Shifts in sexual desire: bans on dancing boys (koceks) throughout Ottoman modernity (1800s-1920s)
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Tarih
2017
Yazarlar
Dergi Başlığı
Dergi ISSN
Cilt Başlığı
Yayıncı
Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd
Erişim Hakkı
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
Özet
The main objective of this article is to understand the ways in which the kocek (dancing boys) performance became a source of shame and how the practice was subjected to a number of bans in Ottoman Istanbul. In the literature on the kocek, there is a general trend that argues that the practice was banned because of the fights, quarrels and other disputes related to the koceks and that the practice disappeared altogether no later than 1856. This is what I call the social disorders argument' and while I acknowledge that history and examine some evidence of social disorders associated with the dancing boys, I also re-analyse the disorders arising from a powerful homoerotic desire that was so common as to even be normative in certain circles in the Ottoman era. In this article, through historical evidence, I show that there are a number of proscriptions against the koceks. Through a brief history of the bans from the sixteenth century onwards, I show the ways in which the mentality of the bans changed during the Westernization/modernization period and how shame from homoeroticism became a significant determinant in the bans of the nineteenth century.
Açıklama
Avci, Mustafa/0000-0002-5802-8036
Anahtar Kelimeler
1800s-1920s, Ottoman Modernity
Kaynak
Middle Eastern Studies
WoS Q Değeri
Q3
Scopus Q Değeri
Cilt
53
Sayı
5
