New Desires, New Selves: Sex, Love, and Piety among Turkish Youth

by Gul Ozyegin

Overview

As Turkey pushes for its place in the global pecking order and embraces neoliberal capitalism, the nation has seen a period of unprecedented shifts in political, religious, and gender and sexual identities for its citizens. In New Desires, New Selves, Gul Ozyegin shows how this social transformation in Turkey is felt most strongly among its young people, eager to surrender to the seduction of sexual modernity, but also longing to remain attached to traditional social relations, identities and histories.





Engaging a wide array of upwardly-mobile young adults at a major Turkish university, Ozyegin links the biographies of individuals with the biography of a nation, revealing their creation of conflicted identities in a country which has existed uneasily between West and East, modern and traditional, and secular and Islamic. For these young people, sexuality, gender expression, and intimate relationships in particular serve as key sites for reproducing and challenging patriarchy and paternalism that was hallmark of earlier generations. As Ozyegin evocatively shows, the quest for sexual freedom and an escape from patriarchal constructions of selfless femininity and protective masculinity promise both personal transformations and profound sexual guilt and anxiety. A poignant and original study, New Desires, New Selves presents a snapshot of cultural change on the eve of rapid globalization in the Muslim world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479852086
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	08/21/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Gul Ozyegin is Associate Professor of Sociology and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at the College of William and Mary.
She is the author of Untidy Gender: Domestic Service in Turkey.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 Virginal Façades 47 Passive Resistance and Class in Lesbian Self-Making: Alev’s Story 93 2 Making a New Man: Recognition, Romance, Sex, and Neoliberal Masculinity 107 Vulnerable Masculinity and Self-Transformation: Ali’s Story 153 3 New Pious Female Selves: The Feminist “Vein” Within and the Troubling Gender Divide 167 Becoming a Sade Pious Woman in a Secular Society: Aknur’s Story 228 4 Desire between “Doing” and “Being”: Ibne (Faggot) and Gey (Gay) 243 The Classless Penis 270

Editorial Reviews

"An original and fascinating account of the ways young adults construct their sexual and gender identities during times of rapid social change, New Desires, New Selves will change the way you think about selfhood and neoliberalism. Focusing on the unique context of contemporary Turkey, Ozyegin expertly shows how highly educated youth strive to become adults who are both autonomous and connected. This rich and nuanced analysis situates the biographies of individual women and men within distinctive family histories as well as the life course of a nation, illuminating pathways of feminine and masculine self-creation that are altogether new but distinctively Turkish."

Laura Carpenter

"InNew Desires, New Selves, Gul Ozyegin[explores] the change in Turkish attitudes toward sex in the early twentieth century [Only] by rooting out effeminacy and degeneration could Turks become masculine, independent, and Western."

New York Review of Books

"Ozyegins analysis of identity is intersectional in its approach, as she adeptly shows how kinship relations, notions or tradition, and especially class overlap with and come to shape and be shaped by gender and sexual subjectivities. Her examination of romance and sex as important sites for exercising class privilege and disadvantages is particularly astute."

Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies

"In New Desires, New Selves, Gul Ozyegin[explores] the change in Turkish attitudes toward sex in the early twentieth century [Only] by rooting out effeminacy and degeneration could Turks become masculine, independent, and Western."

New York Review of Books - Kaya Genç

"Through sensitive interviews and rich storytelling, Gul Ozyegin shows that we cannot understand young peoples intimate lives in universal wayseither as conforming to traditionally religious sex/gender scripts, or as morphing into modern global neoliberal selves. Instead, Ozyegin paints a picture of young Turkish people today grappling with 'fractured desire' in a rapidly changing and contradictory social context. In this deeply theorized yet lively and accessible text, we see young people re-casting conceptions of masculinity, femininity and romance, while creatively forging selves premised on both sexual autonomy and connection with others."

Michael A. Messner

"Ozyegin is most insightful when she brings her subjects to the forefront through numerous quotes and extended vignettes. These are stunning because her subjects voices resonate with honesty and courage."

Place & Culture Gender

"New Desires, New Selves: Sex, Love, and Piety among Turkish Youthprovides us with an in-depth look into the new selves crafted by upwardly mobile contemporary Turkish youth."

American Journal of Sociology

"Gul Ozyegin has deftly taken up some of the most key issues in contemporary sociology and grounded them in a beautifully written and empirically rich study of an interesting case: Turkish youth talking about their lives and aspirations in the midst of the enormous social, cultural, economic and political changes in modern Turkey. New Desires, New Selves not only compels us to re-think everyday life in Muslim contexts; it forces us to rethink how we conceptualize identity and sexuality in general."

Kathy Davis

"Ozyegins rich analysis is based on theoretical perspectives of gender, sexuality, love, social class, and identity development, which collectively branch out from her feminist framework."

Gender & Society

"New Desires, New Selves: Sex, Love, and Piety among Turkish Youthby the sociologist Gul Ozyegin is a powerful and timely contribution to the field of gender and sexuality studies."

Women’s Studies International Forum

"Ozyegins analysis of identity is intersectional in its approach, as she adeptly shows how kinship relations, notions or tradition, and especially class overlap with and come to shape and be shaped by gender and sexual subjectivities. Her examination of romance and sex as important sites for exercising class privilege and disadvantages is particularly astute."

Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies

"In New Desires, New Selves, Gul Ozyegin[explores] the change in Turkish attitudes toward sex in the early twentieth century [Only] by rooting out effeminacy and degeneration could Turks become masculine, independent, and Western."

New York Review of Books - Kaya Genç

"New Desires, New Selves: Sex, Love, and Piety among Turkish Youthby the sociologist Gul Ozyegin is a powerful and timely contribution to the field of gender and sexuality studies."

Women’s Studies International Forum

"An original and fascinating account of the ways young adults construct their sexual and gender identities during times of rapid social change, New
Desires, New Selves will change the way you think about selfhood and neoliberalism. Focusing on the unique context of contemporary Turkey,
Ozyegin expertly shows how highly educated youth strive to become adults who are both autonomous and connected. This rich and nuanced analysis situates the biographies of individual women and men within distinctive family histories as well as the life course of a nation, illuminating pathways of feminine and masculine self-creation that are altogether new but distinctively
Turkish."-Laura Carpenter,author of Virginity Lost: An Intimate Portrait of First Sexual Experiences

“Gul Ozyegin has deftly taken up some of the most key issues in contemporary sociology and grounded them in a beautifully written and empirically rich study of an interesting case: Turkish youth talking about their lives and aspirations in the midst of the enormous social, cultural, economic and political changes in modern Turkey. New
Desires, New Selves not only compels us to re-think everyday life in Muslim contexts; it forces us to rethink how we conceptualize identity and sexuality in general.”-Kathy Davis,author of Dancing Tango: Passionate Encounters in a Globalizing World

"Through sensitive interviews and rich storytelling, Gul Ozyegin shows that we cannot understand young peoples’ intimate lives in universal ways—either as conforming to traditionally religious sex/gender scripts, or as morphing into modern global neoliberal selves. Instead, Ozyegin paints a picture of young Turkish people today grappling with 'fractured desire' in a rapidly changing and contradictory social context. In this deeply theorized yet lively and accessible text, we see young people re-casting conceptions of masculinity, femininity and romance, while creatively forging selves premised on both sexual autonomy and connection with others."-Michael A. Messner,co-author of Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women

From the Publisher