Netflix Türkiye “Orijinal” Dizilerindeki Cinsiyet Temsilleri Üzerine Feminist Bir Okuma
A Feminist Reading on Gender Representatıons in Netflix Turkey “Original” Series

Author(s): Hasan Cem Çelik
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life, General Reference Works, Geography, Regional studies, Library and Information Science, Sociology
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Netflix; medya temsili; stereotipler; içerik analizi; Netflix; media representation; stereotypes; content analysis
Summary/Abstract: Numerous empirical studies on television, the most widely used mass media today, have shown that television viewing has a significant impact on viewers’ conceptualizations of social reality, gender role attitudes and gender-based behaviors. Therefore, the definition of women provided by television content has a social significance. However, in recent years, the increasing popularity of video-on-demand (VOD) platforms has threatened the long-standing dominance of television, and thus viewing habits are rapidly shifting towards these platforms. However, there are no studies in Turkey that address gender representations in the context of these platforms. In this context, the subject of this study is the gender representations in the “original” series of Netflix, which has the highest number of users among these platforms. Accordingly, the gender representations presented in 107 episodes, which constitute the entire first seasons of 14 original Turkish-made series released on Netflix from 2018 to 2023, were subjected to content analysis. The results obtained were compared with previous basic studies on this subject in the context of television series. The findings revealed that, just like in television series, women are significantly underrepresented compared to men, they are usually characterized in supporting roles, these characters, who are mostly positioned as housewives, are isolated from working life, and that the predominance of female actors such as producers/directors/screenwriters involved in the series production process does not have any effect on gender representations and positive stereotyping. In other words, although Netflix seems to be a carrier of democratic representation with its innovative and libertarian discourses, it continues to tell stories specific to television. The results obtained are discussed in the context of communication scientist George Gerbner’s upbringing theory and feminist theories.

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