Postfeminism a la Turca Postfeminism in New Turkish Romantic Comedies

Abstract

This essay analyzes how postfeminism is constructed on a visual level in the Turkish context. It uses theories of postfeminism to discuss new popular romantic comedies of Turkish cinema by comparing the new female protagonists with the women portrayed in Yesilcam melodramas. Three films-Kocan Kadar Konus (dir. Kivanc Baruonu 2014) Hadi Insallah (dir. Ali Taner Baltaci 2014) and Ask Nerede? (dir. Semra Dundar 2015)- are analyzed from a postfeminist perspective opening up a new scholarly discussion about the place of postfeminism in the Turkish cinema. These films represent what may be termed Turkified postfeminism which has been commonly discussed for the Western world but not sufficiently taken into account for Middle Eastern women.