Author: Cenk OEzbay
Format: Hardback, 138mm x 216mm, 384g, 208 pages
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, United Kingdom, 2017
Despite its some of its more liberal and democratic characteristics - when compared to many other countries in the Middle East - the more conservative elements within Turkish politics and society have made gains over the past decades. As a result, like many others in the region, Turkish society has multiple standards when naming, evaluating and reacting to men who have sex with men. Cenk Ozbay argues that overall, self-identified gay men (as well as men who practice clandestine same-sex acts) are most of the time marginalised, ostracised and rendered 'immoral' in both everyday practices and social institutions. He offers in this book an analysis of the concept of masculinity as central to redefining boundaries of class, gender and sexuality, particularly looking at the dynamics between self-identified gay men and straight-acting male prostitutes, or 'rent boys'. A result of in-depth interviews with both self-identified gay men and rent boys, Ozbay explores the changing discourses and meaning of class, gender and queer sexualities, and how these three are embedded within urban and familial narratives.
Cenk Ozbay 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 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).
