Gendering the history of cinemagoing in Izmir, Turkey: Middle-class women’s experiences of cinema in the 1960s and 1970s

Abstract

This article focuses on cinemagoing in Izmir (the third largest city in Turkey) in the 1960s and the 1970s, when the city developed a vibrant cinema culture with its numerous winter and summer cinemas. It attempts to undo the problematic conceptions of homogeneous audiences and cinemagoing experiences by focusing on how gender shaped and constructed the experiences of middle-class audiences. The primary source material for the article is qualitative data obtained from 62 oral history interviews, in addition to the contents of local newspapers and film industry magazines. The article argues that although, for women, cinemagoing was a very meaningful event in itself, it was not a wholly free and easily pleasurable activity. It also suggests that women, like men, went to the cinema to see a variety of films more than they went to socialize, and their choice of films was not limited to supposedly women’s genres. Overall, the article attempts to break with the nostalgic tone in popular and academic discussions of cinemagoing in Izmir and other cities in Turkey. It shows that cinema in Izmir, and possibly elsewhere in Turkey, was not just a forum of collective entertainment and pleasure, but also a locus of struggle.