HYSTERICAL OR OBSESSIVE? PSYCHOANALYSIS OF POLITICAL GENDER IN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: THE CASE OF ‘HEELED EFE’

Abstract

The subject of gender distributions and inequalities in the political field has gained prominence in the literature. In this study, beyond gender distributions and inequalities, the current state of gendered bodies and their manifestations in the political arena have been tried to be comprehended within the context of sexual identity and gender roles. Through the concept of political gender proposed in this research, hysterical and obsessive subject positions are discussed instead of male and female actors. The relationship of the concepts of gender, sexual identity and gender roles with the political field is problematized from the background of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory. In order to understand the phenomenology in the interaction of gender roles with the political sphere, a face-to-face interview was held with Aydın Metropolitan Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu, one of the three elected Mayors in Turkey. The title of 'heeled efe' given to Çerçioğlu by national and local followers played a role in selecting the sample in terms of having both masculine and feminine references. The data obtained from the face-to-face interview were evaluated within the Lacanian Discourse Analysis Approach. One of the main propositions of the research is that politics does not include the reality of the body; therefore, it is necessary to consider gender in the political scene with new conceptions outside of the heterosexual matrix.