The Deconstruction of Patriarchal Honor in Turkish Cinema: An Analysis Of Female Characters Resisting Patriarchy Across Three Genres

In Turkish society, as in all patriarchal communities dominated by an honor culture, the concept of honor, while holding different implications for men and women, is largely reduced to the strict control of women’s bodies. This article examines examples of feminist cinema that challenge the stereotypical portrayal of honor in popular Turkish cinema, which mirror the androcentric values of society. The fiction film Mine (1982), the short film Derin Nefes Al (Take a Deep Breath, 2012), and the documentary Bekleyiş (Expecting a Grain of Sand, 2021) were selected through purposive sampling for inclusion in this study. The study employs qualitative content analysis to examine the female protagonists who resist patriarchal honor codes in the selected long fiction, short fiction, and documentary films produced across different periods.