Introduction to Manhood: Digital Rituals, Gender Performance, and Male Circumcision Ceremonies in Türkiye.

Pehlivanli E., Gedik E.

CULTURE HEALTH & SEXUALITY, cilt.11, ss.1-14, 2025 (SSCI, Scopus)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 11
  • Basım Tarihi: 2025
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/13691058.2025.2573814.
  • Dergi Adı: CULTURE HEALTH & SEXUALITY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Scopus, Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Academic Search Premier, FRANCIS, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Anthropological Literature, CINAHL, Educational research abstracts (ERA), EMBASE, Gender Studies Database, CAB Abstracts, MEDLINE, Psycinfo, Public Affairs Index, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-14
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

This article examines how male circumcision ceremonies in Türkiye are being reconfigured within digital platforms, focusing on their performative, affective, and gendered dimensions. Drawing on a purposive sampling of publicly accessible Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube posts (2022–2024), we analysed reels, captions, hashtags, comments, and visuals curated under culturally specific tags such as #sunnetdugunu (circumcision ceremony), #sunnet (circumcision), #sunnetannesi (circumcision mother) and #sunnetbabasi (circumcision father) #erkekligegiris (introduction to manhood). Findings reveal a gendered division of aesthetic and affective labour: mothers are positioned as the orchestrators of emotional intensity and visual spectacle; fathers embody restrained authority and patriarchal stability; and boys are staged as future masculine subjects through ceremonial attire, convoy displays, and performative rites of passage. Far from destabilising tradition, social media amplifies hegemonic masculinity and normative femininity by transforming family rituals into algorithmically visible spectacles.