The reflection of the struggle against male violence on digital platform TV series: Hükümsüz and Mezarlık

Abstract

On digital platforms, patriarchal ideology-challenging works are more widely available. The television series Hükümsüz, which debuted on the Exxen platform in 2021, and Mezarlık, which debuted on Netflix in 2022, have established themselves as pioneering projects that raise awareness of the rise in femicides in Turkey in recent years. The Mezarlık dramas, which also reveal the role of the police and the state in the murder of women, and the Hükümsüz series, which emphasizes that femicides are caused by gender inequality and calls into question the patriarchal order, are both examined from a feminist standpoint in this study as works that challenge male dominance. The representations in the dramas are coded in terms of gender roles, perpetrator responsibility and the victimisation of women in the representation of male violence, the politics of femicide and the responsibility of the state, and practices of combating male violence. Using content analysis, one of the qualitative research techniques, it was possible to determine that the series were composed in a way that was intended to undermine the patriarchy, which is a continuation of the prevailing ideology.