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Construction of Gay Identity Among Different Classes: a Case Study in Ankara

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Construction of Gay Identity Among Different Classes: a Case Study in Ankara CONSTRUCTION OF GAY IDENTITY AMONG DIFFERENT CLASSES: A CASE STUDY IN ANKARA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY HAKTAN URAL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY SEPTEMBER 2010 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences ______________________ Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. _______________________ Prof. Dr.Ayse Saktanber Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. _______________________ Dr. Fatma Umut Beşpınar Supervisor Examining Committee Members Dr. Fatma Umut Beşpınar _______________________ (METU, Sociology) Dr. Barış Mücen _______________________ (METU, Sociology) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nilay Çabuk Kaya _______________________ (Ankara University, Sociology) ii I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last Name: Haktan Ural Signature : iii ABSTRACT CONSTRUCTION OF GAY IDENTITIES AMONG DIFFERENT CLASSES: A CASE STUDY IN ANKARA Ural, Haktan M.S., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Dr. Fatma Umut Beşpınar Page Number: 123 September, 2010 This thesis mainly aims to understand how construction of gay identity differentiates in terms of class inequalities. Regarding the conceptual framework of Deniz Kandiyoti, it inquires in what way class position reshapes the experience of gay sexuality and how gay men of different classes bargain with heteronormative order through different perceptions of homoeroticism and gender identities. In discussing this issue, how gay men identify themselves, how they represent their body, how they interact with and percieve other gay men, how they percieve masculinity and femininity in construction of gender identities engender as primary questions to understand plurality of gay experience. These featured aspects of gay experience in Turkey entail a dynamic process in the way of both multiple formation of gay experience due to class differences and contradictory character of such plurality. Perception of other forms of gay experience is included to the discussion for understanding a comprehensive analysis for plurality of gay experience. Keywords : Heteronormativity, gay, class, coming out, closet. iv ÖZET FARKLI SINIFLARDA GEY KİMLİĞİNİN İNŞASI: ANKARA ÖRNEĞİ Ural, Haktan Yüksek Lisans, Sosyoloji Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Dr. Fatma Umut Beşpınar Sayfa Sayısı: 123 Eylül, 2010 Bu tez temel olarak sınıfsal eşitsizlikler içerisinde gey kimliğinin nasıl inşa edildiğine odaklanmaktadır. Deniz Kandiyoti’nin kavramsallaştırması baz alınarak, eşcinsellik ve toplumsal cinsiyet kimliklerinin algısı göz önünde bulundurulduğunda, sınıfsal konumun gey deneyimini nasıl yeniden anlamlandırdığı ve farklı sınıfların heteronormatif düzenle ne türden pazarlık stratejileri geliştirdiği araştırmanın temel sorunsalı olarak belirlenmiştir. Bu konunun tartışılmasında, gey erkeklerin kendilerini nasıl tanımladığı, bedenlerini kamusal alanda nasıl sundukları, diğer gey erkeklerle ne tür bir ilişki içerisine girdikleri ve onları nasıl algıladıkları ve erkeklik ve kadınlık kurgularını mevcut toplumsal cinsiyet kodları içerisinde nasıl algıladıkları gey deneyiminin çoğul karakterini anlamak için öne çıkmaktadır. Gey deneyiminin öne çıkan bu bileşenleri hem sınıfsal farklılıklar bağlamında gey kimliğinin nasıl oluştuğu, hem de bu çoğul gey kimliklerinin birbiriyle neden ve nasıl çatışmalı bir ilişkiye girdiklerini anlamak için önem kazanmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, inşa edilen gey kimliğinin diğer gey kimlikleriyle girdiği ilişki biçimi, gey deneyiminin çoğulluğunun kapsamlı bir analizi için tartışmaya dahil edilmiştir. Anahtar Sözcükler : Heteronormativite, gey, sınıf, açılma, gizlilik. v To my mother, for her silent recognition vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to thank to my respondents as they did not only spend a couple of hours with me and answered to my questions which touches on their hard times but they became a part of a project which aims to understand a particular experience which is severely neglected in both scientific and political agenda. And moreover, I will never forget the times with my respondents as it was not only a process for data gathering but it was spending a very amusing time so that they were not only an object of a research but they are my friends from now on. Besides, I would like to express my special thanks to Mehmet, Onur, Cihan and Gökhan as they did not only told me their own stories but they made possible for me to get to know other stories as well. Lastly, I would like to thank Engin for his kindly host of my periodical visits in gay club in Ankara. I would like to express my appreciation to Dr. Fatma Umut Beşpınar, who accepted to be my advisor. Without her suggestions and comments, I would have failed to correct my mistakes. By rendering possible to share our experiences and stages with her other graduate students and by eliminating purely professionalized interactions with her students through feminist motivations, she has always been an alternative advisor. Moreover, she was the one who encouraged me to study such an issue. I would also like to thank Prof. Dr. Aytül Kasapoğlu and Assist. Prof. Dr. Yonca Hançer Odabaş as they made several comments to read a few articles. Assist. Prof. Dr. Elif Kuş Saillard has facilitated to complete the analysis by teaching me how to use MaxQDA. I could have a chance to use software programmes for qualitative analysis by virtue of her support. She was also explicitly welcome to answer my numerous questions. My friends stand at a very special point as they make my life bearable. I have always felt that we form any sort of family in a queer way and such supportive connection and solidarity among us have been very encouraging in the process of this study. vii Hours of discussions with my friends Burcu and Esra have always been indispensable. My confusing adventure during the process of fieldwork and writing up the thesis have become much more clear after talking to them. And I certainly enjoyed our special network, which eliminates all the sources of sorrows, with them. Elçin, whom we have become neighbours very recently, was my companion. Her visits with Ergün was a kind of therapy during the times that I was feeling myself lonely at weekends. After she taught me how to knit at a very recent time, I could attain goergous strategy to escape from studying so that I smoked less. Altan has always been the source of my cheers, even at the time that I needed so much while studying and this had never changed although he got married and left our “family”. Encouraging telephone calls and chatting on Gtalk with Esra Can have been memorable motivations and I owe her much for believing in a day of which we both will complete our theses. Utku’s and Emine’s invaluable favor has been lifesaving and I could not present this study unless they helped me out in translating quotations to English. And lastly, I am thankful to my family as they did not bother me on what I am studying for my master’s study so much. As it would not be easy to tell them on what topic I am studying, by virtue of their silent indifference to my study, I could easily go on studying without having any concern to “closet” this research. I hope that their indifference relies on a loveful trust to me in my own life. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ……………………………………………………………………....iii ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………...iv ÖZET ………………………………………………………………………………...v DEDICATEMENT ………………………………………………………………….vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………...vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………………ix CHAPTERS 1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………1 1.1 Research Problem ………………………………………………………………..1 1.2 Contemporary Literature in Queer Studies ………………………………………2 1.3 Queer Studies in Turkey ………………………………………………………....3 1.4 Contribution of This Study ………………………………………………………5 1.5 Methodolody ……………………………………………………………………..6 2. Field and Method ……………………………………………………………….11 2.1 Method ………………………………………………………………………….11 2.2 Field Experience ………………………………………………………………..16 2.2.1 Researcher’s Positionaity ……………………………………………………..17 2.2.2 Field of Gay Men as a Gendering Site ………………………………………..17 2.2.3 Signification of the Researcher as “Messenger” ……………………………...22 3. Rehinking Concepts on Queer Sexuality …………………………………...…23 3.1 Homosexuality as a Socially Constructed Phenomenon ………………………..24 3.2 Can ‘Homosexuality’ be a Collective Identity? ………………………………...27 3.2.1 Collectivity of Gay and Lesbian Identities …………………………………...28 3.2.2 A Queer Challenge of Homo/Hetero Binarism ……………………………….31 3.3. Queering Sexuality ……………………………………………………………..35 3.3.1 Intersectionality of Gender and Sexuality …………………………………….37 ix 3.3.2 A Queer Intersectionality of Gender and Sexuality …………………………..42 3.4. Rethinking Queer Sexuality in the Framework of Class Inequalities ………….46 4. Precessions Between “Gay Life” and “Hetero-Life” …………………………53 4.1 Escaping from “Hetero-Life” …………………………………………………...55 4.2 Spatiality of Gay Life …………………………………………………………...57 4.3 Appropriateness and Inappropriateness of Gay Embodiment
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