Abstract:

As with all media texts, advertisements repeat and/or transform normative structures or hegemonic discourses in society. The literature on advertising studies in media and women's studies in Turkey mostly argues that women's roles and stereotypes are reproduced in these media contents, parallel to the patriarchal social structure in Turkey. In this respect, advertisements are positioned as derivatives of the social structure. On the other hand, studies claiming that new generation femvertising advertisements distort the conservative femininity discourse by deriving the discourse of empowering women are also in the majority. The two selected advertisements were subjected to Foucaultian discourse analysis. In this study, two television commercials will be analyzed through Foucaultian discourse analysis in order to understand how the current hegemonic femininity discourse in today's Turkey is reproduced and changed throughout the narratives in the advertisements. This article shows that hegemonic femininity discourses in advertisements are reconstructed through various discursive strategies. Accordingly, the traditional conservative discourse of femininity is on the one hand derived, and on the other hand corrupted by the definitions of femininity in postfeminist and neoliberal discourses. Thus, while the hegemonic femininity in today's Turkey is not reproduced by repeating the traditional patriarchal structure, it changes to include new discursive codes. While the representation of femininity presented through these advertisements serves the sales strategies of brands, it also affirms the femininity of upper class women and positions it at the center of the hegemonic femininity discourse whereas it pushes the femininity of low-income women at the center of the conservative discourse to the periphery of the hegemonic discursive formation. Thus, in these advertisements that present the definition of ideal feminine identity in Turkey, the discourse of hegemonic femininity expands in favor of upper-class young women and in support of the brands they consume.

Keywords: