Feminism, Mon Amour: A Cross-Cultural and Personal Analysis of “Doing Women and Gender Studies”

Here is the 20-minute-long paper presentation that I prepared for METU conference:

Today I will be talking about my latest non-fiction book which I categorize as a piece of “life writing” a term reincarnated by Marlene Kadar who (until recently) was a professor of Literature & Women Studies at York University. Life writing is a broad term & is defined as a feminist genre that emancipated the genres of biography, memoirs, letters, travel accounts, blogs, and other life-related records from the claims of truth and fixed criteria. I like to take refuge in life writing when I am writing my non-fiction or produce work that cuts across personal and academic writing in one text.

I consider this book a direct contribution to knowledge production and politics in
gender and women’s studies across cultures through a Turkish woman’s eyes. I think there is a serious gap in this for various reasons, which I will be happy to speculate during coffee breaks. It is also a contribution to “Cultures in Dialogue” across feminisms in different countries.

I apologize if this presentation sounds like a shameless self-promotion. It is not. Because my book of memoirs, Feminizm Sevgilim, is still looking for the right publisher so it is not out for you to purchase. Its title is inspired by Hiroshima, Mon Amour and it begins with a quotation from the script. The ones who have seen the movie will remember that it is about remembering, it is about memory, how relative the past days or events may become, so I thought it fits quite nicely  for someone who sat down to write her memoirs regarding feminism and herself. There are 8 chapters and each one signifies one episode regarding a long-term love relationship between two parties, that is me & feminism (as personified) such as Flirtation, Engagement Ceremony, Marriage, Tensions, Separation, Replacing Feminism with Someone Else, Making-up/Getting Together once again. It is a long-lasting love with a happy end. Each chapter narrates one country and a women/and or gender studies program that the author experienced first-hand in that country. Thus the book introduces the reader a wide range of practices of feminisms in academia and also there are sections regarding my involvement in several NGOs in these countries. It allows a lot of space for the readers to compare and contrast and decide for themselves if they want to rank these programs or practices of feminism(s). The book begins in mid-90s and ends in 2014. I have also inserted some passages from my diaries and letters addressed to some friends or mentors.

I wrote the book because of my strong belief in the power of written words, sharing, and thus the archiving.  It was born also out of my belief in the statement “personal is political” and “complicated” (Fay Weldon’s addition in her novel Big Girls don’t Cry). When women write their personal experiences for the public eye they are making a political choice in their knowledge production especially in the Middle Eastern and Muslim countries in which women belonged to private sphere. Exposing oneself as a woman requires more courage than say heterosexual men in the same cultures. Of course we cannot forget the concepts of ayıp and mahrem which are always synonymous with girls and women. I do respect Turkish feminist academics especially of the elder generation who boldly wrote about other women’s lives and conditions in human sciences but chose to keep their own to themselves, because I think it is very very difficult especially if you come from a privileged background and your status or family name means a lot to your loved ones, if not to you. It is a political choice that they made and we are in no position to judge or criticize them if they left us no written record of their private life. They are not raised in France or Finland where women bodies and their interactions with the opposite or the same sex belong to a completely different discourse. Maybe Pınar Kür and Erendiz Atasü, [maybe refer to İş Bank Nehir Söyleşi series, that there are only few women (Muhibbe Darga, Muazzez İlmiye Çığ, Türkan Saylan) out of 45 books] are exceptions who belong to the generation I am referring to, who have PhDs and taught at universities. Please remind me later on if you can think of any other.

If I have raised your curiosity enough and that you began to think you will be reading a new version of Fifty Shades of Gray, self-marketing is successfully completed, but you are wrong! To give you some ideas, let me read some passages from the book which I translated for this presentation. Hopefully they reflect how I combine personal with culture, theory and society.

University years:

My BA graduation thesis was on Shakespeare’s Tempest and elaborated on post-colonial and postmodern theories. But where are the feminist theories or the authors? We were hardly provided any courses on women literature or gender studies with the exception of electives offered by Işıl Baş. I learn the reason why this was the case although almost all faculty were made up of women. Because the program was run by academics who would never call themselves feminists, some actually claimed that they disliked them. Our faculty then all came from very wealthy families who lived close to the campus in the affluent neighborhoods such as Bebek or Etiler. They had the attitude that there was no gender-discrimination since the foundation of Turkish Republic in 1923 and we should all be grateful for the opportunities & reforms granted by Mustafa Kemal.  The outcome was not having courses on feminist theories or literature. Today, it has changed quite a bit, and one needs not to rush to Sociology department to initiate oneself to feminism.

Regarding my time and conditions in Ankara, I recall them as conservative, formal, and hierarchical  (relatively speaking of course) maybe because “Ankara & METU” chapter in the book was located in between chapters where I detail my experiences in two liberal and feminist-friendly countries, Germany and Canada. My attempts of transferring to the METU program is a story in itself but I will skip it for now and instead entertain you with two anecdotes regarding the status of being married. When I was a student here, our marriage was only 2 months old, and it was the strangest thing for me since I had no intentions of getting married if we stayed abroad. Plus, because we did not want any ceremony and only signed one paper in a small town in the States, there was no prep-work, no transition period, nothing. However, I came to Ankara in February and was immediately made aware of my recently changed status as a woman. My first day here at EBI dorm, I am filling out forms and this female manager tells me not to tell other students that I am married because she is not sure if I can stay at EBI as a married woman! She tells me I am the first one, and she needs to read the “house rules” manual once again. I was furious and even remember writing to the president at the time (Ural Akbulut) who kindly replied: “No, it is okay, there is no discrimination against married students.” Next term, I get a job as a UNDP Project assistant in the city center, where my guardian angels were Satı Atakul (who unfortunately left us way too early), Hayriye Ertekin and İrem İnceoğlu. So I move from campus to a tiny little furnished flat in Gaziosmanpaşa (GOP). The owner happens to be a professor in his mid-fifties from a Faculty of Education (I won’t name the university) and he is a proud member of YÖK (Council of Higher Education in Turkey) at the time. My partner and I check the house, it is perfect. The first question this prof asked was: "Are you guys married?" We say: yes. He says: "Good, and just for the record, I won’t rent the place to you unless you are married.  It is a principle thing," he adds.  Single women are okay but not the couples who co-habitate. He goes on bragging about his former tenants with glowing degrees who work at the embassies around. For the ones who are not familiar with the city, GOP is not a conservative neighborhood at all.

 

I was shocked but we rented the place anyways. In the book, I do connect this personal story to an article by Şirin Tekeli “On the Meaning of Feminist Ideology and Its Borders in Turkey” (Feminist ideolojinin Anlamı ve Sınırları Üzerine, 1985) how strong marriage is as an institution and how dependent women are to their family (parental or marriage-based). Şirin Tekeli also adds that the change in gender roles are very slow, family remains as one of the most conservative institutions in Turkey today (others are university  and military by the way!)

From the Chapter on “Women & Gender Studies in Sweden”:  My time in Linköping as a postdoctoral fellow was a period when I was introduced to the intensive discussions of intersectionalities and also masculinity studies (The Center of Gender Excellence: Gexcel). The attitude of scholars who hosted us in Sweden were closer to Canada than anywhere else I worked or studied: No hierarchies were felt or visible, people had very friendly and welcoming approach, the funding was generous. Women there were almost apologetic about being born into this privileged society where they have been enjoying a better status than the rest of the world. 

I remember the program assistant Björn was cc.ing every single email to another person who was going to replace him because he wanted to use his parental leave fully, which is 13 months, and 85 % of fathers in Sweden choose to practice it. Our visit to Ellen Sofia Key’s (1849 –1926) house was also worth mentioning. She was a well known Swedish suffragist and an author. She left her house for women workers who otherwise had no time or money to spend for themselves. Every year her beautiful house by the lake hosts women from around the world who can realize some postponed dreams of writing or creating art.

These are some glimpses from the book and I will be happy to receive your questions. 

Thank you for listening.