Construction of hegemonic masculinity in Turkish biopics

Although the biographical film genre has attracted attention and appreciation since the beginning of cinema, it has also received criticism in the context of the relationship between history and representation. Although there are not many biopic examples in Turkey, the box office success of the films produced in recent years has increased the interest in this film genre. As of 2021, it has been seen that the historical figures that they center in the biographical films shot in Turkey are predominantly men. This remarkable relation has made the partnerships between the figures, which is the center of the biographical film genre, understandable in line with gender studies. The concept of hegemonic masculinity, which R. W. Connell put forward by examining the hierarchical structure of men among themselves, is very valuable in terms of making the construction of biographical films visible. Connell's work, which argues that masculinity has a hierarchical structure including ethnic identity, social status and capital relations, and that it dominates not only women but also within itself, has made quite a stir in the literature. Despite this, cinema has not been adequately evaluated in the context of representation and the dynamic structure of masculinity relations has not been made visible through films. Within the scope of this study, Taçsız Kral (1965), which is one of the first biographical films shot with the formula from the cradle to the grave in Turkey, and Müslüm, which is the fifth most-watched production of all time, made visible the structure of representations that reproduces hegemonic masculinity in line with the parallels of the biographical film narrative. With the acceptance that gender is a performance through performance, the effect of two figures who have left their mark in Turkish history, albeit in different periods and fields, shaping the social memory with similar narrative and expression methods, and the means by which this effect is constructed have been evaluated. This evaluation focuses on the parallels between the narrative and narrative elements of biographical films and certain behavioral patterns that they ignore or glorify, and the construction of hegemonic masculinity.