Forbidden Attraction or "El Noveno Mandamiento"

FORBIDDEN ATTRACTION or “EL NOVENO MANDAMIENTO” The influence of Telenovelas in Mexican Society

NATALIA COSÍO DEL RÍO REGIONAL STUDIES LATIN AMERICA Prof PhD Pablo Nicolás Biderbost

3º E-5 2015/2016

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

Natalia Cosío del Río

INDEX 1. Introduction.

2. Origin of Telenovela in Mexico and development until nowadays.

3. Telenovela Today. Industry of Telenovela in Mexico and incomes. Televisa.

3.1 TV purchase (Telenovelas included) in Mexico.

4. Influence of Telenovela in Mexican society.

4.1 Influence in population.

4.2 Survey: Concept of Telenovela in current society. Analysis of results.

5. Conclusion.

I

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

Natalia Cosío del Río

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento” The influence of Telenovelas in Mexican society

“Soap opera seems to be a dirty word, but actually they are the most popular shows we have. People want to know what happens next, people hate the villains and love the lovers. “ Dan Stevens1

1. Introduction.

Remember those days of summers when apathy and boring comes to you, you did not have nothing to do and you joined your grandmother that was watching a Telenovela probably called something as “Terrible Passion”, “Wild Cat”, “Rubi” or whatever. Furthermore, probably you would sing very well-known songs of Telenovelas as the RBD soundtrack or “Hidden Passion” main theme.

Not only you started to be interested in that chapter where the main character was terribly betrayed but you also got engaged and next day you were the first who turned on the TV and played the next chapter.

This is the “effect” of Telenovelas. They are tremendous sensitive, and they are finding always to engage the viewer and make him feel inside it. Nevertheless, Telenovelas try (and they achieve it) to show the ideal life of the viewers: extremely beautiful characters, usually rich, with strong feelings that always have a solution to their problems. The end of Telenovelas are always a comfortable resolution, where the bad is punished or a “Karma-victim”, and the good is always winning, solving his life and living in peace for the rest of his years.

2. Origin of Telenovela in Mexico and development until nowadays.

The original birth2 of Telenovelas is something not clear because we can find different opinions. Some experts confirm that the origin took part in Cuba, and not in Mexico or another country as we could think. There were a kind of chapters of a usually love story which popularity growth and those stories were moved to the Radio (radionovelas), where those stories and dialogues were performed by women and men. Finally, those stories were moved to the Television and then we can find the first Telenovelas. Writers3 of that chapters, after Cuban Revolution, had to move to Venezuela, Mexico and U.S.A. 1

Dan Stevens is an English actor also known because of his role as Matthew Crawley in the TV Series “Downtown Abbey”.

2

ACOSTA-ALZURU Carolina, quoted by SARABIA, Martha; “Cómo nacieron las Telenovelas”; La Opinión Online edition, September 15th, 2014; web: http://www.laopinion.com/2014/09/15/como-nacieron-las-telenovelas-aqui-tienes-larespuesta/ 3

Delia Fiallo and Inés Rodena were two of these original writters of Soap Operas, and they wrote the original guidelines of really current famous Soap Operas as “The rich also cry”, “Rosalinda”,“La Ursurpadora”. ACOSTA-ALZURU Carolina,

II

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

Natalia Cosío del Río

However, Ana Bertha Uribe Alvarado, professor of Colima´s University, Mexico, supports that Telenovelas in Mexico were originated with the appearance of Film Industry, which original dialogues were copied of that kind of chapters and small stories.

Furthermore, Rosy Ocampo4 supports than even though Mexican telenovelas were influenced by Cuban “radionovelas”; the first Telenovela (that is Mexican), “Senda Prohibida” appeared in 1958 broadcasted by Telesistema Mexicano and written by Fernanda Villeli.5 Fernanda Villeli

From the first “Senda Prohibida” to the newest “Las Dianas”, the industry of Telenovelas has experienced an incredible development and has gained popularity. Not only Telenovelas are a mass entertainment but Telenovelas are also as Ana Bertha Uribe Alvarado supports, an academic instrument and a way of giving some values. As we are going to discover later, the influence of Telenovelas has been noticed also in the decreasing of levels of sexist violence and raising of sexual health, so the impact has been also good for society. But the main reason of their existence is that are really popular: the spectator that is waiting the next episode experiences an incredible catharsis with the characters, and they want to aspire to an ideal Mexican social canon that seems as good as in Telenovelas.

3. Telenovela Today. Industry of Telenovelas in Mexico and incomes. Televisa.

The development of Telenovelas during last years until Nowadays in Mexico should be linked with the development of Televisa: the leader of Telenovelas industries probably in the whole world.

Mexico was the first country of Latin America which had an “opened” TV channel6, so their shows became popular in the whole region, and Televisa was the main producer of that popular shows. Founded by Emilio Azcárraga Milmo in 1973 (as a result of the Merge between “Independiente de México” and “Telesistema Mexicano”). The name of Televisa is the acronym of “Televisión Vía Satélite”. After merge and foundation of current Televisa, the company lived a process of international expansion so they started to export their contents to other channels as Univision7, they entered in the Mexican Stock Market in 1990 and finally in New York´s Stock Market

quoted by SARABIA, Martha; “Cómo nacieron las Telenovelas”; La Opinión Online edition, September 15th, 2014; web: http://www.laopinion.com/2014/09/15/como-nacieron-las-telenovelas-aqui-tienes-la-respuesta/ 4 Rosy Ocampo is executive producter and director of Televisa.

5

Fernanda Villeli was probably the first Mexican Telenovelas´ writer, autor of succesful Soap Operas as “Senda Prohibida”.

6

CALDERÓN, V.; “Telerrealidad y telenovelas como vía de escape”; Mexico October 16th 2015, source: "EL PAÍS”, http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2015/08/21/television/1440183543_906023.html 7

Perfil de Televisa; September 5th 2014, http://www.televisa.com/corporativo/quienes-somos/763271/perfilcompania/

III

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

Natalia Cosío del Río

in 1993 (Dow Jones index). During last years of last century in 1997, Emilio Azcárraga Jean ascended to the Presidency of the company.

It is said that the history of Televisa is intrinsic to the history of Television in Mexico8, thereby the industry of television in Mexico was developed mainly because the growth of Televisa. The company leaded the Mexican TV during hegemonic and eternal government of PRI9, not only when Televisa was finally founded but precedents of the same owner as Televisa also were the leaders during those years. Nowadays Televisa has four different channels given by the Government until 2021, they control 55% of privated TV Market (Cablemás, Cablevisión, SKY and Megacable) and 68% in opened TV Market.10 After Reading this data you will think that Televisa has the monopoly and a hegemonic position in the TV industry not only in Mexico but in the whole region also. Thus, you are truth: Televisa has an obvious, powerful political influence. Since its origins, the company has growth rapidly and without problems at time to have new channels or frequencies. Non-the-less, during last 2006, Mexican Parliament modified the Federal Telecommunications Law and Radio & Television Law because the common-known “Televisa Law” without any kind of amendments or modifications and approved in seven minutes by unanimity (during the Government of Vicente Fox). “Televisa Law” was enacted for favour the duopoly formed by Televisa & TV Azteca, so both companies nowadays are the alone leaders in the TV Market.

Jesús Polanco (PRISA Group, Spain) & Emilio de Azcárraga (Televisa) signing an agreement in presence of Vicente Fox

The fast growth of Televisa was possible because their political support (and more during the long government of PRI) but also because their businesses point of view. They were focused in popular classes11 because these people are the major consumers of television as we are going to analyse later.

3.1 TV purchase (Telenovelas included) in Mexico.

Mexico is a high consumer of TV and Media. 98,8% (2011) of population have TV12, a really high percentage of consume. Not only TV Purchase is high but it is also high purchase of private 8

RICAURTE, P; “Televisa, el gigante de los medios en México”; March 12nd https://mediosfera.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/televisa-el-gigante-de-los-medios-en-mexico/ 9

2011,

source:

2011,

source:

Partido Revolucionario Institucional.

10

RICAURTE, P; “Televisa, el gigante de los medios en México”; March 12nd https://mediosfera.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/televisa-el-gigante-de-los-medios-en-mexico/ 11

Emilio Azcárraga Milmo: “Nuestro mercado es muy claro: la clase media popular. La clase exquisita, muy respetable, puede leer para ver qué dicen de Televisa. Ellos pueden hacer muchas cosas que los diviertan; pero la clase modesta, que es una clase fabulosa y digna, no tiene otra manera de vivir o de tener acceso a la distracción más que la televisión” 12

RODRÍGUEZ GÓMEZ, R.; “Televisión, televisoras y crisis educativa en México”; Seminario de Educación Superior Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Campus Milenio nº 542, January 9th 2014; source: http://www.ses.unam.mx/publicaciones/articulos.php?proceso=visualiza&idart=1911

IV

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

Natalia Cosío del Río

television and the growth of this percentage. Furthermore, the average of TVs per home is two or more. According to a research published in 2009-2010, in Mexico there is at least a TV turned on more than eight hours per day, level that has growth significantly. Purchase per capita is more than four hours in a day. TV Purchase from Monday to Friday is 78,5% and 72,9% during weekends.

About social classes that are consumers of Telenovelas, 60% are from low classes, 30% middle-income classes and 10% from high-incomes classes. Surprisingly, 40% of men like Telenovelas.13 So we can conclude that telenovelas´ audience come mainly from low and middle classes, which usually are related to low-education levels so are more vulnerable to be influenced by the “Non-reality” shown in television.

Family is also the nucleus of the consumption of Telenovelas.14 About the youngest audience, we have to talk about children. I have found different studies that say different things about teenagers: one part say that teenagers consume so much TV but for example other ones, say the contrary. Although, the most part were agree about the impact of television and Telenovelas in children. Children are a “daily” consumer but high-level consumer, I mean that they have more free time and they are a really “addictive” audience, and in a society as Mexican where women are usually at home taking care of their children, it is related also to the relation that children could have with their mothers. Furthermore, in case of girls is more accentuated than in boys because girls prefer usually to watch this kind of stories than other games.15

4. Influence of Telenovela in Mexican society.

4.1 Influence in population.

Television is an industry and it works according to necessities of people. So if people want to see Telenovelas, TV companies are going to “produce” more. Even though there is not a concrete theory about the real influence or if Telenovelas are an instrument to educate population, it is true that Soap Operas or Telenovelas are part of the Mexican culture and those Telenovelas create a kind of stereotypes which are relevant and influent in society.16 Not only Telenovelas are part of Mexican 13

AGUILAR DÍAZ, M.A; ROSAS MANTECÓN, A.; VÁZQUEZ MANTECÓN, V.; “Telenovelas: la ficción que se llama realidad”; Política y Cultura, nº. 4; 1995, pages. 173-185; Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad; Xochimilco Distrito Federal, México; source: http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/267/26700412.pdf 14

If I had more pages I would write about that, but it is interesting to read this article in relation to women, home and Telenovelas, because it is true that in Mexican society which has a high presence of women at home, they are going to be the major consumers of Telenovelas. “Durante el día, el orden doméstico está normado desde la presencia de la madre,(…). Encontramos que la televisión está encendida la mayor parte del día y que desempeña distintas funciones: en la mañana despierta a los miembros de la familia, se mantiene como compañía durante el arreglo de la casa, o bien, cumple funciones de "nana" de bebés que aún no caminan. A las 13 horas es ocupada por los niños que regresan de la escuela y se mantiene encendida hasta las 23 ó 24 horas. Muchos no pueden dormir sin la televisión. En general, las mujeres son el grupo más vinculado al medio, en especial las amas de casa.” AGUILAR DÍAZ, M.A; ROSAS MANTECÓN, A.; VÁZQUEZ MANTECÓN, V.; “Telenovelas: la ficción que se llama realidad”; Política y Cultura, nº. 4; 1995, pages. 173185; Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad; Xochimilco Distrito Federal, México; source: http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/267/26700412.pdf 15

AGUILAR DÍAZ, M.A; ROSAS MANTECÓN, A.; VÁZQUEZ MANTECÓN, V.; “Telenovelas: la ficción que se llama realidad”; Política y Cultura, nº. 4; 1995, pages. 173-185; Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad; Xochimilco Distrito Federal, México; source: http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/267/26700412.pdf 16

“A pesar de esto en México la telenovela está considerada como cultura, algo de lo que hasta la fecha no se tiene información certera pero podría considerarse como cultura propositiva educativa, sembrando estereotipos en la

V

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

Natalia Cosío del Río

society but they are also a reflex of social aims in the sense that they represent diary dilemmas and common problems. Have you ever noticed that Telenovelas show usually really high standards of life? At the end, the major consumers of Telenovelas are common people who want to achieve better life standards and they aspire to that.17 Outside the major countries of Latin America, telenovelas are negative seen. One of the questions of the Survey I did was to ask to respondents a brief description of Telenovelas in three words. The major answers were negative words as “bored, long, for not really intelligent people, over-acting, poor plot, bad quality…”, in spite of describing it also with words as “love, drama, conflict…”. However, inside Latin America, Telenovelas are considered as something intrinsic to culture as we have seen before and they are something really popular (is not a myth).

Mexico is a prolific consumer of Telenovelas, which represent their culture and society and create stereotypes of economic class, gender…18 None-the-less consequences of that enormous influences are variated, from positive to negative and discussions about that influence are still taking part.

A) Negative effects.

On one hand, Telenovelas in Mexico have usually the same structure: predominance of main characters of women of not really high life standards in company of men with high quality of lives so there is a kind of predominance of high social classes.19 Considering telenovelas as something educative could be dangerous in the sense that they are not “planned” for being something to use in education; and also some of purchasers do not make contrast between the life shown in Telenovelas and real lives.20 Finally, they are going to be totally identified with characters, in the sense that they are going to imitate their behaviours even though they are not real people, so Telenovelas are also an instrument to “install” certain behaviours between people. It is said that

sociedad vulnerable.”; ZARAGOZA, EMMANUEL; “Consumo de Telenovela: Análisis e influencia social.” May, 28th 2015; Prezi: https://prezi.com/-1riummbopf_/consumo-de-telenovela-analisis-e-influencia-social/ 17

“El deseo y la presión de las mayorías por conseguir mejores condiciones de vida, es decir, nuevas aspiraciones y demandas que emergen desde los mediados de los setenta, con nuevos modos de acción política y de participación ciudadana.” MARTÍN-BARBERO, J.; from BURBANO, G.; PhD “Impacto e influencia de la telenovela de ruptura “Francisco el Matemático” en la sociedad de Quito”; SEK International University; Quito, Ecuador; September 2003 18

MARIASOLE RAIMONDI, M.; “La telenovela en América Latina: experiencia de la modernidad en la región y su expansión internacional (ARI)”; Instituto Real Elcano; April 4th, 2011; ARI 74/2011.

19

ULLOA & LÓPEZ ISLAS, 1999 quoted by: “¿Qué fue primero las telenovelas o la cultura mexicana?”;September 13, 2015; Medioesfera; source: https://mediosfera.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/que-fue-primero-las-telenovelas-o-lacultura-mexicana/ 20

“Hoy en día la televisión ocupa el lugar central en el diseño del hogar. Es punto de referencia obligado en la organización de la vida familiar. Está siempre disponible, ofrece su compañía a todas las horas del día y de la noche” , GÓMEZ F.H; quoted by: “¿Qué fue primero las telenovelas o la cultura mexicana?”;September 13, 2015; Medioesfera; source: https://mediosfera.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/que-fue-primero-las-telenovelas-o-la-cultura-mexicana/

VI

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

Natalia Cosío del Río

“Mexican Telenovelas are a cultural symbol because they are part to normal lives as far are an imitation of that.”21 Major part of the studies about the Influence of Telenovelas in society agree in the point that Telenovelas are a reflection of real society as we pointed before (making difference with for example, Bollywood Industry which is more a way for distraction as the films produce there are always rounding around love, marriage, and naïve sex). So Telenovelas show problems that real society have but they “positivize” that problems even though there are not “positive.” (SARLO).22 Furthermore, there are some studies about the negative effect of Telenovelas in Human Brains. For example, according to a study made by Erwin Hollinger, professor from Salzburg University, Austria, Telenovelas could be as bad for human brain as certain drugs because it produce apathy, irritability… But also, teenagers that consume from 4 to 10 hours per week watching Telenovelas, have lower marks according to a study made by the “Centro Nacional de Evaluación para la Educación Superior”, between years 1994-2002.23 There are some authors (OROZCO GÓMEZ, 2006) that defend than nowadays, Telenovelas are a simply product of marketing and are designed for “selling” more; so they are not created in order to make population identified with characters and situations of Telenovelas but they are created for growing levels of audience.24

21

“Las telenovelas mexicanas son un símbolo de nuestra cultura así como también forman parte de nuestra vida cotidiana pues son un reflejo de ésta. No importa cuánto haya cambiado nuestra forma de ver las cosas, es un hecho que la cultura está basada en tradición y en historia. Nuestras telenovelas son un reflejo de la sociedad de hace muchos años (…).”: “¿Qué fue primero las telenovelas o la cultura mexicana?”;September 13, 2015; Medioesfera; source: https://mediosfera.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/que-fue-primero-las-telenovelas-o-la-cultura-mexicana/ 22

(…)¿Por qué tanta dramatización en la televisión latinoamericana? (…) ¿No será porque el drama es una forma básica de lo ritual? (…) ¿No será que, más allá de la mala actuación, de la pobreza estética, de lo reaccionarias que sean las telenovelas, en la dramatización hay un momento poético, (…) algo que le permite a la gente romper la inercia de la vida cotidiana, reencantar su vida cotidiana?" (…) esa disconformidad que expresa la novela, producto de las mismas disconformidades del público, son en realidad temas que se tergiversan de manera que parezcan de influencia positiva, cuando en realidad son negativos. Por ejemplo, en "Dulce Amor" (…). El villano al final tiene "un castigo", pero acaso después de tantos años, (…) Esa idea maniqueísta del bien y el mal, es un concepto erróneo que los medios infunden en la sociedad.

“Las telenovelas crean estereotipos que influyen negativamente en la sociedad.”; source: http://www.monografias.com/trabajos94/la-telenovelas-crean-estereotipos-que-influyen-negativamentesociedad/la-telenovelas-crean-estereotipos-que-influyen-negativamente-sociedad2.shtml 23

DE REGIL, M. “Las Telenovelas tienen efecto negativo sobre el cerebro.”; El Financiero; July 25th, 2012; Mexico; source: http://www.mediasolutions.com.mx/ncpop.asp?n=201206250420025001&t= 24

“¡La telenovela y quienes la realizan hoy en día parecen estar simplemente preocupados por venderla! Para ello junto con la telenovela se despliega toda una “estrategia de marketing”. Y esta estrategia, (…) busca solamente su aceptación.

La telenovela, entonces, muestra imágenes atractivas, como las de sus actores, semidesnudos masculinos y femeninos, y muestra rasgos de moda, (…), que al presentarse con caras y cuerpos atractivos se hacen apetecibles a los ojos de los televidentes, y por tanto consumibles.” GÓMEZ OROZCO, G.; “La telenovela en México: ¿de una expresión cultural a un simple producto para la mercadotecnia?”; Comunicación y Sociedad, nº. 6, July-December 2006; pages 11-35; Universidad de Guadalajara Zapopan, Mexico; source: http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/346/34600602.pdf

VII

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

Natalia Cosío del Río

B) Positive effects.

According to the survey I did, conception of Telenovelas is not really positive extended population. But if it is true and undeniable that the imitation of roles from Telenovelas could be used for expand good values, and surprisingly once I researched about the topic I discovered new positions that I could not realize before. Telenovelas are a continuous explosion of drama and feelings (MONNEREAU, 2006) and also they give messages in the easiest way possible: throw television, cheap and comfortable.

Teenagers are active consumers of Telenovelas, some of the most famous telenovelas were produced for young people as “Rebelde”, which songs were sung (by me and my friends for example) by a lot of teenagers across the world. But also, they spread behaviours between young people that could be positive for the development of those difficult years. For example, about drugs and sex in adolescence, a Taboo topic which is difficult to discuss in their own families.25 Never-the-less, some of that Telenovelas produced for young audience (even though they were watched also by all people), spread some healthy behaviours between teens as for example “Game of Life”, in which main characters were women playing football so the growth of this sport was significant.

Positive effects are of course related to the impact on economy of Telenovelas. In 1997, Televisa earned $100 million, increased in $400 million in 2008, near to incomes of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Warner Brothers, Paramount and Universal.26

Main Characters of “Rebelde”, the most popular Telenovela between Young people.

4.2 Survey: understanding Telenovela in current society. Analysis of results.

For this essay I designed a Survey in order to form an idea about the conception of Telenovela´s in our current society and out of Mexico. Even though I asked 10 questions, I am going to focus in some of them (results and images attached in the Annex at the end).

At first, I collected 37 answers so I could take the study seriously. These answers were not only from Spain but also from Turkey, France and Greece. For contextualize, 62,5% of the participants were between 18 and 25 years old, and also I took some answers from people between 40-50 (major part of the rest 37,5%).

Second question was about the purchase of TV of respondents from 1 to 5 that in conclusion were not really active at time to watch TV programs, so 60% of them answered with 1 or 2 which means that they are not really engaged with TV. This answer was related to consume of Soap 25

COSTA, C.J; “Las telenovelas: un aspecto positivo para los adolescentes.”; November 21st, 2008; source: http://coye11.blogspot.com.es/2008/11/las-telenovelas-un-aspecto-positivo.html 26

BOSCÀ, C.: “Las mejores telenovelas de México. ¿Es un buen negocio para invertir”; Rankia Forum; June 11st 2013.

VIII

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

Natalia Cosío del Río

Operas, answered also with really low levels of Telenovela´s purchase. Furthermore, I asked later about some famous Telenovelas, if the respondents had seen it, had not seen it or at least know its existence. It is curious to know that the major part of them have never watched these Telenovelas that apparently are the most famous telenovelas of history, but it is curious that the results shown that names are at least known and also they have seen some of the most popular Telenovelas. I asked about 10 different telenovelas as RBD, Ugly Betty, Forbidden Attraction, Pasión de Gavilanes…

“Ugly Betty” was the most popular, at least 61,54% of polled have seen it; followed by “Pasión de Gavilanes” (48,57%) and “RBD” or “Rebelde” (47,22%).

In the survey I asked about the country that respondents thought that produce more Telenovelas. It is curious to see that many of them though that were produced in Colombia (25%) and Venezuela (25%) but Mexico won (42,5%). In conclusion, people are conscious about the impact in the Mexican economy that Telenovelas have, and also that Mexico is the major producer of it.

The question which caused more impression was about the catharsis lived by the respondents with Telenovelas. I asked: “From 1 to 5, have you ever felt identified with: Main Character, Characters, Socio-economic situation, Feelings and emotions, Story, Script, Historical Context.” Answers were variated but also surprisingly as far as all the respondents have been identified with Feelings and emotions given by Telenovelas, which means that these TV series express something that usually happens to ours. Furthermore, at least the major part of them have been identified with the Main Character, secondary characters and also Historical Context.

Finally, I asked about if respondents would invest in Telenovela´s industry, question which had 46,15% of positive answers, and 53,85% negative ones. But as we have seen before, economic forums as Rankia (really important in Spain) have evaluated the positive effect of investment in Telenovela´s industry.

5. Conclusion.

It is not easy to have a firmly opinion about this topic. On one hand I am very disappointed with the treatment that telenovelas have on women and society. They usually show spectacular but not common women which general want to achieve success being as bad as hell; or they show poor women but beautiful and naïve that with that “silly innocence” and their beauty achieve the man they love or the richness. I am not sure if this image of women is the best to give in a society that is mainly “male chauvinist” and where abuses and discriminations are common. Mexico, as I have experienced and I have Mexican friends and testimonies that are real (and not fiction), is a country where discrimination is higher than we think. Women are used to be force to leave their common works when they get married (really early too), or they are force to leave their studies. Furthermore, is not “really good-seen” that a woman marry works so she is going to be completely dependent to a man. Men have completely power over women, and abuses and mistreatments (psychological and physical) are continuous, linked to infidelities and rejections to women. I could be more positive with a country that apparently is growing and gaining importance but as far I know Mexican people that is living it (and more in rural society, because Mexico D.F has other reality usually, but we should not forget that Mexico is not a urban country in major part), I cannot.

On the other hand, I cannot forget the “positive” impact of Telenovelas in economics and sometimes in society. As I have explained before, there are so many studies about the positive effects of Telenovelas in Mexican population, but also there are some curious studies about the

IX

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

Natalia Cosío del Río

impact that Telenovelas have had in sexual health, teenagers pregnancies, and sometimes in drugs consumption. It is true that this positive effects should come from other sources as better education, new culture values, modernization of society and economic development in middle and low classes.

However, it is really difficult to improve a not really develop society from “nothing”, I mean, that we should adapt ourselves to them for create a better society from the basis: using the methods they use to conscious society that in Mexico as we have seen during the research, is Television in a really important percentage.

6. Bibliography.  DE REGIL, M. “Las Telenovelas tienen efecto negativo sobre el cerebro.”; El Financiero; July 25th, 2012; Mexico; source: http://www.mediasolutions.com.mx/ncpop.asp?n=201206250420025001&t=  COSTA, C.J; “Las telenovelas: un aspecto positivo para los adolescentes.”; November 21st, 2008; source: http://coye11.blogspot.com.es/2008/11/las-telenovelas-un-aspectopositivo.html  BOSCÀ, C.: “Las mejores telenovelas de México. ¿Es un buen negocio para invertir”; Rankia Forum; June 11st 2013.  MARIASOLE RAIMONDI, M.; “La telenovela en América Latina: experiencia de la modernidad en la región y su expansión internacional (ARI)”; Instituto Real Elcano; April 4th, 2011; ARI 74/2011.  AGUILAR DÍAZ, M.A; ROSAS MANTECÓN, A.; VÁZQUEZ MANTECÓN, V.; “Telenovelas: la ficción que se llama realidad”; Política y Cultura, nº. 4; 1995, pages. 173-185; Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad; Xochimilco Distrito Federal, México; source: http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/267/26700412.pdf  ZARAGOZA, EMMANUEL; “Consumo de Telenovela: Análisis e influencia social.” May, 28th 2015; Prezi: https://prezi.com/-1riummbopf_/consumo-de-telenovela-analisis-e-influenciasocial/  BURBANO, G.; PhD “Impacto e influencia de la telenovela de ruptura “Francisco el Matemático” en la sociedad de Quito”; SEK International University; Quito, Ecuador; September 2003  RICAURTE, P; “Televisa, el gigante de los medios en México”; March 12nd 2011, source: https://mediosfera.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/televisa-el-gigante-de-los-medios-enmexico/  RODRÍGUEZ GÓMEZ, R.; “Televisión, televisoras y crisis educativa en México”; Seminario de Educación Superior Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Campus Milenio nº 542, January 9th 2014; source: http://www.ses.unam.mx/publicaciones/articulos.php?proceso=visualiza&idart=1911  CALDERÓN, V.; “Telerrealidad y telenovelas como vía de escape”; Mexico October 16th 2015, source: "EL PAÍS”, http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2015/08/21/television/1440183543_906023.html

X

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

7. Annex. Survey Questions.

XI

Natalia Cosío del Río

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

XII

Natalia Cosío del Río

“Forbidden attraction” or “El Noveno Mandamiento”

XIII

Natalia Cosío del Río