Representations of disability in Turkish television health shows: Neo-liberal articulations of family, religion and the medical approach

This article investigates representations of disability in Turkish television shows on health in their relation to the hegemonic ideologies that shape and are reproduced by them. Three categories emerge: disability as a familial, religious and medical issue. Respectively, each category is moulded by and perpetuates a patriarchal motherhood discourse, an Islamic ethos, and a medical approach. These interrelate with the overarching disabling and neo-liberal ideologies and produce contradictory representations – e.g. disability is represented as curable, but also left to God’s will. This relates to the particularities of Turkey, defined by Islamic leanings towards disability, accompanied by neo-liberalism and cultural conservatism.