The Representation of Women in Press: the Example of Turkish Media
WOMEN ARE OUR HONOUR!
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In Turkey, analyzing media is somewhat difficult work. Because, media is a male-dominated branch. In fact, the problem of being dominated by men is faced with almost every aspect of life. Moreover, the scholars go further and explain this domination as a beginning of the new discourses which are called as the separate spheres. The doctirne of separate spheres assumes that woman’s place is in the home and man’s place is in the labor (Haas& Hwang, 2007: 55). Altough the employment for women are seen in every field, media is the most difficult working area to be involved for women. They are not the subject of it, they are always the object of media.
Representation of women in the media is not only the desires of audiences’ desires, but also the choice of the one who exercise power. Since there are conservative tendencies in Turkey nowadays, the contradictions are derived from this tendencies. In the press one can see a news about one of the newspapers’empolyer and his wife. While he does not want his wife to wear mini-skirt, his first demand from his woman announcer is to wear a mini-skirt. Media is interested in women’s hemline, not even more. It is the perception of most of the feminist tutors. This means existing only in name. In the media or in the working areas women are subordinated ones. This fact is valid for years. It is because individuals are taught in this way. What a child sees in everyday life is the example of his future attitudes. This truth can be seen almost everywhere in the world. For instance as a Swedish Context, it has same understanding. Many narratives from the past tell us how women were often characterised as the saviour of the family economy. When the boys started working, wround twelve years age, girls stayed at home and helped their mothers with cooking, care of younger siblings, sewing, animal breeding and keeping, as well as the continuos washing of the boys’ and husbands’ working clothes (Lundqvist,
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In Turkey, analyzing media is somewhat difficult work. Because, media is a male-dominated branch. In fact, the problem of being dominated by men is faced with almost every aspect of life. Moreover, the scholars go further and explain this domination as a beginning of the new discourses which are called as the separate spheres. The doctirne of separate spheres assumes that woman’s place is in the home and man’s place is in the labor (Haas& Hwang, 2007: 55). Altough the employment for women are seen in every field, media is the most difficult working area to be involved for women. They are not the subject of it, they are always the object of media.
Representation of women in the media is not only the desires of audiences’ desires, but also the choice of the one who exercise power. Since there are conservative tendencies in Turkey nowadays, the contradictions are derived from this tendencies. In the press one can see a news about one of the newspapers’empolyer and his wife. While he does not want his wife to wear mini-skirt, his first demand from his woman announcer is to wear a mini-skirt. Media is interested in women’s hemline, not even more. It is the perception of most of the feminist tutors. This means existing only in name. In the media or in the working areas women are subordinated ones. This fact is valid for years. It is because individuals are taught in this way. What a child sees in everyday life is the example of his future attitudes. This truth can be seen almost everywhere in the world. For instance as a Swedish Context, it has same understanding. Many narratives from the past tell us how women were often characterised as the saviour of the family economy. When the boys started working, wround twelve years age, girls stayed at home and helped their mothers with cooking, care of younger siblings, sewing, animal breeding and keeping, as well as the continuos washing of the boys’ and husbands’ working clothes (Lundqvist,
References: Elvin-Nowak, Y., & Thomsson, H. (2001, June 3). Motherhood as Idea and Practice: A Discursive Understanding of Employed Mothers in Sweden [Electronic Version]. Gender & Society, vol. 15, pp. 407 – 428, from http://www.jstor.org.till.biblextern.sh.se/stable/3081891?seq=4 Hirdman, A. (1998). Male norms and female forms: the visual representation of men and women in press images in 1925, 1955 and 1987, 225-254. [Electronic Version] Linda Haas, & Hwang, C. P. (2007). Gender and Organizational Culture: Correlates of Companies ' Responsiveness to Fathers in Sweden. [Electronic Version] Gender & Society, vol. 21,pp. 52 – 79, Sage Publications, Inc, from http://www.jstor.org.till.biblextern.sh.se/stable/27640946?seq=4 Lundqvist, Å. (1999, November). Conceptualising Gender in a Swedish Context, [Electronic Version], vol. 11(3), pp. 583-596 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.till.biblextern.sh.se/doi/10.1111/1468-0424.00165/pdf