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Using Transnational Soap Operas to Redefine Beauty in Cameroon

2018; Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa; Volume: 43; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

2521-9863

Delphine Gwanvalla Ngehndab,

African history and culture studies

This article elaborates on the different ways in which some market women in Bamenda, Cameroon, use transnational soap operas to redefine their understanding of beauty. The liberalisation of the audio-visual sector in Cameroon engineered a rise in television stations and an increase in the importation of soap operas causing television stations to constantly search the African-based rental agencies for quality programmes. To increase viewership, imported soap operas from the rest of the world like the Philippines, Brazil, India, China, and Thailand are broadcast on both private and national televisions capturing the attention of mainly women who watch these soap operas at home and at their market sheds. Some women love soap operas and the characters within so much so that their consumption is not without consequence on their daily appearances. From the application of lipstick, foundation, facial powder, nail vanish, dress and hair styles, and skin bleaching, foreign soap operas construct the cultural identities of local women who emulate the appearances of their preferred characters with the justification that appearances in soap operas are modern and contemporary. This article argues that the frequent broadcast of foreign soap operas pressures some local women to remake their bodies in attempts to resemble many of the female protagonists. A multimethod of data collection was utilised to collect data on the various meanings some selected market women in Bamenda make from their consumption of foreign soap operas. Both political economy and cultural studies are employed to capture the cultural exchange between the local and the global. Cet article detaille les differentes manieres dont des femmes du marche de Bamenda (Cameroun), utilisent des feuilletons transnationaux pour redefinir leur comprehension de la beaute. La liberalisation du secteur audiovisuel au Cameroun a entraine une augmentation du nombre de chaines de television et une augmentation de feuilletons importes, obligeant les chaines de television a rechercher en permanence des programmes de qualite dans les agences de location basees en Afrique. Pour augmenter le nombre de telespectateurs, des feuilletons importes du reste du monde, tels que les Philippines, le Bresil, l'Inde, la Chine et la Thailande, sont diffuses sur des chaines de television privees et nationales captant principalement l'attention des femmes qui regardent ces feuilletons chez elles et sur leurs etals au marche. Certaines femmes adorent tellement les feuilletons et leurs personnages que leur consommation n’est pas sans consequence sur leurs apparences quotidiennes. De l’application de rouge a levres, de fond de teint, de poudre pour le visage, de vernis a ongles, de styles vestimentaire et de coiffure, et de blanchiment de la peau, des series televisees faconnent l’identite culturelle des femmes locales qui imitent les apparences de leurs personnages preferes avec comme justification qu'ils sont modernes et contemporaines. Cet article affirme que la diffusion frequente de feuilletons etrangers incite certaines femmes a refaire leur corps afin de ressembler a de nombreuses actrices. Une methode multiple de collecte de donnees a ete utilisee pour collecter des donnees sur les differentes significations que les femmes du marche de Bamenda donnent a leur consommation de feuilletons a l'etranger. L'economie politique et les etudes culturelles sont utilisees pour saisir les echanges culturels entre le local et le global.