How Turkish People Reversed Sexism with One Hashtag

#amanshouldknowhisplace

I don’t know what comes to your mind when someone says “Turkey”. Erdoğan, baklava, the bird? I’m from there so for me it means home. But I know for some foreigners, it might imply less favorable things.

I’m sure the reality of the country is probably better than your perception of it that is influenced by the media. For example, we don't follow Islamic law, people are allowed to wear whatever they want, and women are equal to men according to the constitution. However, I confess that the reality is still far from being ideal.

Certain things are so integrated in our culture that it will take time to see some real change, one prominent subject being sexism. Even though Turkey is one of the first countries that gave women the right to vote — before countries like France, Japan, and Switzerland — it failed to implement the perception that women and men are equal.

One important factor among many is the language. People tend to underestimate the daily language’s power to influence our perception. However, a study has found that linguistic sexism is so effective that it even causes women to be negatively evaluated when seeking a “masculine” or “neutral” office.

Another interesting fact that you might not know is that Turkish is a gender-neutral language — meaning it doesn’t have any pronouns or linguistic that signal for gender (of course there are a few exceptions). So it is quite easy to describe a third person without mentioning their gender, unlike many Romance languages like English, Italian or French.

However, there are quite a number of expressions in Turkish language that are reinforcing the unjustified perceptions towards women and their abilities. Although this is not peculiar to the Turkish language, it is definitely more prominent.

“A woman should know her place”

Feminist women and men have been trying to change the sexist expressions used in the Turkish language for a long time. However, no effort has been as effective as this one hashtag that emerged on Twitter recently.

It all started with this tweet sent by a user named Ruqing on the 3rd of June.

The tweet can be translated as “My husband can work if he wishes”. As you can guess, the actual expression is “My wife can work if she wishes” and it is usually used by men who think they are so open-minded for being okay with their wives working.

When you change the gender of the subject it reveals how absurd the expression is. It is so absurd that people started to enjoy it and do the same with other expressions.

The hashtag #amanshouldknowhisplace (originally #erkekyerinibilsin) started to be used for this trend and within hours it became a trending topic.

Here are the translations of a few examples:

The best career for a man is fatherhood.

What is the maiden name of your father?

That is probably a male driver.

Violence against men is exaggerated.

If a man is out late, he is asking to be harassed.

Men shouldn’t wear revealing clothes. If they do, it means they are craving attention.

Even the municipality of Şişli (a district in Istanbul) has supported the trend and joined the hashtag with this tweet.

The tweet can be translated as: “The Pink Buses that we made in order to protect men from all types of danger will be available in Şişli soon!”

It refers to the controversial “Pink Buses” that can be used only by women so they won’t be harassed or attacked by men in public transportation. It’s not used in Turkey, however, many have suggested that it might be a good idea to protect women without realizing that it is simply another way of restricting them.

Not everyone enjoyed it

Although the trend has gained huge appreciation and support, some people were disturbed by it. They claimed that “they are well aware of this problem but the hashtag has just gotten out of control and they got sick of hearing the same things over and over again.” which is quite ironic if you think about it.

Because these repeated expressions that disturbed some people in less than 24 hours is what women have been hearing for their whole lives. So the trend has proven more than one point.

However, I would like to emphasize one very important fact here. Gender equality is not a fight between men and women. It is a fight between people who believe in gender equality and the ones who don’t.

Many Turkish men have supported and joined the trend as well as women. On the other hand, there were women who condemned the movement. For example, KADEM (Association of Women and Democracy) has expressed that the trend has gotten out of hand and started to damage the virtues we believe in.

Although we’ve come a long way in the fight for gender equality, we still have a lot more to go. Because sexism is not just present in the law system or politics, it is in many other things like the ads you watch, the fairytales you read to your children, and the jokes you make.

So it will take a lot of time and effort to change this perception that is rooted so deeply in our lives. But luckily, we are up for the challenge.