High art, no art: The economic and aesthetic legitimacy of U.S. soap operas

This article examines how two types of legitimacy, economic and aesthetic, have unfolded for U.S. daytime soap operas. By constructing a history of soap operas, I describe how soap opera storytelling developed and later diffused across American genres and around the world. While soap operas gained widespread acceptance as a viable way to conduct business (economic legitimacy), they did not gain widespread acceptance as “works of art” (aesthetic legitimacy). I argue that soap operas did attain local aesthetic legitimacy in select groups (e.g., soap fans and producers) and postulate why that view is not shared more broadly. This article elucidates the mechanisms that foster and inhibit both economic and aesthetic legitimacy.