This is an investigation I worked on in 2021 after I first found out about Transdisciplinary Design MFA at Parsons. After doing more research about the program and deciding to pursue it, I reached out to an alumni, Selim Budeyri. He helped me tremendously by giving me an insight to the classes and the structure of the program. He also provided me with the right resources to get started on my application journey. I learned about IDEO and Acumen Academy from him. I carried out this investigation in an effort to understand what it may be like to be a Transdisciplinary Design student at Parsons or a design consultant at IDEO.
The Problem
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there were 266 femicides in Turkey in 2020.1 Violence against women and children is high and protection of women's rights is low.
- Fifty percent of women murdered in Turkey were killed by their intimate partners or husbands.2
- Thirty-two percent of women murdered were killed while trying to make decisions about their own lives.3
- Fifty-six percent of femicides were committed with firearms and 28 percent with sharp objects.4
- Sixty percent of women were murdered at home and 16 percent on the street.5
The Causes
Hate Speech and Representation in Media
Media writers and producers may not be aware of the fact that they are promoting representations that give rise to hate speech and elements of hate.
Another prominent example of women from foreign and former Eastern Bloc countries being subject to racist stereotypes or hate speech in Turkish TV series is the representation of these women in relation to prostitution. In her master's thesis titled "Representation of Foreign Women in Domestic Television Series", Inna Tatar (2013:45) states that foreign women in TV series are not portrayed as individuals but as commodities and sources of pleasure or problems.6
Lack of Media Literacy
In Turkey, media literacy is taught as an elective course according to the revised and approved version of the 2006 curriculum approved by the Ministry of National Education in 2014. Students do not take the course seriously because it is an elective course, and they are unable to give their attention during the lesson due to anxiety about TEOG (national high school entrance exam). Assessment and evaluation elements are seen as inadequate and it is observed that there is a decline in the number of schools and students choosing the course.7 As a result of the research, it was found that there are obstacles in the teaching of the course such as teachers' administrative duties, inadequacy of the physical structure of the school, and students' lack of interest in the course.
A system that is easier for teachers to implement and has a robust assessment and evaluation system can be successful if it is implemented at an earlier age rather than during the years when students are under exam stress.
The quality and quantity of women's labor force participation
The more social and economic freedom women have or try to have, the more they are subjected to violence. Men's employment status is a determining factor and it is known that men who perpetrate violence against women are often not working. I think the problem is that men define their own worth by how their relationships look from the outside and they think that the measure of their masculinity is how much they can control their partners.
If people are instilled with self-love and self-consciousness, they can realize their own worth and let go of social status concerns. Our society has developed oppressive habits because it is seen as a social norm to exert influence over women and because decisions women make about their own lives, such as divorce, are not normalized in 'alpha' male figures. I think the belief that "if a woman makes decisions about her own life, the man is inadequate" is a major factor that causes violence.
The effect of resacralization on the social position of women
When women who step outside the religious boundaries drawn by the government and sects are murdered, the perpetrators' crimes are condoned with lenient sentences. Divorce is restricted for religious reasons and male domination is perpetuated.
People are absolutely not free. Where there is no freedom, it is impossible for anyone to be tested religiously. If Allah has sent us into this world to be judged by our good and bad deeds, and if everyone has their own good and bad deeds, then everyone should be free in their choices and actions, and a true Islamic state should support this to the fullest.
Defining the Problem
The use of conscious and unconscious representations of hate speech in the Turkish media and the deprivation of the Turkish society of media literacy education that provides them with the ability to evaluate and filter these representations, result in the development of social habits that lead to violence.
Hypothesizing Possible Solutions
In a world where this problem is resolved, Turkish citizens have become conscious media consumers. They are aware of how the content they are exposed to or the content they choose to consume can harm others and make their decisions accordingly using their critical thinking skills. They have shifted from passive consumerism to active consumerism. The representations used by the media have been identified and the effects of these representations on social habits are known by the society. People are aware of their habits and have sufficient knowledge and information to change the habits they want to change.
Through Education
- Media literacy education in schools should be part of the curriculum and the tools should be available to all students
- Providing media literacy training to families through school and their children
- Curricula and tools that provide digital citizenship education in schools can be implemented in all schools, not just in selected private schools
Through Media
- Raising awareness among producers of radio and television programs
- Ensuring that production companies make the right production choices and raising awareness to make these decisions with the right motivations
- Ensuring that actors are aware of the effects of the roles they play on society
- Inform writers, artists, editors and producers about the impact of positive messaging and representation
- Creating an institution that evaluates scenarios according to the criteria of benefit to social habits and creating communication channels that will enable these scenarios to come to the forefront
- Establish an institution that evaluates advertising and publishing content and provides a stamp of credibility. This is an independent body that can cover the operation fees through an application fee
Through Research and Science
- Investigating the effects of representations in the media that promote or contribute to negative habits on social behaviors
- Naming the habits that negatively affect social harmony among social behaviors and investigating the process of their formation
- Investigating beliefs based on hate speech and representations in the media, naming them and exploring their impact on behavior
- Communicating the research in this field through channels accessible to citizens and presenting it in an easy-to-understand format
Possible Minimum Viable Products
The MVPs can model success stories from around the world. The organizations that created these products are seen as potential partners.
Education - A media literacy application modeled after commonsensemedia.org
Media - An evaluation and feedback platform for writers and producers to collaborate. Modeled after https://blcklst.com
Research - A database of translated research articles for journalists, educators and policy makers to access. An instagram or YouTube account that summarizes the research articles can be useful in communicating the same information to a broader audience.
As we say in Turkey "It is not shameful to not know, but to not learn".
Resources
1https://archive.is/zt1ur
2http://kadincinayetlerinidurduracagiz.net/veriler/2947/kadin-cinayetlerini-durduracagiz-platformu-2020-raporu
3http://kadincinayetlerinidurduracagiz.net/veriler/2947/kadin-cinayetlerini-durduracagiz-platformu-2020-raporu
4http://kadincinayetlerinidurduracagiz.net/veriler/2947/kadin-cinayetlerini-durduracagiz-platformu-2020-raporu
5http://kadincinayetlerinidurduracagiz.net/veriler/2947/kadin-cinayetlerini-durduracagiz-platformu-2020-raporu
6http://dergiler.ankara.edu.tr/dergiler/23/2281/23738.pdf
7https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1487631
The cover image was taken from the Turkish femicide website.