Masculinity beyond earth: cultural negotiation and gender politics in Turkish science fiction cinema

This study examines how masculinity has been represented in Turkish science fiction cinema under various historical and industrial conditions, and how these representations have been shaped through national identity, heteronormativity, and cultural relationships with Western cinema. The research is based on a comparative qualitative analysis of the films Turist Ömer Uzay Yolunda (1973), Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam (1982), G.O.R.A. (2004), and Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam’ın Oğlu (2006). Through sociological film analysis and interpretive textual analysis, the study evaluates the characters’ narrative positions, bodily performances, relationships with extraterrestrial characters, and the ideological functions of humor. Drawing on Connell’s approach to hegemonic masculinity, Butler’s theory of gender performativity, and discussions of postcolonial cultural negotiation, this study demonstrates that masculinity in Turkish science fiction cinema is not constructed as a singular, unchanging model. Ömer the Tourist’s everyday humor, Murat’s physical heroism, Arif’s parodic performance of masculinity, and the intergenerational transmission of heroism in the sequel bring different forms of masculinity to light. The findings indicate that the reworking of Western science fiction aesthetics through local cultural codes creates a space where masculinity and national identity are cinematically negotiated.