It’s been a couple of weeks since I last wrote a blog post about diziland and to everyone that has been waiting at the edge of their seat for me to say something about it… I’m sorry? Life has been hectic and every time I try to convince myself to watch a Dizi I remember an awful truth: that the episodes are two and half-hours long. It’s become more and more difficult to dedicate those two and a half hours of my life to watch a single episode of a dizi. However, that being said, I did recently finished re-watching Halka bölüm seven and I think it’s about time that we talked about feminism, Halka, and İrem Muzaffer.
İrem Muzaffer as the Nurturing Women
Halka is a dizi that has received a lot of proclaim in the last few years for being one of the best TV shows to have come from Turkey. With a talented cast, beautiful cinematography, and a complex and intriguing plot, the compliments are well deserved. Furthermore, the female characters in Halka are an impressive cast of complex, strong, and well-loved women.
Yet a name that is not often discussed in regards to strong female characters in Halka is İrem Muzaffer, Cihangir Tepeli’s fiancé. I know it might seem absolutely wild to discuss İrem in regards feminism especially when the general consensus in fandom spaces is that Müjde, Bahar, and Hümeyra are the strong female characters… and İrem is simply not.
İrem is depicted as a docile and doting fiancé. This particular characterization of female characters is rampant in Turkish media. İrem İnceoğlu, a professor in the Faculty of Communication at Kadir Has University, wrote an article called “Gender Representation on Turkish TV”. In the article, she noted that female characters are often depicted as love interests or mothers. These women are often only depicted in relation to the home-life and marriage is often portrayed as the goal for them.1 With this in mind, it is not hard to see how İrem Muzaffer fits into this bleak representation of female characters, while characters like Müjde, Bahar, and Hümeyra subvert this expectation.
The dichotomy between İrem and the other female characters in Halka is very reminiscent to a dichotomy found in the noir genre. A prolific character type in a noir is the femme fatale. The femme fatale is a female character of “intrigue”, that has an active story arc, is seductive, and is usually linked to the criminal underworld. The femme fatale is often depicted as seducing the noir hero and leading him further into the criminal life.2
Her anti-thesis is “the nurturing woman” a passive female character, linked to a light and safety, who provides an “alternative landscape” of hope to that of “the corrupt world in which the male protagonist is ensnared in”. If the male protagonist is ever forced to choose between the femme fatale and the nurturing woman, he always chooses the femme fatale.2
The male protagonist usually ignores this hope [presented by the nurturing women], tempted by the femme fatale into the sleazy and entropic underworld instead. This alternative landscape, in essence, is not a matter of choice for the male protagonist at all as it indirectly contributes to noir’s determinism by intensifying the sense of inescapable entrapment in the underworld.
Jamaluddin Aziz, Transgressing Women: Space and The Body in Contemporary Noir Thrillers
This idea is rampant in Halka. While Müjde might not be a femme fatale in the traditional sense, she is a protagonist with an active story-arc. She is often depicted as having a hold on Cihangir due their romantic relationship, and is explicitly linked to the underworld.
In comparison İrem is a very passive character. Though İrem does find herself ensnared in the crime world, her involvement in the world is incidental. İrem very explicitly offers Cihangir an alternative to the criminal world when they plan to go to Italy together. But as the quote states Cihangir is inescapably trapped in the underworld and the promise of Italy was never a realistic option. The audience knows that nothing would come from this offer because of the hold that the mafia world has on Cihangir.
İrem Muzaffer vs. the World
Just as everyone knows to expect anything from the offer to move to Italy, the characters in Halka (and by proxy the audience) expect nothing from İrem other than the picture of a docile and doting fiancé. İrem is introduced to the audience through Gülay Tepeli, who reprimands her son for his fiancé foul mood. Gülay expects Cihangir to be able to control İrem’s emotions and thus is asking Cihangir to take İrem’s agency away from her. Gülay is in constant conflict with İrem, since she expects İrem to perptually be a pleasant and agreeable fiancé.
Ilhan Tepeli acts similarly expecting Cihangir to placate İrem instead of trying to understand her.
Müjde continuously makes condescending remarks about İrem, eventually going to the extent of dismissing her after İrem tries to involve herself in Cihangir’s world.
Cihangir though he does care about İrem’s well being, is never truly open with her, and keeps her at a distance.
Even İrem’s father, Halit Muzaffer, gaslights Cihangir when he brings up İrem, by brushes aside İrem’s concern and making it seem like İrem is incapable of rational thought.
The Subversion of İrem Muzaffer
However, to completely write İrem off because of her inability to properly navigate the criminal underworld is to do a disservice to her character. İrem is character that continuously goes against the expectation of her character’s stereotype and other character’s beliefs of her. İrem never truly conforms to the role of docile and doting fiancé. Though Gülay continuously tries to control İrem’s emotions and actions, she never submits to Gülay. She ignores the Tepeli’s attempt to placate and control her.
Though İrem doesn’t have the resources to exist in the criminal world like Bahar, Müjde, and Hümeyra, she is not a completely helpless character. She is quite resourceful and quick to think on her feet. When she initially learns about her father’s recordings of Cihangir’s sessions, İrem has enough intuition to know that something isn’t right. İrem goes against her father by trying to open the encrypted files. This makes İrem stand apart from the docile female character that she is expected because she acts against the family unit that she is so often tied to.
This in itself shows her resourcefulness, as she, even without mafia/police connections, can find a means to decode the recording files, through a mutual friend. However, this encounter leads to İrem being attacked. We again see İrem go against the expectations that are put on her, when she can fight off her attacker, which eventually leads to his death. After killing her attacker İrem knows to wipe the crime scene of fingerprints as to not get caught. She also has enough intuition to suspect her father of foul play, a thing that even Cihangir does not immediately do. This eventually leads to her death when she tries to uncover more of Halit’s secrets in an attempt to protect Cihangir.
Halka, Feminism, & Masculinity
Though İrem is quite an accomplished and resourceful character this is still not enough. Most fans don’t acknowledge İrem’s accomplishments maintaining that she is a boring character. This could be because the “strong female characters” in Halka are capable of comfortably navigate traditionally masculine spaces.
Comparing the response given to İrem’s to that of Müjde exemplifies this idea. When Müjde’s enters the crime world she is initially facing some resistance from İskender Akay and Ilhan Tepeli, who disapprove and are dismissive of Müjde actions. However, she eventually receives the support and respect from both of them, a thing that İrem never does. While Gülay is never truly a pleasant character, she does not seem agitated by Müjde’s presence by the end of the show. Cihangir seems unperturbed with doing business with Müjde and her involvement in his world.
Any attempt that İrem makes to exist in the criminal world is immediately undermined or seen as cringey. In comparison, Müjde fits in the criminal underworld in a way that İrem cannot. (A similar dichotomy is seen between Hümeyra Karabulut and Gülay Tepeli.)
Characters like Bahar, Hümeyra, and Müjde are important to see on Turkish TV because they go against dated gender norms depicted. However, it is important to note that they are only strong because of their proximity to the masculine world. Bahar is a competent policewoman and both Hümeyra and Müjde are part of the chauvinist criminal underworld.
In comparison, İrem, and characters like Gülay and Nurten, exist in traditionally feminine spaces, the home. Both Gülay and İrem are emotional women who spend large amounts of their time worrying about their family and being jealous, catty, and vindictive, making them particularly annoying characters.
While it may seem like great feminism to depict strong female characters as “masculine”, this idea undermines feminism because these “strong female characters” come at the expense of femininity.
These badass characters are intended to be a rebellion against traditional gender roles, yet they have become characters that shame other women who don’t rebel. They fall into traps of wanting them to ‘man up’ and suggest that, because they are not like other girls, they are stronger or better. The idea that rejecting femininity makes you strong creates an antithesis in which other, more feminine, characters are presented as weak
Felicity Gardner, The ‘Strong Female Character’ Paradox
This idea implies the feminine is inherently weak and that the only type of strength that exists is masculine. This further perpetuates ideas that are commonly found toxic masculinity, the patriarchy, and traditional gender norms that would depict women as weak and in need and men as strong and providers.
Femininity is not a weakness. There is nothing inherently wrong or bad about being feminine, needing help, or being in touch with one’s emotions. The other issue with this line of thinking is that it is detrimental to feminist ideals because women are pitted against each other because the strong or remarkable women are “not like other girls”.4
A strong character shouldn’t be strong due to ideas about gender roles but because they are developed and multifaceted characters… and İrem is certainly not that. Her entire character arc exists to support a male character, in this case, Cihangir and by proxy Kaan. İrem entire purpose within the narrative is to introduce the idea that Cihangir has changed, leading to the reveal that he has been brainwashed. Since İrem’s entire identity is tied to Cihangir and she no independent plot.5
The Tragedy of İrem Muzaffer
This is the tragedy of İrem Muzaffer. The characters, their actions, and the narrative of Halka all force İrem to be nothing more than “the nurturing woman”, docile fiancé, and a passive character who isn’t supposed to exist in the same sphere as the men in the show. Yet she goes against this image again and again. She is resourceful and smart, willing to risk her familial relationships for her beliefs, morals, and love… But ultimately this is still not enough due to the gendered expectation of what it means to be strong and the weak story arc by the writers.
Further Reading
- İrem İnceoğlu, “Gender Representation on Turkish TV”, in The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication (eds K. Ross, I. Bachmann, V. Cardo, S. Moorti and M. Scarcelli).
- Jamaluddin Aziz, Transgressing Women: Space and The Body in Contemporary Noir Thrillers, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.
- F. J. M. Gardner, The ‘strong female character’ paradox. Epigram.
- A. Valdovinos, The Failure of Strong Female Characters. Impacting Culture Blog.
- Aja Romano, “The Mako Mori Test: “Pacific Rim” inspires a Bechdel Test alternative”, The Daily Dot.
ERICA TALKS SH*T 