Women in Turkish Cinema: Their Presence and Absence as Images and as Image‐Makers

Abstract

Women have been present as images in Turkish cinema since its beginnings although, in terms of active involvement in the industry and positive, unbiased images that represent the modern Turkish woman, their visibility is still questionable. After an introduction to the representations of women in early films, before and after the establishment of the republic in 1923, the article draws attention to the most common binaries of the ‘fallen woman’ and naive but morally correct wives/mothers/sisters who occupied the commercial Yeşilçam cinema for decades. These clichés have been abandoned with the evolution of women in modern Turkish society. The new generation’s priorities are the burning issues in modern Turkish society – unemployment, exclusionism, lack of proper education to gain social and economic autonomy and the remnants of the feudal mentality are still dominant, especially in the rural milieu. This article tries to break the prevalent clichés (particularly in the West) about not only Turkish cinema but also Turkish woman and her status in Turkish society.