Negotiating identity: gender and Tunisian talk shows

Abstract

Until 2011, there was only one public image of Tunisian woman, defined by characteristics perceived by its leaders to embody the modern Tunisian state. Access to public life and the ability to exercise political, civil, and economic rights, insofar as they existed within heavily state-managed spaces, were predicated on conformity to this image. The uprisings of 2011 lifted the lid of authoritarianism, dissolving the repressive mechanism that had supported the artificial public space engineered by the state. Out of this process came the democratisation of the public view of women. These changes are particularly acute, in a visual way, when it comes to the assertion of multiple expressions of Tunisian womanhood in public, a break from the singular paradigm of ‘The Tunisian Woman' enforced before 2011. In tandem with the radical changes in the political structures, the media too has undergone a democratisation process and reflects the newly articulated diversity of public identities and perspectives. In this way, television media engages in a mutually constitutive cycle with these trends, acting as both a platform and a productive force for plural, political identities. However, television and talk shows in particular have not only served as platforms for the presentation of plural identities but have also emerged as a location for and producer of conflict, debate, and tension over the definition and renegotiation of Tunisian womanhood. This in turn interacts with and impacts the medium itself, as presentation of such a contested and critical subject challenges its capabilities.