Tracking the Invisible: Queer Approaches to Parenthood and Family in Turkey
TRACKING THE INVISIBLE: QUEER APPROACHES TO PARENTHOOD AND FAMILY IN TURKEY by Sema Merve İş Submitted to the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Sabancı University Spring 2012-2013 TRACKING THE INVISIBLE: QUEER APPROACHES TO PARENTHOOD AND FAMILY IN TURKEY Approved by: Ayşe Gül Altınay................................ (Thesis Supervisor) Hülya Adak ................................ Begüm Başdaş ................................ Date of Approval: 06.09.2013 © Sema Merve İş 2013 All Rights Reserved ! ABSTRACT TRACKING THE INVISIBLE: QUEER APPROACHES TO PARENTHOOD AND FAMILY IN TURKEY Sema Merve İş Cultural Studies, MA Thesis, 2013 Supervisor: Associate Professor Ayşe Gül Altınay Keywords: LGBT, Queer, Gender, Family, Parenthood, Ethnography This thesis focuses on the experiences of parents and the dreams and plans of parents-to-be that are abjected by the heteronormative family system. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews and participant-observation with lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer parents, the research explores the strategies developed by these parents for raising their children in the context of the heteronormative family system. How do these parents constitute a challenge for the “ideal nuclear family” form that is constitutive of nation-state practices? How do they experience or approach the school, which is heavily shaped by heteronormativity, as part of their parenting process? What are the different ways in which they define and experience themselves as “parents”? Asking such questions, this thesis critically analyzes the different articulations of queer parenthood and their challenge to compulsory heterosexuality, conjugality, and compulsory parental identification. The ethnography not only traces parents’ relations with their children and their children’s school, but also their self-identification as a parent in the dichotomous gender system.
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