The Essentials: When Destabilizing Affects Become Representative

This chapter investigates the role of the most powerful context-makers in men’s lives in homosocializing affects in a certain way. The military, lay theories of procreation, family honor, and the lack of social policies position them as “a typical man” with whom each man on the earth can relate irrespective of his social background. However, in order to keep up with this “typical man,” they need to oscillate between being an ordinary head of household and the most vulnerable subject to be the object of siyaset. This chapter, focusing on how they relate to militarism, lay theories of procreation, and family honor, sheds light on that, acknowledging the very tension to find a balance between these two demanding positions constitutes the essence of manhood.