The Presentation of Hegemonic Masculinity, Parasocial Interaction and Transnational Online Communities: A Case Study of the Turkish Series "Erkenci Kuş"

Women in general are still enticed and their consent regarding hegemonic gender relations is being gained by the traditional masculine traits presented and portrayed by the media. This article addresses how the audience of women from a Facebook group create parasocial interaction through the presentation of the hegemonic masculinity of the male character -Can Divit in a Turkish series Erkenci Ku. Employing a qualitative thematic analysis of 486 posts combined with observations, the authors add an empirical perspective to the widely discussed concept of audience participation and make a claim that the audience perceived motivations for their involvement and their engagement of the show is through the main male character creating what should be known as male objectification. The study doesn't focuses only upon the representation of masculinity, further it also concentrates on the gaze of the audiences, and seeks to illuminate how they (audiences) consume these representations and how they relate themselves to these hegemonic masculine ideals.