With the rapid growth of television networks, viewership has increased manifold. This has given rise to a number of daily soaps, 'serials' as we call them. They revolve around various themes, like love, family and marriage. They often touch upon various women's issues. From teenagers to grandmothers, the entertaining story-lines of these serials have got the audience hooked on to them. Watching them have become a part of our daily lives.

With the rapid growth of television networks, viewership has increased manifold. This has given rise to a number of daily soaps, 'serials' as we call them. They revolve around various themes, like love, family and marriage. They often touch upon various women's issues. From teenagers to grandmothers, the entertaining story-lines of these serials have got the audience hooked on to them. Watching them have become a part of our daily lives.

Imposing Archetypes: The Ideal Woman vs The Vamp

Most of these daily dramas revolve around complexities of family, marriage and relationships. Since these serials are immensely popular, they have a great impact on our minds: the way we perceive others, the society and their roles in that society. These serials create stereotypes, like "the ideal woman" and "the bad woman". These characters carry decisive attributes which are depicted via the plot. These attributes influence our outlook. We tend to judge others based on these created archetypes.
Daily soaps depict Indian values through joint families and its bahus (daughter-in-laws). It is interesting to observe how these 'values' are steeped in patriarchal settings. The roles, in which women are shown, sometimes become unrealistic.