Media Representation of Masculinity in the Patriarchal System with a Discursive Semiotics Approach (case: TV series Setayesh

Paternalism is a concept based on power, influence, authority and proof of a male in the context of family. Media is a way through which the system is reproduced in society. Identifying the type of masculinity depicted in the series Setayesh is one the objectives of the paper. First, 27 scenes were selected from scenes representing patriarchy and masculinity to determine their explicit and implicit implications after analyzing semiotics at the micro level. Then the symbols extracted at micro level were analyzed in relation to the overall context of Iranian society with regard to discursive semiotics approach. The most important result of the research shows that the masculinity represented in this series is of the punishment masculinity through which father's violence, domination and conscience are prioritized in the family structure. This series presents a kind of weakened masculinity by representing and disseminating new forms of masculinity that are in conflict with the suitable pattern with indigenous culture. In this way, it doubts the existence and ideology of the patriarchal system. The imagination in this series is that the media, with regard to other external and environmental factors, criticize the stability of patriarchal order and provide an unstable picture of the patriarchal system. On the succession, such a system is replaced by patriarchal order withoutreplacing a desirable or conventional pattern