Modern masculinities in Turkey. From decadence to militarism
This essay sets out to examine the changes which occurred in the
conception and experience of masculinity in the Ottoman empire and the
Turkish republic between 1860 and 1920. The shift from decadentism to
militarism, symbolised by the striking contrast between the vacillating figures
of the last sultans and the soldier-heroes Enver Pascià and Mustafà Kemal, is
one of the main points of reference. The other key point is the inter-relationship
between the female-male and internal-external dichotomies. The article
describes the changes in masculinity taking place during the nineteenth century,
especially after Kemal’s founding of the Turkish republic, with special
reference to the subjective sphere, and in particular to dress, to perceptions of
the body, and to styles of life. The battle for the abolition of the fez, the new
emphasis on male bodies which were both athletic and military, the insistence
on breaking up traditional generational hierarchies and forcing the inside to
come outside, as in the case of mixed dancing and schooling, the new alliances
between fathers and daughters, are all examples of profoundly innovative
definitions of internal and external, of male and female relationships. In
methodological terms, it is suggested that the categories of gender can shed a
completely new light upon the well-known processes of ‘revolution from
above’, embodied here in the remarkable figure of Mustafà Kemal, who was to
become Atatürk, literally, the ‘Father of the Turks’.