Homebound Young Women’s Media Consumption: Active Audienceship Experiences of “Invisible” Women in Türkiye
Makaleler > Tam Makale · 2026
Yazarlar: Sinem UTANIR ALTAY
Youth&Globalization, ESCI İndekslerine Giren Dergi, Uluslararası, Scopus, 2026, cilt 1, ss 1-32
DOI: 10.1163/25895745-bja10064
Özet
Abstract This article explores the media consumption practices of young women in Türkiye, aged 15–24, who are excluded from formal education and employment and are socially categorized as homebound young woman (ev kızı). These women, who are unmarried and neither studying nor working, are often marginalized due to their limited public visibility. Based on in-depth interviews with forty young women from lower- and middle-income neighborhoods in Ankara and Bursa, the study employs thematic analysis to examine how participants engage with media content. The findings reveal that these women do not consume media passively; rather, they actively use media to construct identity, seek emotional support, cope with daily life, and create indirect spaces for expression in relation to social norms. Television dramas, social media platforms, and other forms of media function both as constraining and enabling spaces for these women. Additionally, the study shows that digital media practices are shaped by desires for visibility, emotional attachment, and algorithmically mediated engagement, reflecting broader affective dynamics in their lives. This research aims to illuminate how the media consumption practices of homebound young women intersect with identity formation and gender norms through a feminist perspective.