52 MEN 52 WEEKS/ 52 YILDIRIM TÜRKER
Being Captive to Power
Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish
If I believed in the curative power of confession as I did before, I would ask the readers regardless of their gender, come on, tell me, I would say: Which one of you did not hurt a woman just because she was a woman? There is more. Is there anyone among us who did not do it on purpose, with deliberation and premeditation?
It has been a long time since I stopped believing in the curative power of confession. I have graduated from a stage of credulity with further darkness. From the simple voluntarism, which gets hold of us all in some period of our lives not only because we take the easy way out, but also because of our impatience and conceit of hopefulness.
Confession oftentimes becomes a refuge that savage bullies hide behind. Therefore, what good would it do if I exclaimed, "Don't oppress the women"? Transformation does not begin in the ears.
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Woman is a swearword. We all know that.
She is a trap, a swamp, she cannot be trusted, she is cowardly. She is a threat. A terror...
The state apparatus, the institution of family and all power organizations have been established to protect the man from the woman.
But, how long can this manhood, which has been taken under protection with such violence, continue fulfilling its duty of shouldering power with this fragility?
By shaping and defining the women according to its own power and by crushing, trampling and, if needs be, killing them...
Man kills out of fear.
Those who did their sacred duty of military service know it well. When men are cornered together and become the servant of an unquestionable higher power, they experience a bizarre relief. During this period, which they know is temporary and are ready to endure all kinds of denigration without any objection, they kind of suspend what they know as manhood. I remember very well that the sergeant used to address the ward as "Girls". Those who do their military service assume an almost flirtatious attitude in the face of all the name calling which could make a man resort to knives in a back street.
This tells us something which we should definitely solve.
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The fragility of manhood protects itself with anger. The problem of anger management is prevalent among men. Anger is part of the glory of manhood. It is deemed handsome. Men are frequently blinded by anger.
One of the primary duties of a woman is to calm the man down and, if needs be, to serve as his mental hospital attendant. Of course, with endearments and meek compassion...
When they are cranky, being humored and gently placated is a feeling that men love very much. Woman stands between the man and his anger. It is, in fact, the summary of a woman's life. She is a being who lives between the man and his anger. As we know, it is a life-threatening duty.
A man who was "upset", who "blew his top", or was "blinded by anger" meets with people's understanding, his crime is rewarded with sentence reductions due to provocation. A woman who kills her husband, who beat and attempted to murder her repeatedly causing injuries which have been reported, can only dream of those sentence reductions. In short, anger and the ability of being provoked are privileges granted to men.
Privileges are countless.
The spirit of mobilization created in the societies and the domestic and national climate strengthen these privileges, cement their legitimacy.
An old newspaper article I wrote about the soldiers who repeatedly raped a Kurdish woman had caused indignation primarily in the "flagship media". I do not forget how Özkök (Ertuğrul, former Editor-in-Chief of daily Hürriyet) had reported me to his state, drooling with rage and insulting me. Because a Turkish soldier cannot be a rapist.
Talking about girls who were subjected to gang rape in small towns was also very hurtful for the gatekeepers of power. It is forbidden to call men a herd of rapists. Like the Armenian Massacre. It is not called by its name. It is seen as an isolated incident.
As the man is squeezed between the gears of the power machine, he cuts, destroys, crashes, kills.
So, where does the emancipation of man begin? By questioning every kind of power of course.
Certainly, it is very hard to wriggle oneself out of being a warrior, whom the power pokes and reminds itself every moment. Moreover, the language of power and power worshiping are not unique to men. For man, it requires a tough struggle to resist what is expected, demanded, desired of him. If you just let yourself go, everything is easy. Being a man has a legitimacy that no one questions.
If he is to be a human, man must face his fears.
Learning to live without measuring one's love, hate, or honor with death, without testing one's power on the weak should be the maxim of a human being. We must leave the climate of manhood which makes life miserable for us all by taking hurtful rudeness for outspokenness, impertinence for courage, jealousy for love, and murder for honor.
It is high time for the entire world to discover and liberate the woman within. (YT/HK/VK/SD/IG)