Meddling With My Dough-Baking Hands! Protest Language and Stigma in Contemporary Turkey.

Abstract

There is a substantial body of literature on the phenomena of reappropriation, the act of self-labeling and reclaiming seemingly pejorative and stigmatizing language. Yet there is not much empirical research conducted on the subject of reappropriation - excepting the Galinsky lab. Turkish women’s protest language, for example, is sorely understudied. By discussing different manifestations of protest language by Turkish women during the Feminist Night Walk and posted on social media in the period from 2019 to 2022, this thesis aims to contribute to the empirical research on protest language in Turkish Studies. I argue that reappropriation, humor, and irony are potent tools in their communication of demands to a larger public and in their efforts to raise awareness about women’s rights issues in contemporary Turkey.