52 Men 52 Weeks

It would do all men some good to watch documentaries about primates that become violent due to testosterone. Perhaps, we can then think that being a human should have a difference and say, “Evolution is a must!”.

Michelle became the first transwoman TV reporter in Turkey. Most television viewers probably met her for the first time that day when she was subjected to bodyguard violence as she attempted to ask a question to Sümeyye Erdoğan, the daughter of the then-prime minister Erdoğan.

For some reason it was always a woman who was desired. Then again groups of men would beat each other up in front of schools. Because someone looked at his “cause”, and the other talked with his “cause”, etc.

What is my responsibility in a social network where all sorts of violence and incidents of harassment against women are considered normal? How significant is it that I am not a direct subject of this issue?

According to the narrative of all three holy books, “women, who are prone to sin, are to blame for the miserable lives that we lead”. Even this narrative in itself can give an idea about the role played by religion in violence against women.

In fact, violence does nothing other than strengthening the feeling of impotence and the negative self-image. As a result, the fragility of manhood increases, its artificiality becomes all the more manifest and the feeling of insecurity becomes stronger and stronger.

We all concur that the words which best describe the pleasure felt when a goal is scored belong to Sócrates: “No, no! That was not a goal! That was an unending orgasm! Unforgettable.”

The wind outside calls her; like a sweet whisper, like a compassionate touch. Hatun walks to the wind calling her. She comes across her mother at the door of the house. The poor woman utters a scream and falls to the ground.

According to the survey TGS carried out with women reporters, six out of every 10 women journalists in Turkey say that they have been subjected to gender discrimination, psychological violence and mobbing by their administrators and colleagues.

I had hit my girlfriend many times for tearing up and throwing away my ex-girlfriend’s pictures. Shame on me. I apologize after all these passing years. Does she remember? Is it something that can be forgotten, surely she did not forget but pretends not to remember.

In fact, these words were sometimes composed into novels, sometimes into poems and sometimes into independent art works or even initiatives. Let’s drink to Daisy… For trampling on the magnificent manhood…

It is easy to put the whole blame on our upbringing or the people around us. Even though I have made the utmost effort to shape myself, like carving a stone or a piece of wood, there is still that uncarved wood very much alive somewhere inside me.

The most important task here falls on the progressive, egalitarian men of conscience. Progressive, egalitarian men of conscience need to stand with women for gender equality.

Actually, what thrilled me so was my sudden privilege of coming by a horrific and bloody story. I had laid claim to be the witness of an awful murder; he might not have been dead, but that did not matter so much at that moment.

You need to understand it to be able to tell it, and to understand it you need to confront it. Now let’s take out our elementary school notebooks and write over and over again for pages and pages: “I’m afraid of confrontation!”

Finally smacking down his opponent in full throttle, Rocky addresses the crowd in his victory speech: “During this fight, I've seen a lot of changing, in the way you felt about me, and the way I felt about you. (...) if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change.”

“Mom, why do you behave like this mom?”, shouts her grown-up boy as if he is worried about the neighbors running to their windows or the passersby. “Who is beating you mom? Why are you doing this to me mom?” Then he packs a punch.

The number of my women colleagues who took part in decision-making mechanisms is extremely low. Can there be a greater violence than this? Let me call on all men, join this campaign of “questioning”.

What should be done? Even though the first step toward solving the women’s problems is to raise awareness, at the end of the day this is a matter of being in power.

It has taken me a long time to learn to control myself, to understand that I have been sort of gender-trained to view certain things as my right, and to start questioning these. I cannot say that I have worked it all out either.