Turkey: Women fed up of sexist media

Half of the population of the world ? and of Turkey ? is made up of women, but the rate of women represented in decision-making capacities in the Turkish media is only 15 percent. A women's media group in Turkey has set out to fix the imbalance.

On the front pages of Turkish newspapers only 21% of the names that appear are of women, and 49% percent of the time, their names appear in magazine and advertisement sections. What this shows is that men still hold the more news-oriented and leadership positions in media.

The Women's Media Watch Group (MEDİZ) has launched a campaign to bring an end to sexism in the media and to watch, diagnose and expose media sexism. One of the activities in the campaign was a conference called ?For a non-sexist media? held at Bilgi University on May 12-14. The dramatic conditions for women in society and the representation of women?s problems dominated discussions.

The research project
One of the striking exchanges was related to a research project called ?Diagnosis and exposure of sexism in the media? conducted by lecturers from Galatasaray University within the scope of the MEDİZ campaign, which revealed that women are not represented and barely exist in the media?s ?kitchen?, so serious gender problems also fail to find an adequate place in it.

?The number of women media members is really low, especially in the decision-making mechanisms of media? said Galatasaray University lecturer Özlem Danacı Yüce, emphasizing she is hopeful that this situation might improve with time. ?In the past five years, there have been changes to this situation in the media. So it is possible that we can make it better.?

In the whole of Turkey only 12 percent of newspaper columnists are women, and even so, these columnists do not represent or write widely about female issues. These female columnists tend to focus on magazine and daily life subjects or politics, while men tend to concern themselves with the more ?serious? issues that are rarely related to gender.

Another striking reality highlighted by the research is that women do not appear on the news debate programs at all. 100 percent of the news analysts on Turkish television news shows are men.

The campaign
The Turkish Women?s Media Watch Group also organized a sit in protest against sexually discriminatory advertisements in front of the Advertisers Association in İstanbul last weekend. Anti-barbie doll and sarcastic slogans denying love affairs with sheets, curtains and stain removers characterised the protest.

?We are fed up with the sexually discriminatory language, discourse and mentality dominant in media in general and we are tired of the creativity in the advertisements that does really not create anything new? said a MEDİZ spokeswoman in a press release. ?We are fed up,? she continues, ?of watching women on T.V dance with surface cleaners and passionately attached to their curtains – in order to sell your products, can you not find any other creative way than using women?s bodies, feeding on all sorts of implications and taboos about sexuality??.

The women?s media watch group highlights that the implicit messages in T.V ads portrays housework as a fun, female job – ?Do you really think that housework is a cheery job done dancing with brooms?? asks MEDİZ ? and the idea that women?s dreams amount to new curtains and stainless floors.

The women from the association are calling for an end to ?paper doll? women of the advertising world, and for ?real? women to take the centre stage. ?We do not want to see advertisements that produce sexuality and sexual prejudices or that reflect sexual taboos. We condemn all these advertisements that promote sexual discrimination and violate the mental and bodily integrity of women and we do not consume these products? , said the MEDİZ press release.

MEDİZ is inviting everyone responsible for advertising, the Advertising Self-Regulatory Board, the Advertisers Association, and the Turkish Association of Advertising Agents to act responsibly, the consumer organizations to struggle against the sexual discrimination in advertisements, and all women to not buy the products with advertisements that degrade women.