Meanings
nounoil opera (plural oil operas)
plural oil operas
- rarebroadcastingAn amoral drama focusing on corporate and domestic struggles, the lead character being a business person fixated on pursuing a resource by any means necessary.
The oil operas pretty much do away with questions of social conscience. There are no moral values as such, only instrumental values which either work or don't work in advancing one to still greater heights of wealth and corporate power.
1992, Michael Parenti, “Affluent Class and Corporate Brass”, in Make-Believe Media, St. Martin’s Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 100
Cite this entry
APA
oil opera. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oil%20opera
MLA
“oil opera.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oil%20opera. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “oil opera,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oil%20opera.
Source: oil opera on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.