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New Publication: İnsan Sonrası Erkek(lik): Saç Ekimi Örneği

Aesthetic surgery has been the subject of significant sociological research, primarily concerning women and the debates that surround their bodies. These discussions have centered around the stereotyping of women’s bodies, resulting in a specific type of femininity construction (Franco 2008; Jones 2006), or the empowerment of women for health reasons through non-essential/optional procedures (Heggenstaller et al. 2018). Edmonds (2009) notes that aesthetic surgical procedures have an aspect of Human Enhancement (HE) (Şahinol 2016) and go beyond mere consumption, aiming for mental and sexual well-being, such as enhancing sexual attractiveness.

In recent years, biomedicalization processes have extended to male bodies through HE Technologies, resulting in a growing demand for interventions in men’s hair and body hair. Aesthetic surgical procedures and minimally invasive procedures, such as hair transplantation and laser hair removal, respectively, have become popular among men (American Society of Plastic Surgeons). This situation highlights the need for research on interventions in men’s hair and body hair.

This article is based on a qualitative research study conducted between March and July 2020, which focused on medical (non-surgical) interventions in men’s hair and body hair. The study aims to contribute to critical posthuman literature by exploring the reconstruction of the posthuman male body through hair transplantation technology. The study also seeks to discuss the liberating possibilities and limiting aspects of the posthuman male body that emerges around these interventions.

Therefore, the primary research question of this article (turkish) is how the posthuman male body is reconstructed with hair transplantation technology, and what are the implications for the posthuman male body’s liberating possibilities and limiting aspects. The article concludes by highlighting the contribution of the study to critical posthuman literature and suggesting avenues for future research.

Excerpt from the text:

In order to understand post-human masculinity, we emphasize the importance of considering the combination of body and technology, such as self-care, as a socio-bio-technical care complex (Şahinol and Başkavak 2021). Additionally, it is important to look at socio-technical elements such as health policies in order to gain a holistic perspective. Such an approach considers the post-human body as a “socio-bio-technical process” and provides an analytical framework for discussing how the body is shaped both on a micro and macro level (Şahinol). The political elements that make up the macro level, such as health policies, are a product of a collective imagination about social life and order specific to each country, which Jasanoff and Kim define as “socio-technical imaginaries” (Jasanoff and Kim 2009). Through this concept, we can discuss how health policies and ultimately the body are shaped by country-specific visions. Therefore, in order to think more deeply about health governance, it is appropriate to expand the concept of socio-technical imaginaries to include the “bio” aspect, based on Şahinol’s concept of socio-bio-technical processes, and to define free medicine zones as socio-bio-technical institutions that include all the social values, technological opportunities, and practices of the relevant community or belief groups (Aydın 2020).

In summary, this article focuses on the biomedication processes in Turkey and Iran and the emergence of post-human masculinity through hair and body hair technologies, and emphasizes the importance of evaluating them in terms of socio-technical imaginaries, which are important components of the healthy society desires of these countries. Since conducting research that covers the individual histories of millions of men and trillions of hair follicles in Turkey and Iran is not possible, and taking the idea of representation that is impossible according to the new materialist framework that considers matter as an agent that creates, transforms and is transformed, this article takes the body as a geography (Holton 2020) and prefers “cartography instead of classification” (Tuin and Dolphijn 2012, 111).

Şahinol, M., & Taşdizen, B. (2022). İnsan Sonrası Erkek(lik): Saç Ekimi Örneği. In S. Buran & P. Kumbet (Eds.), Çokludisiplinlerde Posthümanizm (pp. 443-456). London, UK: Transnational Press London.

Book Publication: “Hair:y_less Masculinities. A Cartography”

We are very proud to inform you about our new publication, which is freely accessible.

Şahinol, M., Taşdizen, B., & Başkavak, G. (2022). Hair:y_less Masculinities . A Cartography. Bonn: Şahinol, Melike (in cooperation with perspectivia.net). https://doi.org/10.25360/01-2022-00000

Illustration © Merve Şahinol.

Cosmetic surgery is booming – and no longer just among women: Both surgical procedures and minimal invasive cosmetic treatments are on the rise among men worldwide. For many men, when early signs of balding appears or when the beard does not grow as desired, this becomes a heavy burden to carry. After all, a youthful, vital, and masculine appearance can be of decisive importance in both professional and private life.  

Challenging the prevalent human-centered worldview under a critical post-humanist programmatic, the authors scrutinize ways in which hair constructs gender regimes, especially regimes of masculinities. In this book, hair follicles take center stage as peculiar actors shaping and being shaped by socio-cultural norms and techno-medical processes aiming at hair’s elimination, accelerating its growth and its taming.

In order to stimulate an accessible and dialogue-oriented communication with the wider public, this Science Communication book gathers, documents and presents the visual data that accumulated throughout the 2-year fieldwork, involving photographs of operation theaters, sketches of medical professionals and patients within hair transplantation and laser hair removal processes. From these drawings and photographs emerges the cartography of ‘Hair:y_less Masculinities’, wherein hair resists the techno-medical imaginaries through its Eigensinn, despite the natureculture metaphors that readily construct it as highly malleable and passive.

Şahinol, Taşdizen and Başkavak, 2022

ISBN 978-625-00-9547-8
DOI: 10.25360/01-2022-00000

© 2022 by Melike Şahinol, Burak Taşdizen, Gülşah Başkavak

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Hair:y_less Masculinities. A Cartography
Şahinol, Melike; Taşdizen, Burak; Başkavak, Gülşah, Bonn 2022

ISBN: 978-625-00-9547-8
The OCLC Control Number is 1288515413.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25360/01-2022-00000

Subjects: Medicine, Science and Technology Studies. | Sociology – Medical Sociology – Research – Methodology. | Anthropology – Research – Methodology. | Gender Studies – Men and Masculinities. |

Cover image by Merve Şahinol. The artwork cannot be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the artist.

This work was supported by the large-scale “Knowledge Unbound: Internationalisation, Networking, Innovation in and by the Max Weber Stiftung” research project, funded by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Publisher: Melike Şahinol in cooperation with perspectivia.net

hairyless.hypotheses.org

New Publication: “Medicalised Masculinities in Turkey and Iran: The Eigensinn of Hair in Hair Transplantation”

We are happy to announce that our article “Medicalised Masculinities in Turkey and Iran: The Eigensinn of Hair in Hair Transplantation” is now published on the new special issue “Medicalised Masculinities – Somatechnical Interventions” of Somatechnics Journal by Edinburgh University Press. We thank the Editors-in-Chief Holly Randell-Moon and Iris van der Tuin, the Guest Editors Karen Hvidtfeldt, Michael Nebeling Petersen, Kristian Møller, Camilla Bruun Eriksen and anonymous peer-reviewers whose careful, constructive critiques helped refine the article. You can access the article here, and Guest Editors’ introduction along with other special issue articles here.

Abstract

Growing cultural enthusiasm for cosmetic surgery and the techno-medical modification of the body have had a considerable impact on men in recent years making it the driving force behind the medicalisation of masculinities (Syzmczak and Conrad 2006). Among the top five cosmetic procedures most frequently chosen by men are laser hair removal in the category of cosmetic minimally invasive procedures and hair transplantation in the category of cosmetic surgical procedures (American Society of Plastic Surgeons 2019). Turkey is the world’s leading destination for medical services and a leading country of medical tourism. Its beauty tourism is particularly noteworthy making the country attractive for ‘demand-oriented’ and ‘wish-fulfilling’ cosmetic procedures for the West, the Middle East as well as locals. With a special emphasis on the somatechnics of shaping men’s hair, this article analyses the currents of hair transplantation practices and after-care in shaping masculinities in Turkey and its regional competitor Iran. By building on the existing literature, we extend the discussion on male haircare with hair as the bios as part of emerging socio-bio-technical entities.