'Civilized women' and 'light sports': modernisation, women and sport in the early Republican period of Turkey/'Uygar Kadinlar' ve 'Hafif Sporlar': Turkiye'de Cumhuriyetin ilk Yillarinda modernlesme, kadin ve spor.

Abstract

In modern societies, sport is a sphere where dominant culture and hegemonic power are materialised. This sphere, being a site of reproduction and transformation of social and cultural values and a site of construction of social differences (i.e. those based on gender, class and ethnicity) should be conceived as an important subject of sociological works. In Turkey, research that is approaching it from a historical, sociological and gender sensitive perspectives are rare. This work proposes to make some progress in the task of narrowing down this gap in the literature on cultural-feminist and socio-historical studies in Turkey. With respect to this project, the article reviews the development of modern sports in Turkey in parallel to the modernisation process which started during the Republic period as a process to gain a nationalistic character. Within this general framework of the process of modernisation and nationalization of sport in Turkey, the article focuses on the questions related to women's participation into the field of sport and to the exercises of power groups through patriarchal-national cultural values and institutions over women for controlling and channelling their sporting activities. Furthermore, it questions the consequences of all these for women's social positions and identities. Here, the technique of discourse analysis, focusing upon articles approaching in various sport journals, published in the early years of the Turkish Republic, is used for deconstructing patriarchal and gender biased views of the officials and intellectuals writing about sport in that period. Also the study is framed within Bourdieu's theory, for it would help to construct a relationship between gender and sport.

Key Words: Girls, sports activities, schools, sport clubs, Republic Period, Turkish.

Oz

Modern toplumlarda spor, egemen kulturun ve iktidarin maddelestigi bir faaliyet alanidir. Sosyal ve kulturel degerlerin yeniden uretildigi ve donustuldugu, toplumsal (orn. Cinsiyete, sinifa, ethik kimlige dayanan) farkliliklarin insa edildigi bu alan sosyolojik calismalarin onemli bir konusudur. Ancak ulkemizde konuya tarihsel, sosoyolojik ve toplumsal cinsiyet meselesine duyarli bir acidan yaklasan calismalar yok denecek kadar azdir. Bu calisma bu alandaki eksiklige kucuk bir katki yapmak amacini gutmektedir. Bu beklentiye uygun olarak, makalede kisaca sporun gelisiminin Turkiye'deki modernlesme surecine paralel olarak bicimlendigi ve Cumhuriyetin kurulusu ile bidikte nasil ve ne sekilde ulusal bir nitelik kazandigi incelenmektedir. Bu genel baglamin icinde, calimanin kapsami esasen 1920 'lerde ve 1930' larda kadinlarin spor alaninda nasil yer aldigi ve cinsiyetci kultur ve kurumlarin kadinlarin spor faaliyetleri ve pratikleri uzerindeki etkilerine odaklanmaktadir. Ayrica makalede butun bunlarin kadinlarin toplumsal konumlari ve kimlikleri acisindan sonuclari da sorgulanmaktadir. Burada, Turkiye Cumhuriyeti' nin ilk yillarinda yayinlanan bazi spor dergilerinde yer alan makalelere odaklanan ve o donem aydinlarinin ve resmi makamlarinin erkek egemen ve cinsiyetci bakis acisini gorunur kilmayi amaclayan bir soylem analizi teknigi kullandmistir. Ayrica konu Bourdieu'nun cinsiyet ve spor arasmdaki iliskiyi kurmamiza yardimci olacak kuramsal yaklasimiyla cercevelendirilmistir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Spor, kiz cocuklari, okul egitimi, spor kulupleri.

Introduction