ABSTRACT

This article examines the complex and contradictory gendered desires and anxieties that reveal themselves in the representation of powerful women in contemporary global television. Focusing on the internationally most popular TV series of the Turkish TV industry, Magnificent Century, screened in over 75 countries and seen by more than 500 million people, the central objective of this article is to assess the cultural implications of the series’ portrayal of influential and dominant women. Set in the 16th-century, Magnificent Century projects into the past a postfeminist interpretation of history, celebrating competitiveness, self-interestedness, and ambition, especially for its central character Hurrem Sultan, who rises from her slave origins to become a powerful empress. The series promotes women’s individualistic empowerment in a patriarchal world, while recurrently re-asserting male hegemony. Magnificent Century relies on gendered power reversals between femininity and masculinity as its main narrative and affective structure in which postfeminist empowerment and misogyny co-exist. Close textual analysis of the series coupled with examination of online viewer responses demonstrate that popular feminism and popular misogyny have concurrent audience appeal and that the powerful woman is a figure of cultural disquiet in the contemporary global mediascape.

摘要

本文探讨了在当代全球电视中强势女性的表现中所表现出来的复杂而矛盾的性别欲望和焦虑。本文重点关注土耳其电视业在国际上最受欢迎的电视剧《壮丽世纪》，在超过 75 个国家放映，超过 5 亿人观看，本文的中心目标是评估该系列对有影响力的人物刻画的文化含义和占主导地位的女性。设定在 16 世纪，壮丽的世纪将后女性主义对历史的解释投射到过去，颂扬竞争、自利和野心，尤其是其核心人物 Hurrem Sultan，她从奴隶出身成为强大的女皇。该系列在父权制世界中促进女性的个人主义赋权，同时反复重申男性霸权。辉煌世纪依靠女性气质和男性气质之间的性别权力逆转作为其主要叙事和情感结构，其中后女权主义赋权和厌女症并存。对该系列的仔细文本分析以及对在线观众反应的检查表明，流行的女权主义和流行的厌女症同时具有观众吸引力，并且有权势的女性是当代全球媒体景观中文化不安的人物。