ABSTRACT
The main focus of feminist audience research has been on genres aimed at a female audience. Much important scholarship has been published exploring which aspects of media appeal to women. In 1982, Dorothy Hobson published a study of the soap opera Crossroads, while in 1991 Christine Geraghty produced a study of soap operas in which she identifies some of the common conventions that appeal to women. These include strong female characters and a focus on personal relationships set within the domestic sphere. Janice Radway explored the genre of the romantic novel in a study entitled Reading the Romance (1991; 1st edn 1984).
