Masculine states and victimacy in Metin Erksan's melodramas during the golden age of Yeşi̇lçam: Ölmeyen Aşk (1966), Reyhan-Dağlar Kızı (1969), Sevenler Ölmez (1970)

In prehistoric times, gender discrimination, which included only biological differences, evolved into the phenomenon of gender with the socialization process. Many tools such as religion, customs, laws, institutions and art have served to impose gender practices on individuals and to create a heteropatriarchal social order. The heteronormative gender regime recommended by patriarchy has become transferable through different tools as a result of technological developments during the modernization process. Among these tools, cinema has an important place in influencing the masses. The fact that cinema has various aesthetic and stylistic narratives also differs in the transmission of masculine ideology. The genres that emerged within the classical narrative cinema, hybridized and derived over time and still continue to function perfectly in the transfer of ideology and its adoption by the masses. Melodramas within genres; It appeals to almost all levels of society, such as men-women or married-unmarried couples. In addition, it easily fulfills its ideological function because the plot is easy to understand and is based on identification. The popular narrative based on genres found in Hollywood influences Yeşilçam cinema, which developed as national cinematography within our own culture.While encompassing many genres, the most notable types of films were produced during the golden age of Yeşilçam. Melodramas produced in this direction, while carrying all the melodramatic elements, are fed by the culture of our own society and convey or impose gender role norms. According to many researchers in the field, the general opinion is that gender victimizes women the most, but with increasing studies in the process, it has been understood that men are also victims of patriarchy. In this study, the films Ölmeyen Aşk (1966), Reyhan-Dağlar Kızı (1969) ve Sevenler Ölmez (1970) are chosen to analyze in order to look into the man being the other victim of masculine oppression. These examples are chosen in Metin Erksan's filmography, who shot the most flamboyant melodramas in the golden age of Yeşilçam, because they contain the most melodramatic elements in terms of their aesthetic and stylistic features. Afterwards, the victimization status of the male representations in these films concerning the masculinity construction process was revealed on the four main norm axes in Robert Brannon and Samuel Juni's (1984) masculinity scale. As a result, it has been understood that the male representations in Erksan's melodramas go through a difficult physical and psychological process in fulfilling social role norms, and at the end of this process, the characters transform drastically into new selves. It has been understood that Erksan's melodramas are not concerned with adopting patriarchal norms, but convey the grievances of the male representations in a realistic way.