Credit: Peacock screenshot

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If I had to guess, I’m going to say quite a few folks are asking that question in the headline about Chanel on Days of Our Lives. Actually, I don’t need to guess, because folks are voicing their opinions pretty strongly! She just spent virtually the whole episode on Friday arguing with and yelling at Johnny, then pushing back against Paulina when it came to her cancer treatment. She doesn’t want to do anything to hurt the baby, even if it’s more dangerous than her.

Thankfully, by the end of the episode, Paulina seemed to convince Chanel that getting a second opinion might be worth it. (Besides, you’re all rich, fly in the best doctor in the world, already!) Of course, that feels like something Sarah and Marlena should have probably suggested when they first saw how upset Chanel was. It would have been better than, “Well, Dr. George may not have a good personality, but he’s fine!” Heck, Marlena’s a therapist — shouldn’t she have understood Chanel’s reaction a bit better? *Ahem* But I digress.

I know Chanel has been rubbing folks the wrong way this week, but can we blame her? Yes, she has been laying into Johnny, and I can only imagine how upsetting it was to have her refer to her baby, instead of theirs. On top of it all, I am a bit mystified by the “baby at all costs” mentality. It has felt fairly relentless. I don’t get it, but at the same time, I’m not a parent. I haven’t been through a miscarriage. I haven’t thought I couldn’t have kids.

It would be nice if she and Johnny could talk through this calmly, but chances are, more people have these types of arguments over patient care than we’d like to admit. And that’s heightened even more when you throw in healthy doses of fear, feeling like no one’s listening to you and being pregnant.

Then there’s that doctor visit. Can we all agree Dr. George was a jerk? I can’t imagine how I would have reacted had my own cancer care team had treated me like that. Whatever Dr. George’s feelings were, he started off horribly and it went downhill from there. This is his job, and he should be prepared for how to handle frightened, upset patients without being dismissive. If you go into something scared out of your mind and things start off wrong, it’s really hard to get them back on track.

Then there’s Chanel talking about higher rates of mortality among women and even more so among Black women. Those are verifiable statistics, and if you’re as worried about what’s about to happen as Chanel, it makes sense to go into the doctor with a ton of research and a host of questions you want answered. And yes, I know that’s getting a lot of attention, some empathizing, some insisting it’s irrelevant.

And I’d gently suggest: If our first reactions are, why bring race into this, maybe it’s worth stepping back and thinking about what the issue is with it. Is it because it’s upsetting or because it’s outside of our experiences? And if we take a tact like Johnny did on Friday and say, “Well, my experience was nothing like that, I’m sure it was just an anomaly,” it might be a good idea to remind ourselves that different people have different experiences.

Johnny was a kid when he went through cancer for one thing, but also, he’s a white man. (Though again, at the time, he was a child.) How he experiences the world and how people treat and react to him is going to be a whole lot different from Chanel. Dismissing something — though that didn’t feel like what Johnny was doing — because another person’s experience isn’t ours undercuts empathy and understanding.

Maybe part of why Chanel’s reacting as strongly as she is because it’s not the first time she’s been treated this way. Add on how cold and impersonal Dr. George was and Chanel’s fear for herself (no matter how much she may try to downplay it) and her child, and feeling like no one’s listening to her worries enough to address them beyond “Just do this,” and “Let’s hope for the best,” all while being pregnant… Is it any wonder she’s reacting so strongly?

But also, above all else, this is a soap. Conflict is its bread and butter, so yeah, everything gets heightened, especially when it comes to arguments and fights. That doesn’t invalidate it tackling a very real issue like gender and racial disparities in health care, even if it’s one that makes people uncomfortable. Once upon a time, soap operas did that on a regular basis. Heck, Days of Our Lives was the first soap to show an interracial relationship between Eli’s parents, David and Valerie!

So yeah, I don’t entirely understand what Chanel’s feeling — but I’m up for going along for the ride. Just please, let folks help you, Chanel! And maybe next time you run across a Dr. George, walk the [bleep] out and find someone better. Again: You are rich! Use it!

Speaking of serious topics, how about cracking open our photo album below of some of the most impactful stories soap operas have told?