Cenk zbay is Associate Professor of Gender Studies and Sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sabanci University. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Southern California. His research interests are gender and sexualities, masculinity studies, urban sociology, work and labour, neoliberalism and mobilities. In addition to his many publications in English and Turkish, he is a co-editor of Yeni Istanbul Calismalari (2014) and The Making of Neoliberal Turkey (2016).
Queering Sexualities in Turkey is a pioneering study of heterosexually-identified young men with rural family origins who engage in compensated sex with middle-class gay clients in Istanbul. It richly melds compelling ethnography, in-depth interviews, and theory within a cultural and political-economy framework. Richly rewarding his readers with a powerful intersectional analysis through thick description and theoretical depth, Cenk zbay shows how a closely studied case illuminates broader theoretical questions central to understanding the key roles of class, the body and heteronormativity in shaping embodied masculinities and sexualities. Engaging, original, beautifully written, and distinct for its global orientation, Queering Sexualities in Turkey is a must-read for gender and sexuality scholars, and an invaluable teaching resource in a wide range of disciplines.
Gul Ozyegin, Professor of Sociology and Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at the College of William and Mary, Virginia and editor of Gender and Sexuality in Muslim Cultures
Grounded in careful observation and richly theorised, Cenk zbay's Queering Sexualities in Turkey stretches and deepens our understanding of the shifting dynamics of gender relations, sexual identity and sex work in neoliberal contexts.
Michael A. Messner, Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California and co-author of Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women
Cenk zbay's innovative and inspiring study provides queer studies scholarship with a much-needed critical focus on the regional operations of class, gender and sexuality. Benefitting from a cross-disciplinary and transnational range of academic literature, zbay's analyses prove to be a powerful intervention to existing debates on globalisation of sexualities, and the geopolitics of knowledge production in Queer Studies.
Cuneyt Cakirlar, Lecturer in Communications, Culture and Media Studies at Nottingham Trent University
QUEERING
SEXUALITIES IN
TURKEY
Gay Men, Male Prostitutes and the City
C ENK ZBAY
Published in 2017 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright 2017 Cenk zbay
The right of Cenk zbay to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
Library of Modern Turkey 20
ISBN: 978 1 78453 317 5
eISBN: 978 1 78672 198 3
ePDF: 978 1 78673 198 2
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
To Alper
LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS
A poster that hung in public spaces and some college campuses in the summer of 2015, states, If you see someone who is doing the ugly business of the Lot Tribe [the people of Sodom and Gomorrah], kill the actor and the subject. The Islamic Defence, apparently an online organisation, summons the reader to kill the homosexuals. Source: Cenk zbay
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Queering Sexualities in Turkey is the outcome of sporadic engagement with research and meditation about queer sexualities, masculinities, gay identity and male sex work in Istanbul, Turkey, between the years of 2003 and 2015. Given this longer-than-usual genealogy, there are many people who helped and contributed in different contexts to the formation of this book.
While I was trying to find my own way of doing original sociological research, Gul Ozyegin, during a dinner in late 2002, encouraged me to take a closer look and eventually design a study on male sex work practices for my master's degree at Bogazici University. She was also on the committee when I defended my thesis and presented the initial findings of my research on male sex work in August 2005. Since then she has always been there to help and encourage me in any possible way, and therefore I owe this book to her unfailing support.
At the Department of Sociology at Boazii University, Nukhet Sirman was my thesis supervisor and a great inspiration. I have learnt an enormous amount from her about thinking, writing and teaching as an interpretive social scientist. The late Ferhunde Ozbay, another source of motivation and passion for social research, was also on my thesis committee. She was always wholeheartedly encouraging and meticulously critical toward me. Ayfer Bartu Candan met me for the first time while I was talking about male prostitution in 2003 and since then she has been an indispensable mentor, colleague, and friend.
While I was doing my doctoral studies at the University of Southern California, my PhD advisor, Mike Messner, patiently listened to what I told him about male sex workers and read the pieces I wrote, although rent boys and the lives of Turkish queers were not the immediate topic that I was working on under his supervision. I have learnt intricate ways of studying men and masculinities through a critical lens and the curious methods of being a pro-feminist scholar from him. I owe him huge thanks for being such a great mentor and role model for all his students, including me.
Macarena Gomez Barris has always been an influential model for me and some sections of this book benefited greatly from her brilliant ideas, questions, and suggestions. Deniz Celikel, Kerem Bozok, Muge Leyla Yildiz, Evren Savci, Yesim Yasin, Maral Erol, Joy Lam, Glenda Flores, Engin Volkan, Sinan Birdal, James Thing, Nancy Lutkehaus, Sharon Hays, Tim Biblarz, Ed Ransford, Nina Eliasoph, Lynn Casper, Jack Halberstam, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Ken Plummer, Peter Aggleton, Richard Parker, Don Barrett, Cuneyt Cakirlar, Serkan Delice, Serdar Soydan, Semih Sokmen, Yesim Arat, Aysecan Terzioglu, Dilek Unalan, Duygu Salman and Arzu Tektas provided support on the vague line between friendship, information and thought exchange, editing and guidance of sorts. I am deeply grateful to all of these great people as well as the anonymous reviewers of the manuscript.
Sercan Tas, Sinan Can Erdal and Gokce Selim Atici worked with me as research assistants for different research projects between 2013 and 2016. Their smart and practical contributions to those other projects gave me time to better focus on this one, and my conversations with them enriched my perceptions of gender and sexualities among the next generation. My students in Men, Masculinities, Sexualities and the Sociology of Sex Work classes at Bogazici University also helped me to configure the concepts and arguments that shaped this book.
