New Desires, New Selves: Sex, Love, and Piety among Turkish Youth

201 Pages·2015·2.549 MB·English

by  Gul Ozyegin

New Desires, New Selves
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New Desires, New Selves
Sex, Love, and Piety among Turkish Youth
Gul Ozyegin
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2015 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the
author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or
changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ozyegin, Gul, 1955–
New desires, new selves : sex, love, and piety among Turkish youth / Gul Ozyegin.
pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8147-6234-9 (cl : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4798-5381-6 (pb : alk. paper)
1.Youth—Turkey—Social conditions. 2. Youth—Sexual behavior—Turkey.
3. Youth—Religious life—Turkey. I. Title.
HQ799.T9O99 2015
305.23509561—dc23 2015007383
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials
are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppli-
ers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also available as an ebook
To those brave parents in Turkey who lovingly embrace their
offsprings’ nonpatriarchal desires and struggles to enact new
gender and sexual identities.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Virginal Façades 47
Passive Resistance and Class in Lesbian Self-Making:
Alev’s Story 93
2 Making a New Man: Recognition, Romance, Sex, and
Neoliberal Masculinity 107
Vulnerable Masculinity and Self-Transformation: Ali’s Story 153
3 New Pious Female Selves: The Feminist “Vein” Within and
the Troubling Gender Divide 167
Becoming a Sade Pious Woman in a Secular Society:
Aknur’s Story 228
4 Desire between “Doing” and “Being”: İbne (Faggot) and
Gey (Gay) 243
The Classless Penis 270
Conclusion 309
Appendix I: Tables 327
Appendix II: Sampling Procedure 331
Notes 333
References 341
Index 355
About the Author 369
vii
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Acknowledgments
I most wish to acknowledge the anonymous subjects of this book, whose
narratives, perspectives, conduct, and intimate experiences appear in
these pages. Without them this book simply could not have been writ-
ten. My profound thanks go to them for the trust, generous cooperation,
and openness with which they accepted my inquiries. I tried to treat
their stories with the utmost care and respect, as they deserve, but the
retelling, with all the caveats that framing, selection, and interpretation
entail, is mine.
I thank the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities
and Social Sciences for a fellowship during the academic year 2006–
2007, which provided freedom to develop and work on the book. The
research and the book were also supported by two research leaves from
Arts and Sciences at the College of William and Mary. I wish to thank
Social Identities and the European Journal of Women’s Studies for their
permission to publish in revised and expanded form portions of the ar-
ticles “Reading the Closet through Connectivity” (Social Identities 8.2:
20–22) and “Virginal Façades: Sexual Freedom and Guilt among Young
Turkish Women” (European Journal of Women’s Studies 16.2: 103–23).
Many people in Istanbul, too numerous to name, contributed to the
research for this book. Especially, I want to thank those colleagues and
friends who often went beyond the call of friendship in supporting my
work and providing such a stimulating environment in which to con-
duct research: Ferhunde Özbay and Nükhet Sirman and, above all, my
research assistants—Cenk Özbay, Arzu Ünal, and Umut Sarı, who were
of invaluable help in providing research assistance and reshaping the re-
search design with their critical feedback. My former students Erin Caro
and Laura Grandy at the College of William and Mary gave me research
and editing assistance at different stages. My special thanks to them and
to the following friends, mentors, and colleagues for reading the earlier
drafts of the chapters and offering excellent, thoughtful suggestions for
ix
x | Acknowledgments
improvement: Kathy Davis, Helma Lutz on chapter 1, Sherri Grasmuck,
Kay Jenkins, Magali Larson, Dee Royster and Ayşe Saktanber on chapter
3, and Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo on chapter 4. I am also grateful to
Ilene Kalish, who offered unwavering support for this project from the
beginning. My deep appreciation goes to Aslı Saktanber, the talented il-
lustrator of the book cover, who has not read the book yet, but perfectly
understood the gist of it to create a remarkable original artwork.
My close friends Nancy Gray and Sibel Zandi-Sayek, scholars in
divergent fields, always engagingly listened to me and asked good
questions throughout the process. I give thanks to them and to Ayşe
Saktanber for lending passionate support and reminding me that what I
was writing about was important and worthwhile. One friend and sister
book writer in particular, Carla Freeman, came into my life thirty years
ago and has been inspiring me ever since. Our deep friendship and intel-
lectual companionship continues to delight me. Our intensive engage-
ment with one another’s work has created a less lonely context that has
nurtured this book in important ways. With her discerning questions
she helped me enourmously to sharpen my ideas and pointed out what
needed further elucidation. I am immeasurably grateful to Carla.
I have been writing this book, in one way or another, for a long
time during which both the Turkish and American sides of my family
grew. Thanks to the Weber clan, John, Joe, Kim, and Bobbi, I have four
wonderful grandkids: Evelyn, Evan, Zack, and Kaleb. My nephews in
Turkey—Paydaş, Yeliz, Mert, and Özge—gave me the gift of becoming
a great-aunt to lovely Efe, Ada, and Bade. They all add great joy to my
life. My family in Turkey has provided a central emotional underpin-
ning to this project. I am grateful beyond measure for my sisters, Oya
Özdağ, Yasemin Erbil, and Fatoş Mersin, for their example of female
strength, connectivity, and compassion. I thank them for their uncon-
ditional love, endless nurturance and encouragement, and their pride in
me. My brother, Murat Bozdemir, and my brothers-in-law, Celal Erbil
and Selahattin Mersin, have been true loving supporters. I thank them
and my nephews, Paydaş Mersin, Mert Özdağ, Ender Mersin, and Ulaş
Bozdemir, for the optimism they inspire in me that women and girls in
Turkey are not alone in their fight against patriarchy.
I owe special thanks to John Weber, who, besides sharing my love for
my home country and its people, supported me in emotional and prac-