Beyond feminist heroines: framing the discourses on Kurdish women fighters in three types of Western media

This article is a feminist framing and discourse analysis of Western media representations of women in armed conflicts. Looking specifically at the case of Kurdish women fighters, I conducted a qualitative data analysis of 125 news articles in three different media spaces. The results highlight the complex and socially constructed nature of media representations and how these representations are intertwined with larger geopolitical power relations. The analysis suggests that different actors carry the discourses on Kurdish women combatants for different purposes. While mass media and specialized media (including women’s and cultural magazines) are relatively similar in their representation of Kurdish women fighters, only the alternative media (both left and right-wing) are significantly different in their way of portraying them. While the images of Kurdish fighters are often believed to challenge the Orientalist gender stereotypes, I argue that the Western media coverage only reproduces these stereotypes by portraying them both as heroines and victims. The analysis also demonstrates the contrasted agency whether article talk is differently represented whether articles talk about Kurdish women vs. Western women fighters, in which the latter are part of larger discourses of “protection” and Western liberal feminism.