Imagine you live the life of a woman on a Turkish TV series. You probably have been humiliated, insulted, raped or even forced into marriage at some point in your life.

Perhaps you have been made fodder for jokes, as your husband throws eggs at you, punches you in the face or forces you to spend the night inside a suitcase. And if you find out your husband is having an affair, you obviously would then out of irrational jealousy beat the other woman.

The women portrayed above are all fictional characters in actual prime time TV programs, which audiences can encounter as they turn on TV every evening in Turkey. Some are comedies, others are dramas but the depiction of women is rather cookie-cutter across the board, experts and activists agree.

Media paint women as “helpless” and often co-responsible for any violence they suffer, researchers Asa Elden and Berna Ekal said during a lecture on gender in media last week at the Swedish Consulate General in İstanbul.

Women's rights activist Pınar İlkkaracan agrees, arguing that women are viewed as weak characters and victims who accept violence without any reaction. Emphasizing the myths surrounding domestic violence, İlkkaracan told Sunday's Zaman: “On TV, I see women who like tough guys who beat them and do not react against violence. I have talked to over 2,500 women who were subjected to domestic violence. There is no such thing.”

The activist, who has been involved in the fight against domestic violence for 20 years, stressed that the depiction of women on Turkish TV is very troubling, although there have been slight improvements in the last decade.

“Violence has sadly been shown as a comedy element on TV for years. There are an infinite number of such shows. Women are shown as they are beaten and while they are helpless. The men who beat women behave like machos and are harsh with women have been portrayed as upstanding human beings. We have suffered a lot due to this,” she said.

Negative reviews

Such shows and stereotypes have received overwhelmingly negative reviews in Turkey, especially among female viewers.

Viewers en masse have spoken out about their uneasiness with many of the series. A recent survey by the Tourism and Culture Ministry found that 70 percent of Turkish society complained about the content of all TV programming. In past surveys, female viewers in Turkey have said women are most commonly portrayed in TV shows in either a maternal role or as a sex object.

How gender violence should be addressed in media, however, is more of a contentious issue.

People continue to watch the very programs about which they complain, Family and Social Policy Minister Fatma Şahin pointed out last month with regard to the findings from the media perception survey. “I am making an appeal to everyone,” she said. “We both complain and do not know how to control our remotes.”

Meanwhile, Tourism and Culture Minister Ertuğrul Günay has suggested that the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), a government watchdog agency, either blurs images of violence against women like it has done with cigarettes on TV or moves these shows to a later time slot so as to protect children from such exposure.

But many experts and women's rights activists call such measures unnecessary.

Improper handling

According to experts and activists, the problem is not the visibility of gender violence in the media but how this sensitive topic is handled on the airwaves.

Coordinator of women's rights group Uçan Süpürge's (Flying Broom) Selen Doğan, in regards to the impact of irresponsibly broadcast gender violence, told Sunday's Zaman, “There is a culture of violence that enters our homes during prime-time without us being aware of it.”

If done correctly, Ekal told Sunday’s Zaman, “The visibility of gender violence on TV can raise awareness and be positive.” The gender violence researcher provided as an example the once highly controversial TV drama “Fatmagül’ün Suçu Ne?” (“What is Fatmagül’s Offense?”), which had been criticized for encouraging sexual violence against women.

Last year, NGOs called for the series, in which a young woman is forced to marry her rapist, to be pulled off the air. But in the past year, the producers have begun promoting women’s rights groups and messages so that the show now actually advances the portrayal of women on TV, Ekal said. Fatmagül was originally portrayed as the ultimate victim, but because of the public outcry, the show’s producers transformed her character into an empowered woman who is not afraid to put up a fight.

More Turkish TV series must take note of the changes “Fatmagül” made in dealing with such a serious problem of the country, experts argued. İlkkaracan said, “There has been a little increase in awareness since the 2000s, but this is still very limited.”

Elden and Ekal, defining the role of the media on such a sensitive and relevant problem facing the country today, called the media “actors in shaping and reshaping the issue of violence against women.” Thus, media should be more responsible in how they present women, even if the subject matter is fictional.

Activist İlkkaracan emphasized that what must be done is to show that women overcome violence and stand on their own two feet. “Women must be portrayed as empowered beings. Not as a victim, but as a survivor,” she said.

Doğan agreed that the media must tackle, not support these harmful stereotypes of women. “We need media content that opposes gender roles that allow violence and even legitimizes it. The media can be a partner in the fight against domestic violence only if it dares to question these roles,” she said.

İlkkaracan, stating there are still many women who are subjected to violence, advocated that these women must be shown as empowered characters. “‘Someone else does it [overcomes domestic violence], so I can too,’ she [an abuse victim] should be able to say. Domestic violence must be treated as a subject on TV, but only like this.