Unpacking Masculinities in the Context of Social Change: Internal Complexities of the Identities of Married Men in Turkey

Abstract

Through analysis of fifty in-depth interviews with married men from different socioeconomic backgrounds and ages in seven provinces in Turkey, this article examines the internal dilemmas and contradictions in the construction of masculine identities in the context of social change in the country. The focus is on men's experiences of most salient relational contexts with their parents, their children, and their spouses, and the possible implications of these relational experiences as well as prevailing social discourses for how these men negotiate masculinity. Overall, the men's narratives indicate that both the relationship with the children and with the wife are relationships in transition, reflected in the dilemmas and contradictions at the discursive level, as well as between discourse and lived reality, resulting from the juxtaposition of relatively traditional backgrounds and the prevailing discourse of traditionalism with the emerging modernist discourse of egalitarianism. Findings are discussed in the context of the relevant literature and the socio-cultural context.