Continuum

Journal of Media & Cultural Studies

ISSN: 1030-4312 (Print) 1469-3666 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ccon20

The (re)production of a rape culture through film:

Turkish cinema’s love affair with rape

Tuba Inal

To cite this article: Tuba Inal (2017): The (re)production of a rape culture through film: Turkish
cinema’s love affair with rape, Continuum, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2017.1287259

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2017.1287259

Published online: 02 Feb 2017.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 55

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ccon20

Download by: [Hacettepe University] Date: 17 April 2017, At: 07:15

Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 2017
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2017.1287259

The (re)production of a rape culture through film: Turkish

cinema’s love affair with rape
Tuba Inal
International Program in Politics and Economics, University West, Trollhättan, Sweden

ABSTRACT
Sexual violence is a pervasive problem that continues to affect many women’s
lives around the world. The cultural environment enables the continued
perpetration of these crimes and the (re)production of these cultural
environments as well as their subjects through visual arts, particularly
cinema. In this article, the mutually constitutive relationship between the
rape culture in Turkey and Turkish cinema, with its particular themes and
characters, is explored and described in order to shed light upon the social
setting that both produces and consumes the rape-themed movies while
normalizing and allowing rape.

In early 2008, Pippa Bacca, an Italian artist, started a walk for world peace. Her hitchhiking trip from Milan
to Israel and Palestine dressed as a bride also passed through Turkey. As a woman travelling alone, many
in Turkey thought that she was putting herself in grave danger due to prevalent rape culture. Seeing
the news of her disappearance and subsequent brutal rape and murder in April of that year (Povoledo
2008), was therefore not shocking to Turkish people.
An internet search of the word ‘rape’ (in English, with Google search engine) produces about two
hundred million results. The most popular results are articles about what rape is, types of rape, rape
statistics, rape crisis centres, news about rape cases in various countries, websites of non-governmental
organizations working against rape and for rape victims, wartime rape, trials, laws, etc. Searching the
word ‘tecavüz’ (the word for rape in Turkish) produces around twenty-two million results. There are
no scholarly articles about rape or any information for rape victims at least until after the first couple
of hundred results. There is some news about recent cases of rape, but the top trends reveal that the
top five searches from Turkey are ‘porno tecavüz’ (porn rape), ‘tecavüz izle’ (watch rape), ‘tecavüz zorla’
(rape by force), ‘tecavüz sex’ (rape sex) and ‘tecavüz pornosu’ (rape porn) (‘“Tecavüz” Search Results,
2004-Present’ 2015). The unfortunately fascinating part of the search is that almost half of the results
(which are the most popular and updated ones) are video results inviting you to watch a rape scene
from a Turkish movie: ‘rape scene in movie X,’ ‘rape scene in movie Y,’ ‘watch rape videos from Turkish
movies and have fun’ (see e.g. http://search.izlesene.com/?vse=tecav%C3%BCz). The top four related
searches are also three actresses who have videos of rape (either actual or in a movie) and one televi-
sion series based on the theme of rape (‘“Tecavüz” Search Results, 2004-Present’ 2015). Similarly, when
you start to type the name of any movie or television series with a rape scene in it (of which there are
many) on YouTube, the most commonly searched terms that you get along with that name appearing
under the tab are almost always ‘rape scene.’

CONTACT  Tuba Inal  [email protected]

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2    T. INAL

The intermingling of Turkish movies, rape and fun in the social consciousness of Turkish society which
made Pippa Bacca’s and other women’s rape and murder unsurprising is the subject of this article. One
interesting picture that binds Pippa Bacca, the rape culture in Turkey, and Turkish cinema together is a
1988 Turkish movie called Arabesk (Arabesque) (Eğilmez 1988). In the movie, which is a comedy about
earlier Turkish movies, the female protagonist escapes from her wedding. While walking on the side
of the road, a truck stops and offers her a ride. Once she gets into the truck she is raped by the truck
driver. Afterwards, she continues to walk, her bridal gown torn to shreds, and she comes across three
men by the road. She asks for help and tells them that a truck driver raped her. The three men say, ‘Why
didn’t he invite us!’ and they gang-rape her. Next she enters a coffee house (with all-male customers)
to ask for directions. All the men stand up and say, ‘Let us show you mamma’ while unzipping their
pants insinuating that she will be gang-raped again. The whole situation is shocking but is presented as
humour. Its purpose is to parody older Turkish movies with similar scenes such as a 1976 movie, Mağlup
Edilemeyenler (Those That Cannot Be Defeated) (Yılmaz 1976). Similar to what we see in Arabesk, the
female protagonist in this movie is kidnapped and gang-raped. It happens a day before her wedding
so she has her wedding gown with her when she was kidnapped and she has to walk down the road
wearing it after the attack because her other clothes were stolen by the rapists.
Having these women in a bridal gown, some on screen, another in real life, the question is, ‘Why could
Pippa Bacca walk and hitchhike across Eastern Europe in a bridal gown, travel two thousand kilometres
without incident, yet be raped and murdered soon after she entered Turkey?’1 What is it that exists in
the social consciousness of Turkish society that not only made this incident possible but also expected
and predicted in a movie twenty years before? Finally, how can we understand the connection between
Turkish movies’ handling of rape, which is so eagerly searched and watched on the internet, and the
social consciousness of Turkish society that normalizes rape? Through a content analysis of the most
popularly searched/watched Turkish movies, this article aims to provide an illustration of the way in
which cinema and rape cultures interact and mutually reproduce.
In the first section, I will explore the literature on the relationship between cinema/media and the
social consciousness of a society with particular attention to rape narratives in movies. Various studies in
different disciplines on the effects of cinema/media on individual and societal attitudes and behaviours
will be explored in order to make sense of the ways in which rape cultures, i.e. rape-enabling environ-
ments are created. In the second section, I will turn to Turkish cinema with its particular themes and
characters reflecting and contributing to the rape culture. Using some of these theoretical tools, the
themes will be analysed that are cultivated regularly in Turkish cinema including: (1) rape as a normal
form of sex, shameful for the victim (with social consequences) but trivial for the rapist (with no social
or legal consequences); (2) the rapist as a slightly crazy or sly and calculating but inherently funny
person; and (3) the victim as the faulty character precipitating rape. The two famous ‘rapists’ of Turkish
cinema, Coşkun Göğen (‘Coşkun the rapist’) and Nuri Alço (‘Nuri the soda pop’) and their movies from
the 1970s and ‘80s will be given special attention as the epitome of the rape theme in Turkish cinema.

Theoretical overview: social consciousness and rape culture

One of the prominent sociologists of the early twentieth century, Charles Cooley, argues that social con-
sciousness is the totality of the ideas held by the social mind and is produced and reproduced through
social interaction and influence (Cooley 1907, 679). The way this social consciousness is produced and
then finds its reflection in the individual mind and behaviour is the subject of many empirical socio-
logical and psychological studies and related theories (Carnagey and Anderson 2003).
Humans learn behaviour through the socialization process. In the modern world a big part of this
process consists of learning through a screen (what is sometimes called growing up in a ‘media ecology’
[Ito et al. 2010]). One of the earliest media theorists, Marshall McLuhan, argued that media has funda-
mentally changed the way we view the world (McLuhan and Fiore 1967). What started as exposure to
print media, radio, cinema and television in early modernity later became exposure to the internet,
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES   3

video games and multiple sources of social media, all contributing to individuals’ self-image, images
of others and interpretations of events and phenomena.
In order to account for the interactive construction of the individual and social minds as well as the
impact of visual stimuli on this construction, several studies have been conducted. Earlier studies in
psychology, starting in the 1960s, found that people learn behaviour by observing other people in the
society either directly or indirectly, such as through the media and other visual materials. They also
found that watching other people being rewarded or punished (or not punished) for certain acts teaches
these behaviours. Later studies demonstrated that watching aggressive behaviour activates aggressive
ideas in individuals and makes them find violence acceptable in their future interactions with others,
which may include the perpetration of sexual violence (Anderson et al. 2003; Bandura, Ross, and Ross
1961, 1963; Smith and Donnerstein 1998, 177–179; Vega and Malamuth 2007).
Cultural and media studies have also looked at the relationship between rape scenes and themes in
movies, rape cultures and individual minds. David Marshall, for instance, describes a process where the
spectator identifies with the scene on screen while he transports himself into a character’s shoes, open-
ing up ‘the possibility of experiencing their violence’ (Horeck 2003, 109) and normalizing that violence.
Script theory, similarly, proposes that humans learn behaviour through scripts, or cognitive structures,
that contain ‘causal linkages, goals, and action plans’ (Carnagey and Anderson 2003, 92, 93). People
find a role for themselves in the script, and then apply these scripts to the situations they encounter.
The scripts may be film narratives or other ordinary life occurrences providing tools for socialization of
individuals into particular forms of behaviour, including sexual behaviours. Rape scripts in movies, for
instance, can turn into cognitive structures about where, when, to whom and by whom rapes happen
and provide individuals a role to play in a possible script they encounter in the future (Manohar and
Kline 2014, 234; Ryan 2011).
Films and their narratives are not only providers of scripts to individuals but also to societies: they
‘assume a permanent, quasi-mythic status in a society’s consciousness’ (Snead 1991, 53). They both rep-
resent the world and take part in its construction (Buchanan and Johnson 2009, 38). Precisely because
of this effect, sometimes even a single movie gets public reaction as a potential poisoner of public
morals. A movie in the early twentieth century, for instance, was banned in parts of the United States
and faced public concern in others because people thought that ‘the representation of sexual behaviour
outside of marriage [in the movie]… would unduly influence working class women and result in the
spread of immoralities’ (Rabinovitz 1998, 128). Similarly, a recent television series in Turkey about an
extramarital affair between a woman and her husband’s nephew sparked considerable debate over its
possible impact on public morals (Milliyet 2010).
Films may ‘challenge or destabilize dominant “structures of feeling”’ or they may reinforce established
modes of thinking and judging, mobilize political effects, and produce particular kinds of subjectivities
(Buchanan and Johnson 2009, 36, 47, 48). Through the narratives, the sounds, the music, the words
chosen, the colours in the background, i.e. through all kinds of visual and audio stimuli, films help us
to perceive whatever is happening on screen with our entire bodies (Buchanan and Johnson 2009,
56). While movies affect individual and social cognition through the learning process, they also leave
precognitive marks on our memories: ‘The pervasiveness of representations of rape naturalizes rape’s
place in our everyday world, not only as real physical events but also as part of our fantasies, fears,
desires and consumptive practices’ (Projansky 2001, 3).
Looking at the effects of long-term violent media consumption, cultivation theory and desensitiza-
tion theory also demonstrate links to increased violence as well as acceptance of violence (Carnagey
and Anderson 2003, 94, 95). Consistent exposure to particular messages, such as rape myths2 or rape
scenes, may cultivate beliefs that myths are reality or desensitize the audience to the point that they
start believing in the triviality of sexual violence. Empirical studies revealed that ‘thought patterns, sexual
arousal patterns and other responses are modified by exposure to sexually violent depictions’ and that
repeated exposure to films with rape scenes (e.g. in pornographic movies) has a ‘desensitizing’ effect that
contributes to the production or reproduction of sexist attitudes as well as false and prejudicial beliefs
which are called rape myths (Allen et al. 1995; Blumberg and Lester 1991; Burt 1980; Hald, Malamuth,
4    T. INAL

and Lange 2013; Jones, Russell, and Bryant 1998; Lottes 1988; Malamuth and Briere 1986, 76, 81; Russell
1988). A painful example of the consumption of rape scenes and the resulting desensitization in the
United States was the movie The Accused. During the screening of the film (and possibly other ones
with similar scenes) in theaters, young men ‘hooted and cheered the film’s rape scene’ (Horeck 2003,
92) as if it was not depicting a violent act but a conquest reproducing a rape myth.
What is the connection between learning rape myths and aggressive behaviour from movies and
actual violent behaviour? Several studies found that rape myth acceptance among individuals living
in rape cultures may lead to aggressive behaviours (Bohner, Siebler, and Schmelcher 2006; Chapleau
and Oswald 2010). Researchers acknowledge that it is also possible that people with predispositions to
sexist attitudes and aggressive behaviours may be the ones seeking and watching these visual materials
(as can be seen in the Turkish case of Google and YouTube searches), thus, a direct causal link between
film-watching and rape cannot be made (Guy, Patton, and Kaldor 2012). It is nevertheless important to
look at the results of the research that found links between media consumption, rape cultures made up
of social norms accepting of rape (rape myths) and individuals’ perception of sexual violence in order
to make sense of the social dynamics that give rise to tragedies such as Pippa Bacca’s rape and murder.
When it comes to understanding some of the themes and ideas that are cultivated by media and
that lead to the desensitization of societies toward violence against women, we need to look at feminist
theories, too. Feminist theorists have emphasized the social effects of sexual violence against women
on screen through the production and reproduction of a social consciousness with embedded rape
myths which makes up a rape culture.
A rape culture is defined as ‘a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and sup-
ports violence against women’ (Buchwald, Fletcher, and Roth 2005). Although rape cultures in different
societies have different sources, feminist theories have argued that objectification and commodifi-
cation of women and women’s bodies, emphasis on traditional gender roles, particularly on mascu-
linity in connection with violence, misogynistic norms and discourses portraying women as passive,
weak, unintelligent, irrational and generally inferior, celebration of male sexuality as a hyper-masculine
and uncontrollable act as opposed to shaming of female sexuality could be reckoned as some of the
important sources existing in many societies to varying degrees and cultivated through media sources.
Furthermore, these particular forms of representation/objectification of women result in higher accept-
ance of rape myths and aggression, not only among men but also among women themselves (Fox
and Potocki 2016; Fox et al. 2015; Kahlor and Eastin 2011; Mundorf et al. 2006). How do these ideas/
representations contribute to the normalization of rape, turning the culture into a rape culture?
One important aspect of the objectification and commodification of women is their dehumaniza-
tion. ‘Male gaze’ in movies is a particularly important part of the process of objectification of women
in various ways and presents the narrative through the eyes of the patriarchal society (Kaplan 2012;
Mulvey 1975). Research indicates that rapists usually do not feel any remorse about what they have
done simply because they do not think of their victims as human beings with feelings. In rape cultures,
women are considered a category, a commodity that was made to have sex with men (Scully and Marolla
2007, 60, 61). Depictions of women in movies, therefore, as ‘bodies’ that belong to men reinforce the
idea that women are not real humans (at least not at the same level as men). When, for instance, in the
event of a rape in a movie, the victim’s husband or father is presented as the party that is wronged, rape
becomes important to the extent that it leads to the depreciation of male property3 rather than as a
crime against a human being (Herman 1989, 46). The blame and responsibility for this depreciation is
also put on the victim because she is the one who is supposed to protect the value of the property by
not putting herself in situations where the property may be damaged (such as hitchhiking).
The emphasis on traditional gender roles along with masculinity proved through physical strength
and violence is another contributor to rape cultures. Because of the societal expectation to ‘be a man,’
masculine, strong and successful, proving one’s manhood by ‘manly’ actions becomes a routine part of
any boy’s life. Rape, ‘as an act of manhood,’ demonstrating the rapist’s power and toughness, ability to
dominate or overpower the inferior sex and conquer whatever he wants, becomes a socially acceptable
exercise (Brownmiller 1975, 290). The way that the emphasis on masculinity or machismo works to
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES   5

encourage rape is particularly evident in cases of gang rapes. ‘Male bonding that rejects women and
commodifies sex’ can be found in many social contexts and finds expression in gang rapes (Sanday
2007, 47, 48). Anthropologist Peggy Sanday summarizes the universality of this situation as:
Cross-cultural research demonstrates that whenever men build and give allegiance to a mystical, enduring, all-male
social group, the disparagement of women is, invariably, an important ingredient of the mystical bond, and sexual
aggression the means by which the bond is renewed. (Sanday 2007, 48)
Gang rapes also are demonstrative of men’s need to prove their masculine power by distancing them-
selves from homoeroticism. The possible homosexual elements in the male bonding process is erased
through the collective sexual aggression towards a woman, hence while the victim is further feminized
through being dominated, the rapists feel like they are masculinized and empowered as heterosexual
males (Sanday 2007, 82).
One image in the minds of many men in a rape culture is that some women want to be raped and
they send certain signals regarding this desire. Walking alone in the dark, running in a secluded park,
going to a bar or dressing provocatively are some of these behaviours men consider to be ‘signals.’
Hitchhiking also is one of the ‘signals,’ according to these men, hinting at sexual availability (Scully and
Marolla 2007, 59). These behaviours may also be considered inappropriate, a sign that the woman is
not doing what she is supposed to be doing, i.e. protecting her body – the property of her husband/
father – properly, leading to the conclusion that she deserves to be raped.
As a result, the victim is always blamed for the attack. Victim precipitation is a related concept in
criminology which asserts that in some cases victims behave in a fashion that puts them in a compro-
mising position, hence they precipitate the crime (Brownmiller 1975, 353, 354). This concept is mostly
evoked in rape cases. Both in terms of their behaviour before the rape (the precipitation part) and their
behaviour during the rape, victims are considered to be at fault. The idea is that if you are raped it is
because you did not resist enough; if you resist but get raped and injured anyway then you are still to
be blamed because your resistance caused the physical injuries (Herman 1989, 50). Victim-blaming,
both in the form of precipitation accusations and in the form of false beliefs such as ‘only certain kinds
of women [promiscuous or unchaste] are victimized,’ further contributes to the culture’s normalization
of sexual aggression (Burt 1980; Payne, Lonsway, and Fitzgerald 1999).
In order to understand the ways in which rape cultures, which enable scripts in movies to turn into
real world tragedies, emerge, the contribution of visual stimuli such as cinema in this process needs
to be explored.

Cinema: (re)production of a rape culture

According to Sarah Projansky, the mere existence of rape scenes in movies contributes to the increase
of violence against women in media and popular culture, even if the overall narrative aims to challenge
rape myths and rape cultures. It is a ‘paradox of discursively increasing (and potentially eliciting pleas-
ure in) the very thing a text is working against’ (Projansky 2001, 96). It is a dilemma, therefore, even for
feminist filmmakers trying to challenge the social beliefs and stereotypes surrounding rape and rape
victims. Even attempts to deconstruct through visual representation of violence and trauma have the
potential to contribute to the reconstruction of a rape culture. One recent such example is a Turkish
television series called Fatmagül’ün Suçu Ne?4 (What Is Fatmagül’s Fault?). While it was defined by its
screenwriters, Melek Gençoğlu and Ece Yörenç, as a project to demonstrate the long-lasting trauma of
rape victims, unfortunately it is clear that the impact of the series, especially the gang-rape scene in
the first episode, has been a mixture of public sensation and the reproduction of the rape culture in
Turkey. Following the broadcast of the series, sex toys inspired by the series such as the inflatable doll
of Fatmagül (the rape victim in the film) or Fatmagül’s lingerie emerged on the market (Gazete Vatan
2011). The rape scene became a hit on YouTube with millions of people re-watching it. Several videos
of the rape scene got over one million hits, making the scene more popular than most of the episodes
themselves. Despite this possible negative impact, the series was at least a new attempt to represent
rape from the victim’s perspective, perhaps injecting an alternative way of looking at rape into the
6    T. INAL

social consciousness. The Turkish movies of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, however, had no such intent
or approach, hence this article focuses on these widely popular movies which have been broadcast on
Turkish television many times, besides their screening in theatres.
How should we explore the relationship between Turkish cinema and the rape culture in Turkey?
Using some of the theories in various disciplines that look into the topic, it is possible to address some
important questions:

(1)  What kinds of behaviours do the movies display as ordinary behaviours and what kinds of
consequences (reward or punishment) do the perpetrators of these acts face in the movies?
Social learning theory may provide a framework to analyse and think about these aspects of
movies with rape themes and scenes in order to understand the ‘lessons’ that may be drawn
by the viewers.
(2)  When/where/why/how does rape happen, who rapes, and who is raped? What are the roles?
How are they played? Script theory may guide us in understanding the roles the viewers of
the movies may ascribe themselves under certain circumstances. Rapist characters’ portrayals
that may lead to identification with them can also be analysed within this framework.
(3)  What happens when these movies are watched so many times? What messages are culti-
vated when it comes to what happens to the victim, whose fault rape is, etc.? What happens,
furthermore, when the rapist characters are brought on screen again through other media
outlets (such as commercials)? Cultivation theory and desensitization theories can help us
understand the long-term development and internalization of rape cultures through these
movies and complementary media.
(4)  What are the sexist themes in the movies? How are women/rape victims portrayed? How
are rape myths perpetuated? How are women objectified, resulting in the normalization of
violence against women? Feminist theory’s focus on these questions can help us understand
the contribution of cinema to the cultivation of sexist messages, hence the reproduction of
social processes that enable rape and rape cultures.

Turkish cinema and rape

Turkish cinema has used rape both as a theme and as visual entertainment since its beginnings in
1917. One can find several films with rape scenes and themes before the Golden Age of Turkish cinema
where women are raped and face the social consequences5 such as becoming prostitutes (Özgüç 2000,
96; Scognamillo and Demirhan 2002, 96–99). During the Golden Age, between 1960 and 1990 nearly
five thousand movies were made, however, the theme of rape pervaded Turkish cinema even more.
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, in hundreds of movies, Turkish women (virgins in particular)
were raped by various perpetrators including their brothers, step-brothers, fathers, stepfathers, lovers,
villagers, landowners, rich businessmen or their spoiled sons, drug dealers, mafia bosses, neighbourhood
bullies and random guys at desolate locations hunting for innocent/naïve women that cross their paths.6
In the 1970s and ‘80s, Turkish cinema even created particular characters as tenured rapists appearing
in seemingly every other movie. These actors made their careers out of being famous rapists, earned
nicknames for their performances and came to represent the critical nature of the theme of rape in
Turkish cinema. Two of the most famous of these actors, Coşkun Göğen, ‘Coşkun the rapist’ as he is
known, and Nuri Alҫo, or ‘Nuri the soda pop’ will be the focus of this article.

Rapist as a character
Coşkun the rapist
Coşkun Göğen started his career in cinema in the early 1970s and had roles in over four hundred mov-
ies, as an extra in most of them. For this study, forty of those films were sampled. The sample consists
of the movies that were made between 1970 and 1990 in which Coşkun Göğen’s name appears in the
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES   7

credits. The movies were selected according to their availability on the internet for two reasons: First,
their easy availability on the internet indicates their widespread reach to the population. Second, since
those who upload these movies usually record them from television, so their online availability also
demonstrates that they are the most commonly broadcast movies on television.
‘Coşkun the rapist’ as a character first emerges in two movies in 1976.7 In both films, he is part of a rape
gang made up of spoiled sons of rich businessmen who are after young, innocent, poor and beautiful
virgin women. His assault streak continued throughout 1980s where he played rapists as well as other
characters aiding and abating rapists or were somehow related to some rape and assault. At the very
least he played a pimp selling women, as in Beyaz Ölüm (see Table 1 for more details).
The character ‘Coşkun the rapist’ became so famous that this nickname turned into a common
expression in Turkish used for any person who is grinning with an obscene expression when he sees
a woman, who is looking for opportunities to assault women and who makes dirty jokes. On various
websites on Turkish cinema, the character is mentioned as ‘the most popular character of Turkish cinema’
(‘Coşkun Göğen Kimdir?’ 2015) and one of ‘the most popular comedic characters in Turkish film history’
(‘Coşkun Göğen’ 2013) because ‘the actor playing the role was so successful earning the nickname’
(‘Coşkun Göğen (1946-....)’ 2015). Why such a character (a gang-rapist, a pimp, a drug dealer in most of
the movies) is so well loved and popularized is another question, but the fact that the character became
so popular and even earned a following among the population is revealing in terms of understanding
the contribution of these movies to the rape culture in Turkey. In an interview, Coşkun Göğen tells the
story of how he first learned about the nickname given to him by the public:
I was a cheerleader for Galatasaray [a soccer team in Turkey]. Just before I went to a game I saw that day’s newspa-
per where they were showing the pictures of my scenes from my latest movie and saying how these scenes were
making the whole country emulate rape. My friends told me that I should not go to the game [because of possible
negative public reaction], but I did and I found a surprise there. Everybody was cheering for me [Coşkun the rapist]
chanting ‘Bro, we are following you’ (Göğen 2010).
This cheer and the following that the character gathered from the male population in Turkey were
also utilized by firms to promote their ‘related’ products. Coşkun the rapist appeared, for instance, in
a commercial in 2012 for a supplement for erectile dysfunction (Ejder Power Commercial 2012). In the
commercial the character goes to the doctor telling him that (as everyone knows) he usually does not
have such problems, that he had a reputation making everyone run away upon seeing him, and the
doctor acknowledges that we are not used to seeing him like this (meaning with erectile dysfunction)
but now he is looking for a remedy for his new problem. The product is promoted as a supplement to
give men back their power, the power to have sex which, by the use of a popular rapist character, also
means the power to rape.
The confusion in the minds of the Turkish people with regard to sex, male power, masculinity and
sexual violence, which is obvious in the use of the character in such a commercial, can also be found
in the minds of film-makers, directors and actors alike. A very well-known movie in Turkish cinematic
history, İffet (Tibet 1982), which is especially famous for the rape scene where the boyfriend of the
female protagonist rapes/sodomizes her by catching her head in the car’s window provides such an
example. When asked about this very frequently searched and watched scene,8 the film’s director Kartal
Tibet reportedly commented: ‘Turkish men do [f…] women like this with no difficulty’ (Özgüç 2000, 98).
Similarly, an actor who played a gay singer on screen and got a negative reaction from his fans finds
the solution to redeem his masculinity, which became questionable as a result of the role, in rape: ‘In
order to make people forget about this gay role, I have to play in a solid sex scene or a rape scene. If
not, this gay role will not stop following me’ (Hararlı 2005). Masculinity, therefore, as represented by
the ability to ‘do’ women makes rape unproblematic for the rapist because it is seen as another form of
‘doing,’ making the rapist characters on screen nothing more than somewhat eccentric.
Movies and the rape themes, rape scenes and rapists play a role in the popularization and trivializa-
tion/normalization of rape in real life, too, which is further popularized by other methods on screen (such
as commercials). The male spectators of these films tend to identify with the rapist (what Laura Mulvey
calls the ‘perverted protagonist’ [Mulvey 1999]), which explains their constant return to these scenes on
 8 

Table 1. Coşkun Göğen (CG) movies.

Is the
Is the rapist/ Is the rapist Is the rapist rapist killed/ Is there Does the Is there a
Is there rape/ one of the (at least one) killed by a attempted a happy victim com- sexist mes-
attempted rapists arrested for Does the male relative to be killed ending/jus- Is the victim mit suicide/ sage/lesson
  T. INAL

Name and release date of rape (AR) in Coşkun the Is CG related rape in the rapist go to of the vic- (AK) by the tice for the killed by attempted for women
the movie the movie? rapist (CG)? to the rape? end? jail? tim? victim? victim? someone? suicide (AS)? about rape?
Asi Gençler (1972) (Rebel- Yes No Yes No No No Yes No No No Yes
lious Youngsters)
Kartal Yuvası (1974) (Eagle Yes No Yes No No No Yes No Yes No Yes
Nest)
Cellat (1975) (Executioner) Yes No No No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Aile Şerefi (1976) (Family Yes (AR) Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes No No Yes
Honour)
Mağlup Edilemeyenler Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown No No No No Yes (AS) Yes
(1976) (Those That Can-
not Be Defeated)
Sahte Kabadayı (1976) No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
(Fake Bully)
Kan (1977) (Blood) No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Sivri Akıllılar (1977) (Smart No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Alecks)
Batan Güneş (1978) (The Yes (AR) Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes No Yes (AS) Yes
Downing Sun)
Dokunmayın Şabanıma Yes (AR) No No No No No No Yes No No Yes
(1979) (Do Not Touch My
Şaban)
İsyankar (1979) (Rebellious) Yes (AR) Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes No No No
Yanmışım (1979) (I am Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes No Yes
Burned)
Kır Gönlümün Zincirini Yes No Yes No No No No No Yes Yes Yes
(1980) (Break the Chain of
My Heart)
Kördüğüm (1982) (Gordian No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Knot)
Yürek Yarası (1982) (Wound Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes No No Yes
of the Heart)
Bir Yudum Mutluluk (1982) Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No No Yes Yes
(A Sip of Happiness)
Kaҫak (1982) (Fugitive) Yes (AR) No No No No No Yes (AK) No No No Yes
Beyaz Ölüm (1983) (White No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Death)
Kurban (1983) (Victim) No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Günahkar (1983) (Sinner) Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No Yes
Bin Kere Ölmek (1983) No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
(Dying A Thousand Times)
Badi (1983) No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Kayıp Kızlar (1984) (Lost Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes/No No Yes No Yes
Girls)
Damga (1984) (Stigma) Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Unknown No No Yes
Ölüm Yolu (1985) (Death Yes (AR) Yes Yes Yes (not for No Yes No No No No Yes
Path) rape)
Akrep (1986) (Scorpion) Yes No No No No No No No No No Yes
Vazife Uğruna (1986) (In Yes (AR) No Yes Yes (not for Unknown No No Yes No No Yes
Line of Duty) rape)
Kıskıvrak (1986) (Tightly) Yes (AR) Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No Yes
Kader Kurbanları (1986) Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
(Victims of Fate)
Ayrılamam (1986) (I Cannot Yes No Yes No No Yes No No No No Yes
Separate)
Alın Yazım (1986) (My No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Destiny)
Sevdim Seni (1987) (I Loved Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No Yes No
You)
Alamancının Karısı (1987) Yes (AR) No Yes Yes Unknown No No No No Yes (AS) Yes
(Wife of the Migrant
Worker)
Alışırım (1987) (I Will Get Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No Yes
Used to It)
Sızı (1987) (Ache) No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Canım Oğlum (1988) (My No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Dear Son)
Arabesk (1988) (Arabesque) Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No Yes
Acıların Günlüğü (1988) Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No Yes
(Diary of Pains)
Yengeҫ Burcu (1988) (Can- No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
cer Sign)
Polis Dosyası (1989) (Police Yes (AR) Yes Yes Yes (not for Unknown No No Yes No No No
File) rape)
CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES 
 9
10    T. INAL

the internet. As script theory argues, people may look for a role for themselves in these scripts, which
may happen to be the role of the rapist. The relationship between the Turkish public and the character
‘Coşkun the rapist’ is a testament to the fact that some of the male spectators of these films found the
rapist character relatable, inherently funny, able (perhaps powerful) and certainly worth following on
screen and perhaps in real life, too. ‘He was not an elitist like Nuri Alҫo, he was not handsome like Önder
Somer, he was not tough like Erol Taş. He was like me, that is why I like him, he is a lion,’ says one person
writing about Coşkun the rapist on a website used as a collaborative hypertext dictionary (‘Tecavüzcü
Coşkun’ 2007). The movies and the portrayal of the rapist as this ordinary but ‘comedic’ character at
least served the function of presenting the rapist as a funny, tolerable man who engages in the ‘funny’
and trivial (for the rapist) activity of raping.

Nuri the soda pop

The presentation of the rapist as a comedic character is further demonstrated by another famous char-
acter of Turkish cinema portrayed by the actor Nuri Alҫo. He started to act in movies in the late 1970s.
Twenty-nine of his movies (the most well-known and popular ones) produced between 1977 and 1990
were sampled for this project. During his acting career, he portrayed rich and immoral men or mafia
bosses who seduce young women with promises, put rape drugs in their drinks and rape them. As a
result, he established himself as ‘Nuri the soda pop’ of Turkish cinema (because of his signature method
of raping by drugging rape victims with laced soda pop).
In half of the movies sampled he seduces women with promises (promise of fame, love, marriage,
etc.), uses his signature method of drugging them before raping them, or rapes/attempts to rape women
by force. Even if he is not the rapist, most of his other movies have someone else raping women (see
Table 2 for details).
The character he created, especially with the movies in which he plays the mafia boss in the business
of drug trafficking and prostitution, became almost a legend. In 2001, an organization was established
in his name, ‘Nuri Alҫo Revival Organization’ (NARO) (Sevinç 2005). It was an anarchist organization
writing slogans all over the city. The slogans were mostly unrelated to Nuri Alҫo or the characters he
played in movies: ‘Nuri Alҫo for Prime Minister,’ ‘Nuri Alҫo, conductor of science and wisdom,’ ‘If you
like soda pop you bear the bottle, Nuri Alҫo’s educational volunteers know this best’ (Sevinç 2005,
136–138). The movement spread around the world, appearing on walls in the United States, Australia,
the Far East and Europe (Binnet 2012; Sevinç 2005), so that Nuri Alҫo, who had nothing to do with the
organization, got scared and filed a complaint against them. While the organization did not have any
purpose of promoting rape or any other Nuri-the-soda-pop-style action, its very existence and the fact
that among all options they chose this particular actor as the namesake for their organization testify
to the popularity that Nuri Alҫo reached and sustained through the 2000s.
He was also cast to play in three soda pop commercials in 2007 and 2014 which used his use of soda
to drug women in movies as a funny theme to promote the drinks. In one of the 2007 Coke commercials,
he uses his famous line in movies ‘Would you like a cold soda?’ on a young woman and gives her a Coke.
After she drinks it and makes an orgasmic gesture about the coldness and taste of the drink (she shivers
and goes ‘Brrrrrr!!!’), Nuri Alҫo says ‘So you like it, hah’ slyly just like he does in the movies when he tells
his victims that they will enjoy the rape. The commercial sexualizes the Coke-drinking experience by
bringing in ‘Nuri the soda pop’ and his rape-insinuating lines, making a connection between sexuality,
rape and pleasure in his very person while emphasizing the entertaining/funny side of the character. In
the second Coke commercial, Nuri Alҫo drinks the Coke himself and makes the same orgasmic gesture
saying, ‘I drink it and I make those whom I like drink it.’
In the third soda commercial in 2014, two young women at a café receive a drink from the guy at
the next table. One of the women looks at the table to see who sent the drinks and is horrified to see
that ‘Nuri the soda pop’ is sitting there in his dressing gown (another one of his signature garments
in movies where he appears in it after he drugs and rapes the woman and the woman wakes up). The
waitress luckily tells her that he is not the one who sent the drink but another table and she is relieved
Table 2. Nuri Alҫo (NA) movies.

Is there
Is the Is the rapist Does the a sexist
Is there rapist (at Is the rapist killed/ Is there victim com- message/
rape/ Is the rap- least one) killed by a attempted a happy Is the mit suicide/ lesson for
attempted ist/one of Is NA arrested for Does the male rela- to be killed ending/jus- victim attempted women
rape (AR) in the rapists related to rape in the rapist go to tive of the (AK) by the tice for the killed by suicide about
Name and release date of the movie the movie? Nuri Alҫo? the rape? end? jail? victim? victim? victim? someone? (AS)? rape?
Ah Bu Ne Dünya (1977) (Oh What A No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
World)
Feryada Gücüm Yok (1981) (I Do Not Yes No No No No No No No No No No
Have the Strength to Scream)
Günaha Girme (1982) (Do Not Sin) Yes (AR) No No No No No No No No No Yes
Yakılacak Kadın (1982) (The Woman No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
That Deserves to Be Burned)
Islak Mendil (1982) (Wet Handkerchief) Yes (AR) No No No No No No Yes No No Yes
Nasıl İsyan Etmem (1982) (How Do I Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No No Yes Yes
Not Rebel)
Hasret Sancısı (1982) (Pain of Longing) Yes No No No No No No Yes (?) No No Yes
Bir Sevgi İstiyorum (1984) (I Want Love) No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Kayıp Kızlar (1984) (Lost Girls) Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No No No Yes
Yosma (1984) (Loose Woman) Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No Yes
Taҫsız Kraliҫe (1984) (Queen Without Yes No No No No No No No No Yes Yes
a Crown)
Altar (1985) Yes No No No No No Yes (AK) Yes (?) No No Yes
Katiller de Ağlar (1985) (Murderers No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Cry Too)
O Kadınlardan Biri (1985) (One of Those No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Women)
Tele Kızlar (1985) (Call Girls) Yes No Yes No No No No No No No Yes
Akrep (1986) (Scorpion) Yes No No No No No No No No No No
Vazife Uğruna (1986) (In Line of Duty) Yes (AR) Yes Yes Yes (not for Unknown No No Yes No No Yes
rape)
Alın Yazım (1986) (My Destiny) No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Ayrılamam (1986) (I Cannot Separate) Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No Yes
Sevgi Ҫıkmazı (1986) (Love Predica- Yes No No No No Yes No No No No No
ment)
(Continued )
CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES 
 11
 12 
  T. INAL

Table 2. (Continued ).

Is there
Is the Is the rapist Does the a sexist
Is there rapist (at Is the rapist killed/ Is there victim com- message/
rape/ Is the rap- least one) killed by a attempted a happy Is the mit suicide/ lesson for
attempted ist/one of Is NA arrested for Does the male rela- to be killed ending/jus- victim attempted women
rape (AR) in the rapists related to rape in the rapist go to tive of the (AK) by the tice for the killed by suicide about
Name and release date of the movie the movie? Nuri Alҫo? the rape? end? jail? victim? victim? victim? someone? (AS)? rape?
Hayat Köprüsü (1986) (Bridge of Life) Yes (AR) Yes Yes Yes (not for Unknown No No Yes No No No
rape)
Kurtar Beni (1987) (Save Me) No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Kader Utansın (1987) (Let Fate Be Yes (AR) Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
Ashamed)
O Bir Melekti (1987) (She Was an Angel) Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes No Yes
Yaşamak (1988) (Living) Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes Yes
Polis Dosyası (1989) (Police File) Yes (AR) No Yes Yes (not for Unknown No No Yes No No No
rape)
Bir Aşk Bin Günah (1989) (One Love Yes No Yes No No No No Yes No No Yes
One Thousand Sins)
Kavgamız (1989) (Our Fight) No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Sözde Kızlar (1990) (So-Called Girls) Yes Yes Yes No No Yes (AK) No No No Yes Yes
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES   13

to see that the young handsome guy at the next table has sent it. It is all good up to this point since
she does not want to take the soda from the rapist and is glad to see that it comes from another guy.
The makers of the commercial, however, did not seem to give up on the rape theme and creepiness
since the young handsome man who sends the soda and makes the woman happy is another actor
who became famous by playing one of the gang-rapists in a very popular television series, Fatmagül’ün
Suҫu Ne? (What Is Fatmagül’s Fault?). The woman in the commercial ends up accepting a soda from a
young and handsome rapist character while being relieved that she escapes from the drink of an old
rapist character.
The character ‘Nuri the soda pop,’ with his white suit as he appears in many of his movies as a mafia
boss, also appeared in a commercial for a cell phone carrier in 2008. In the commercial, Nuri Alço plays
with his phone sending messages at a bar and he is so focused on the excellent service of the company
that he even ignores the young beautiful woman who approaches him and asks him several times to
open her soda. The insinuation, again, is obvious: he is giving up the chance of ‘popping up her soda,’
which is understood as deflowering in Turkish (Medya Radar 2007), because of the good phone service
he gets. The commercial even received a Crystal Apple Award, which is given to the best commercials
made in Turkey (‘20. Kristal Elma 2007–2008 Türkiye Reklam Ödülleri Yarışması’ 2008).

What happens to rapists and victims?

The rapist characters of Turkish cinema portrayed as comical and amiable became so popular in Turkish
social consciousness that their constant appearance on screen either as movie stars or commercial actors
was welcomed by the public. How could rapists appear so amiable in people’s minds that people can
consider them relatable and role models?
It is important to note that none of the rapist characters go to jail for rape in any of the movies
examined for this project. In only seven movies the rapist is arrested and in only three of them was
the arrest for rape or attempted rape, although we do not see what happens after the arrests. In the
rest of the movies, the rapists either get away with it or more commonly they are killed by the victims’
male relatives because the one that is hurt by the rape is considered to be the male relative whose
property/honour is damaged by the act. In some movies, rape is also depicted as a tool for revenge
from the male relatives of women emphasizing this link between men’s honour and ‘their’ women’s
bodies (Acıların Günlüğü, Bir Yudum Mutluluk, Kır Gönlümün Zincirini, Kader Kurbanları, Vazife Uğruna,
Polis Dosyası) (see Tables 1 and 2).
While the movies portray the rapists’ actions as trivial, they portray rape from the perspective of the
victim as tragic and life-changing. Studies on the media in the United States found that ‘sexual aggres-
sion is often presented without negative consequences [such as a trauma from the rape] for either the
victim or the perpetrator’ (Malamuth and Briere 1986, 77). A similar pattern is present in Turkish cinema,
only with a slight difference: although the victim does not suffer any psychological consequences,
she is made to feel the complete bag of social consequences of rape. What the rape victim has been
through is portrayed as normal sex outside of marriage. What happened to the rape victim, according
to the narrative, is simply the loss of her virginity/purity and honour, which should either be redeemed
through her death or she should forever be lost by becoming a prostitute.
Turkish cinema in general does not lead rape victims to a happy ending (Scognamillo and Demirhan
2002, 97). In the sixty-four movies9 examined for this project, thirteen of the rape victims reached a
happy ending. A ‘happy ending’ is defined as an ending where the victim of a rape or attempted rape
survives, is able to go back to her pre-rape life and continues to live a normal life of her choice with her
family and loved ones. In addition, she does not lose her social and economic standing and she is not
forced into a life of shame, permanent trauma, indignity, guilt and injustice.
Out of these thirteen victims, nine were not actually raped but only attempted to be raped (their
virginity, therefore, remained intact). Two of the victims were raped by the main male character, who
was either the lover of the victim or became so after the rape (Hasret Sancısı, Altar). One victim was
kidnapped by the main male character and then got raped by others because she was considered
14    T. INAL

fair game as a kidnapped/dishonoured woman. She ended up happily with the main male character
after he killed the main rapist (Yürek Yarası). The fact that these victims ended up with their rapist or
kidnapper is portrayed as a happy ending (the victim smiling and hugging the perpetrator in the
last scene), however ‘happiness’ is defined in that framework. Overall, out of the forty-six movies with
an attempted or actual rape only one victim ended up content (and not with the rapist/kidnapper)
(Yaşamak) (see Tables 1 and 2).
Blaming the victim is common in thirty-four of the forty-six movies with rape. There are six main
reasons why the victim is guilty of her rape and the following ruin:

• Wearing revealing clothes (mini-skirts in particular, which provokes men and makes them aggres-
sive as it is openly mentioned in one movie, Kartal Yuvası); being beautiful, sexy; having a partying
lifestyle; not listening to conservative parents (Asi Genҫler, Kartal Yuvası, Alışırım, Sevgi Ҫıkmazı).
• Having a desire/weakness for money, luxury, or fame (Yanmışım, Yürek Yarası, Bir Yudum Mutluluk,
Kayıp Kızlar, Vazife Uğruna, Hasret Sancısı, Yosma, Akrep).
• Being naïve, easily deceived by men who promise marriage (Kır Gönlümün Zincirini, Günahkar,
Taҫsız Kraliҫe, Tele Kızlar, Yaşamak, Sözde Kızlar).
• Being in the wrong place at the wrong time (such as desolate places at night) or trusting strangers
(Cellat, Mağlup Edilemeyenler, Damga, Arabesk, Feryada Gücüm Yok, Islak Mendil, Altar, O Bir Melekti).
• Living alone, not having proper male protection (Batan Güneş, Kaҫak, Günahkar, Kıskıvrak, Kader
Kurbanları, Ayrılamam, Alamancının Karısı, Günaha Girme, Nasıl İsyan Etmem).
• Having sex out of wedlock which makes her fair game for anyone (Batan Güneş, Günaha Girme).

There are four main consequences (the first two being the most common) that rape victims face in
these movies:

• Death as a result of suicide, drug overdose, or murder (or attempted suicide or murder) (see Tables
1 and 2).
• Becoming a prostitute and/or a drug addict or going to jail/mental hospital (Asi Genҫler, Yürek Yarası,
Günahkar, Kayıp Kızlar, Kader Kurbanları, Yosma, Taҫsız Kraliҫe, Tele Kızlar, Yaşamak, Bir Aşk Bin Günah).
• Becoming a rich and famous actress but alone and unhappy (Feryada Gücüm Yok, Taҫsız Kraliҫe).
• Being left by her loved ones, kicked out of her home/hometown (Mağlup Edilemeyenler, Ayrılamam,
Günaha Girme, Islak Mendil).

The victims may face one of these consequences or several at the same time. A young woman, for
instance, who is raped may become a prostitute first and then she kills the rapist and goes to jail (Kayıp
Kızlar) or is killed by the man who rapes or sells her (Kader Kurbanları) or commits suicide (Bir Yudum
Mutluluk). The common message10 in all of these movies is that if you are raped by someone who has
no intention of marrying you, your life is over. Virginity lost means the hope for a happy future is lost
because the value of the woman goes down the drain along with virginity. In one of the movies (Bir
Aşk Bin Günah), for instance, this approach to virginity in Turkish culture is clearly demonstrated by
the story of the main female character who ended up in a brothel in the big city. The audience is told
that this young woman was once a young girl living in a village. She was married to a rich man in the
village but the man was impotent, so in order to cover up his impotence he blamed her for not being
a virgin and brought her back to her father’s house following the wedding night. The father did what is
expected of him by tradition: put a saddle on her back and dragged her down the streets as a symbol
of her non-virgin status. It meant that someone had already ‘ridden’ her and taken her virginity. She
escapes from home as a result, comes to the big city and then gets raped and becomes a prostitute.
This social understanding of virginity and women’s worth is also apparent in the laws regarding
rape. Until 2004, Turkish Penal Code (Article 434) set rapists free if they accepted to marry the victim.
This article was changed as a result of a long and arduous struggle by women’s groups. During the
debates leading to the legal change, a law professor, who was also an adviser to the Ministry of Justice,
defended Article 434 by saying that
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES   15

Nobody wants to marry a woman who is not a virgin. In Turkish society, a woman who is raped is told to get married
if this happened to her. Is it not better when the person who kidnaps a woman and rapes her marries her? If her
virginity is damaged she should be married and when [the rapist] marries her he should beat the charge. If you
remove a brick the whole building will collapse. (‘Kimse Bâkire Olmayan Biriyle Evlenmek İstemez’ 2003).
Ultimately, the law changed in 2004. In 2011, however, the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors
prepared a report demanding the return of Article 434 in order to ‘protect’ the child brides whose ‘hus-
bands’ are jailed for rape (‘HSYK Press Release’ 2011). The government tried to bring back a similar law in
November 2016 which was withdrawn in the Parliament as a result of protests by women’s organizations.
Further research into the legal repercussions of the rape culture in Turkish society can be done. The
mutually constituting relationship, however, between the scripts/narratives of the Turkish movies of
the past and the rape culture ingrained in the social consciousness of the Turkish people is apparent.
Turkish filmmakers created the rapist characters situated in particular scripts which were embraced by
the Turkish men who, in turn, have learned how to ‘play the role of the rapist’ from Coşkun the rapist and
Nuri the soda pop. They have also been learning that their actions are trivial (will not be punished) and
ultimately the fault of the victims. Turkish society at large has also learned to laugh at the rapists while
condemning the victims for their eternal loss of virginity and honour. The messages in these movies
regarding male ownership of women’s bodies, rape as a macho behaviour, women’s faulty behaviours
precipitating rape all came from existing beliefs in Turkish culture, but they have also been re-cultivated
through these scripts. Constant exposure (partly because people seek them out so fervently) to these
messages desensitized the population to the point that rape became expected under certain circum-
stances, such as when a woman hitchhikes in a bridal gown.

Conclusion
Seven years after Pippa Bacca’s rape and murder, another similar event in Turkey attracted a lot of
media attention. In February 2015, Özgecan Aslan, a twenty-year-old college student was kidnapped
to be raped and was then brutally murdered when she resisted. The fact that her body was found
stabbed multiple times, tortured and burnt and her hands cut off (while she was still alive) to prevent
identification of the perpetrator through his DNA in her fingernails made the event infuriating even
for the Turkish public, which is used to regular rape and murder of women. She was alone on a public
transportation vehicle when she was kidnapped by the driver, just like the rape victims in Mağlup
Edilemeyenler, Damga and many other movies. That is why Özgecan Aslan had a can of pepper spray
in her purse to protect herself in a country where rape can appear at every corner. The reaction to her
brutal murder was generally negative, but some comments after the incident such as the one made by
a popular singer revealed the deep-seated rape culture in Turkish social consciousness where blaming
the victim is the rule. In his comment this singer tweeted: ‘If you wear a mini-skirt, get naked and then
get assaulted by the immoral perverts who are produced by the secular system, you should not bawl
(‘Nihat Doğan’dan Olaylı Özgecan Tweeti’ 2015).’
Cinema is not only a reflection of the cultural milieu of a society but also contributes to its repro-
duction. The parallels between Turkish cinema and the real-life violence that women in Turkey have
to endure and the underlying love affair between the Turkish public and these movies are striking
demonstrations of the dynamic relationship between cinema and rape culture. Turkish cinema, which
emerged in the context of a thriving rape culture, has long contributed to its reproduction with its own
tenured (and cherished) rapist characters and a series of movies constantly in circulation for feeding
the rape imaginaries in Turkish consciousness.

Notes
1. 
I do not argue that a rape culture exists only in Turkey. Unfortunately, in different shapes and forms, it can be
found in many places around the world. The example that is explored in this article, however, is the one in Turkey.
2. 
Rape myths are the ‘prejudicial, stereotyped, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and rapists… deny[ing] or
reduc[ing] perceived injury or… blam[ing] the victims for their own victimization’ (Burt 1980, 217).
16    T. INAL

3. The perception of women as property is one of the oldest historical traditions. In Athens of the fifth century BC,
the seducers of married women were executed or tortured while the rapists of married women were made to pay
a monetary fine because the former was considered to wrong the man’s property by having regular access to his
home and wife, possibly fathering his children (Projansky 2001, 3).
4.  For a more detailed analysis of Turkish television series and rape see Yüksel (2013).
5.  Some examples include Aysel: Bataklı Damın Kızı (The Girl from the Marsh Croft, 1934), Beni Mahvettiler (They
Ruined Me, 1951), Kanlı Feryat (Bloody Scream, 1951), Mahallenin Namusu (Honor of the Neighborhood, 1953),
Vahşi Arzu (Wild Desire, 1953), Irz Düşmanları (Enemies of Honor, 1955), Zeynebin İntikamı (Revenge of Zeyneb,
1956), Kara Talih (Black Fortune, 1957), Yetim Ömer (Ömer the Orphan, 1957). See Atakav (2013); Scognamillo and
Demirhan (2002, 96).
6.  See Özgüç (2000) and Scognamillo and Demirhan (2002) for a detailed analysis of several of these movies.
7.  Coşkun Göğen played rapists previously in published photo romance stories but on-screen appearance started
in 1976. See Uskan (2010).
8.  Most popular search on Google with regard to this scene is ‘İffet sex scene’ although it is really a rape scene.
9.  Both actors appear in five of the movies (Ayrılamam, Kayıp Kızlar, Akrep, Polis Dosyası, Vazife Uğruna).
10. These messages are coded as ‘sexist messages/lessons’ in the Tables. These sexist messages/lessons consist of
women’s worth being determined by her virginity, rape being the fault of women (because of their clothing, frailty,
naïveté, or lack of caution), rape being an act against men related to the victim that needs to be purified by them,
parents of women being responsible for controlling their daughters to protect them from rape and rape being
lethal to the life of a woman.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor
Tuba Inal received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Minnesota. She taught Political Science, International
Relations, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at universities in the US and Turkey. Currently she is a senior lecturer
of Politics at University West in Sweden. Her research interests include gender and politics, international human rights,
humanitarian law and violence against women.

References
Allen, M., T. Emmers, L. Gebhardt, and M. A. Giery. 1995. “Exposure to Pornography and Acceptance of Rape Myths.” Journal
of Communication 45 (1): 5–26.
Anderson, C. A., L. Berkowitz, E. Donnerstein, L. R. Huesmann, J. D. Johnson, D. Linz, N. M. Malamuth, and E. Wartella. 2003.
“The Influence of Media Violence on Youth.” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 4 (3): 81–110.
Atakav, E. 2013. Women and Turkish Cinema: Gender Politics, Cultural Identity and Representation. New York: Routledge.
Bandura, A., D. Ross, and S. A. Ross. 1961. “Transmission of Aggression through Imitation of Aggressive Models.” Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology 63 (3): 575–582.
Bandura, A., D. Ross, and S. A. Ross. 1963. “Imitation of Film-mediated Aggressive Models.” Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology 66 (1): 3–11.
Binnet, P. A. 2012. “Prostitute Marries the Policeman in the End: Disciplinary Tales of Female Sexuality in Popular Turkish
Cinema.” In Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting. Portland, OR. http://wpsa.research.pdx.edu/meet/2012/
binnet.pdf.
Blumberg, M. L., and D. Lester. 1991. “High School and College Students’ Attitudes toward Rape.” Adolescence 26 (103):
727–729.
Bohner, G., F. Siebler, and J. Schmelcher. 2006. “Social Norms and the Likelihood of Raping: Perceived Rape Myth Acceptance
of Others Affects Men’s Rape Proclivity.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 32 (3): 286–297.
Brownmiller, S. 1975. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Buchanan, R., and R. Johnson. 2009. “Strange Encounters: Exploring Law and Film in the Affective Register.” Edited by A.
Sarat. Studies in Law, Politics and Society 46: 33–60.
Buchwald, E., P. R. Fletcher, and M. Roth. 2005. Transforming a Rape Culture. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions.
Burt, M. R. 1980. “Cultural Myths and Supports for Rape.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 38 (2): 217–230. doi:
10.1037/0022-3514.38.2.217.
Carnagey, N. L., and C. A. Anderson. 2003. “Theory in the Study of Media Violence.” In Media Violence and Children: A Complete
Guide for Parents and Professionals, edited by Douglas A. Gentile, 87–109. Westport: Praeger.
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES   17

Chapleau, K. M., and D. L. Oswald. 2010. “Power, Sex, and Rape Myth Acceptance: Testing Two Models of Rape Proclivity.”
Journal of Sex Research 47 (1): 66–78.
Cooley, C. H. 1907. “Social Consciousness.” American Journal of Sociology 12 (5): 675–694.
“Coşkun Göğen (1946-....).” 2015. Kim Kimdir? March 5. http://www.kimkimdir.gen.tr/kimkimdir.php?id=4136.
“Coşkun Göğen.” 2013. Wikipedia, December 6. Accessed March 5, 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Co%C5%9Fkun_G%C3%B6%C4%9Fen
“Coşkun Göğen Kimdir?” 2015. Biyografi Sitesi, March 5. http://www.biyografi.net.tr/coskun-gogen-kimdir/.
Eğilmez, E. 1988. Arabesk. Arzu Film, Erler Film.
Ejder Power Commercial. 2012. Accessed March 17, 2015. http://beyazgazete.com/video/webtv/televizyon-40/tecavuzcu-
coskun-nun-2012-reklam-247446.html
Fox, J., and B. Potocki. 2016. “Lifetime Video Game Consumption, Interpersonal Aggression, Hostile Sexism, and Rape Myth
Acceptance.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 31 (10): 1912–1931.
Fox, J., R. A. Ralston, C. K. Cooper, and K. A. Jones. 2015. “Sexualized Avatars Lead to Women’s Self-objectification and
Acceptance of Rape Myths.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 39 (3): 349–362.
Gazete Vatan. 2011. “Bizim Fatmagül’ümüz Boyun Eğmiyor Hakkını Arıyor!” April 24, sec. Pazar Vatan. Accessed May 1, 2013.
http://pazarvatan.gazetevatan.com/haberdetay.asp?hid=17048
Göğen, C. 2010. “‘Tecavüzcü Coşkun’ Lakabı Böyle Ortaya Ҫıktı.” Hürriyet. Accessed March 5, 2015. http://www.hurriyet.
com.tr/magazin/magazinhatti/14960992.asp
Guy, R. J., G. C. Patton, and J. M. Kaldor. 2012. “Internet Pornography and Adolescent Health.” The Medical Journal of Australia
196 (9): 546–547.
Hald, G. M., N. M. Malamuth, and T. Lange. 2013. “Pornography and Sexist Attitudes among Heterosexuals.” Journal of
Communication 63 (4): 638–660.
Hararlı, D. 2005. “Gay’i Unutturmam İçin Sevişme Sahnesi Gerek.” Hürriyet, March 29. Accessed April 4, 2014. http://webarsiv.
hurriyet.com.tr/2005/03/29/620638.asp
Herman, D. F. 1989. “Rape Culture.” In Women: A Feminist Perspective, edited by J. Freeman, 45–53. Mountain View, CA:
Mayfield.
Horeck, T. 2003. Public Rape: Representing Violation in Fiction and Film. London: Routledge.
“HSYK Press Release.” 2011. Turkish High Council of Judges and Prosecutors. http://www.hsyk.gov.tr/duyurular/2011/eylul/
basin-aciklamasi-17-09-2011.html.
Ito, M., H. A. Horst, S. Baumer, M. Bittanti, D. Boyd, R. Cody, B. H. Stephenson, et al. 2010. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and
Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Jones, M. E., R. L. Russell, and F. B. Bryant. 1998. “The Structure of Rape Attitudes for Men and Women: A Three-factor Model.”
Journal of Research in Personality 32: 331–350.
Kahlor, L., and M. S. Eastin. 2011. “Television’s Role in the Culture of Violence Toward Women: A Study of Television Viewing
and the Cultivation of RMA in the United States.” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 55 (2): 215–231.
Kaplan, E. A. 2012. Looking for the Other: Feminism, Film and the Imperial Gaze. New York: Routledge.
“Kimse Bâkire Olmayan Biriyle Evlenmek İstemez.” 2003. Milliyet. Newspaper archive. Accessed May 2, 2014. http://www.
milliyet.com.tr/Siyaset/HaberDetay.aspx?aType=HaberDetayArsiv&KategoriID=4&ArticleID=21856&PAGE=1
“20. Kristal Elma 2007–2008 Türkiye Reklam Ödülleri Yarışması.” 2008. Accessed March 12, 2015. http://www.artikus.com.
tr/reklam/2.pdf
Lottes, I. L. 1988. “Sexual Socialization and Attitudes Toward Rape.” In Rape and Sexual Assault, edited by A. W. Burgess,
193–220. New York: Garland.
Malamuth, N. M., and J. Briere. 1986. “Sexual Violence in the Media: Indirect Effects on Aggression Against Women.” Journal
of Social Issues 42 (3): 75–92.
Manohar, U., and S. L. Kline. 2014. “Sexual Assault Portrayals in Hindi Cinema.” Sex Roles 71 (5): 233–245.
McLuhan, M., and Q. Fiore. 1967. The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. New York: Bantam.
Medya Radar. 2007. “Müjde Ar’ın ‘Benim Gazozumu Bedri Açtı Ama İçine Boşaltmadı’ Sözlerinden Sonra Ortalık Bedri İle
Doldu. Müjde’nin Gazozunu Hangi Bedri Açtı? İşte Aday Bedriler...” October 9. Accessed March 12, 2015. http://www.
medyaradar.com/mujde-arin-benim-gazozumu-bedri-acti-ama-icine-bosaltmadi-sozlerinden-sonra-ortalik-bedri-ile-
haberi-20592
Milliyet. 2010. “Günay, Aşk-ı Memnu’yu Şikayet Etti!” January 17. Accessed April 1, 2013. www.milliyet.com.tr/gunay-ask-i-
memnu-yu-sikayet-etti-/yasam/sondakika/17.01.2010/1187106/
Mulvey, L. 1975. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen 16 (3): 6–18.
Mulvey, L. 1999. “Peeping Tom.” The Criterion Collection, November 15. http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/65-peeping-
tom.
Mundorf, N., D. D’Alessio, M. Allen, and T. M. Emmers-Sommer. 2006. “Effects of Pornography.” In Mass Media Effects Research:
Advances Through Meta-analysis, edited by R. W. Preiss, B. M. Gayle, N. Burrell, M. Allen, and J. Bryant, 173–189. Mahwah:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
“Nihat Doğan’dan Olaylı Özgecan Tweeti.” 2015. Yeni Haber Var, February 15. Accessed June 7, 2015. http://www.yenihabervar.
com/nihat-dogandan-olayli-ozgecan-tweeti-h1332.html
Özgüç, A. 2000. Türk Sinemasında Cinselliğin Tarihi [The History of Sexuality in Turkish Cinema]. Istanbul: Parantez.
18    T. INAL

Payne, D. L., K. A. Lonsway, and L. F. Fitzgerald. 1999. “Rape Myth Acceptance: Exploration of Its Structure and Its Measurement
Using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale.” Journal of Research in Personality 33: 27–68.
Povoledo, E. 2008. “Performance Artist Killed on Peace Trip Is Mourned,” April 19. http://theater.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/
theater/19peac.html?_r=0.
Projansky, S. 2001. Watching Rape: Film and Television in Postfeminist Culture. New York: New York University Press.
Rabinovitz, L. 1998. For the Love of Pleasure: Women, Movies and Culture in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago. New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press.
Russell, D. E. H. 1988. “Pornography and Rape: A Causal Model.” Political Psychology 9 (1): 41–73.
Ryan, K. M. 2011. “The Relationship between Rape Myths and Sexual Scripts: The Social Construction of Rape.” Sex Roles
65 (11): 774–782.
Sanday, P. R. 2007. Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus. New York: New York University Press.
Scognamillo, G., and M. Demirhan. 2002. Erotik Türk Sineması [Erotic Turkish Cinema]. Istanbul: Kabalcı.
Scully, D., and J. Marolla. 2007. “Riding the Bull at Gilley’s: Convicted Rapists Describe the Rewards of Rape.” In Down to
Earth Sociology, edited by J. M. Henslin, 251–263. New York: Free Press.
Sevinç, S. 2005. Soğuk Bir Gazoz İstermisin Yavrum [Would Y ou Like a Cold Soda Baby]. Istanbul: Akis.
Smith, S. L., and E. Donnerstein. 1998. “Harmful Effects of Exposure to Media Violence: Learning of Aggression, Emotional
Desensitization, and Fear.” In Human Aggression: Theories, Research, and Implications for Social Policy, edited by R. G. Geen
and E. D. Donnerstein, 167–202. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Snead, J. 1991. “Spectatorship and capture in King Kong: The guilty look.” Critical Quarterly 33 (1): 53–69.
“‘Tecavüz’ Search Results, 2004-Present.” 2015. Google Trends. http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=tecav%C3%
BCz&cmpt=q&tz=.
“Tecavüzcü Coşkun.” 2007. Ekşi Sözlük, June 24. Accessed March 5, 2015. https://eksisozluk.com/tecavuzcu-coskun–
35342?p=9
Tibet, K. 1982. İffet. Ören Film.
Uskan, A. 2010. “Gömlek ve Viski.” Takvim, May 28. Accessed March 18, 2015. http://www.takvim.com.tr/yazarlar/arda_
uskan/2010/05/28/gomlek_ve_viski
Vega, V., and N. M. Malamuth. 2007. “Predicting Sexual Aggression: The Role of Pornography in the Context of General and
Specific Risk Factors.” Aggressive Behavior 33: 104–117.
Yılmaz, A. 1976. Mağlup Edilemeyenler. Erler Film.
Yüksel, N. A. 2013. “Does Love Forgive Everything? Sexual Assault as an Attack Which is Normalized in Turkish Television
Series.” Journal of Literature and Art Studies 3 (8): 469–481.