Siyasi muhalefetin bir biçimi olarak tahkir: Erken Cumhuriyet dönemi politik mizahında kadınlık halleri ve kadınsı erkekler

Abstract

This study examines how cartoons were used as a propaganda tool between 1923 and 1960. In the modernisation of Turkey and the construction of the nation, gender roles were determined by the founding fathers. This distribution of roles was justified in the dominant discourse which was shaped by patriarchal culture. Ideal women and men of the Republic were one of the reference points of political satire. Because the values that determined the political domain were defined through manhood, opponents of the regime were identified with femininity and states of womanhood, and the founding fathers were identified with images of potent men. Therefore, to "accuse" the regime's opponents of womanhood and femininity is a tradition of political satire in our humour culture. In the cartoons drawn between 1950 and 1960, Prime Minister Menderes was either portrayed as a woman or a strong man. Menderes' body and characteristics were turned into the battlefield of the struggle for political power. While his opponents tried to show him as a woman or a man bearing feminine qualities, disgrace him in the eyes of the public and push him out of the political scene, his supporters were assiduous in portraying him as a strong and influential man. These differing interpretations led to displays of manhood, and it was not questioned why being a woman should be reregarded as a "category of degradation" or "shame" in the patriarchal structure of the time.