ones. Their groups would clash until they all discover that two members of the POSH people are not really POSH. Of course, you know what's next for these two characters. However, unlike TGiS and Gulong ng Palad, Posh did not do that well in the ratings that it bid goodbye after 5 months.

I am (and my blogmates are, I guess) a fan of these shows. However, these two shows proved that there is really an inequality in society and thus, social classes really exist. Because these shows would not be created for nothing. As they say, TV shows, most especially teleseryes, reflect the society that is existent today. Not only that, these are also the shows that are rating very well. And why do people watch these shows? It's because they can easily relate to the characters.

And yes, teleseryes are produced, are written, and are created the way we want it. We may say that we are tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. But we still watch them because we see ourselves in the characters, whether the working class being maligned by the ruling class, the working class strives to be better, to be good. And that's what we love about being Filipinos, that despite the inequality, we never stop being better. And that's how teleseryes depict our lives.

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