Political manhood in 2000's Turkey : representations of different masculinities in politics
Author(s)
Advisor
Cindoğlu, DilekDate
2012Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
This dissertation mainly questions the constructions of different masculinities
in politics in Turkey. It re-reads the different representations of political manhood
with reference to the AKP, the CHP and the MHP between 2000 and 2008. In order
to reveal the embeddedness of masculinities and politics, this dissertation analyzes
not only gendered discourses of the given political parties but also their leaders,
namely, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Deniz Baykal and Devlet Bahçeli. With the
guidance of Pierre Bourdieu’s analytical tools, especially, on the basis of the
congruent relation between habitus and the field, this dissertation questions different
representations of masculinities and identifies typologies of masculinities, namely ;
(1) Neo-Muslim, (2) Kemalist/Secular, and, (3) Nationalist. With reference to the
patterns of masculinities in Turkish political culture, this study argues that the
gendered nature of the politics, in general, political parties in particular, use and
reproduce dominant masculinist strategies. In politics as a field, leaders experience
the praxis of being man rather than their ideological engagements; leftist, rightist or
Islamist.
Keywords
gendermasculinities
political parties
AKP
CHP
MHP
Turkish politics
Kemalism
Islam
nationalism
Bourdieu