Beyond silence and voice

Gender, sexuality and antimilitarism in Turkey and Israel

Bibliographic Data

ID5117318
AuthorsDoğu Durgun (Department of Political Science, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume23
Issue2
Pages139-155
Publication date2019-02-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCitizenship Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-1025 • E-ISSN: 1469-3593
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13621025.2019.1583724
OpenAlexW2916862215
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited38

Turkey and Israel project two distinct military regimes which construct gender and sexuality in specific ways as part of their respective security agendas. Despite the differences, however, both entitle women and LGBTQs to certain exemptions from the military service, and in doing so silence their antimilitarist activism. Women and LGBTQs counter this process through their acts of conscientious objection, through which they claim a voice in matters of militarism, security and war. While doing so, however, they reproduce a dichotomous conceptualisation of silence and voice, which falls short of explaining their agency as well as its outcomes. Drawing on a comparative analysis, I argue that a more nuanced understanding of agency necessitates deconstructing the dichotomy between silence and voice, each of which may have multiple meanings, connotations and consequences. Whereas silent acts of grey objection do not always point to a lack of agency and resistance, or domination, and may indeed create change; voice and visibility that follow their declared acts of objection may entail costs and loss of agency, in that not only does it come at the expense of the masculinisation/militarisation of their acts but may also result in the immediate deterioration of their rights to refuse

Acquiescence · Aesthetics · Human sexuality · Militarism · Political science · Politics · Silence · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Turkey's Politics and Society

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