Review of: Birol Mertol: Männlichkeitsbilder von Jungen mit türkischem Migrationshintergrund. Berlin u.a.: LIT Verlag 2008

Abstract

In his qualitative study, Mertol analyses the conception of masculinity held by five young men of Turkish migrant origins. The results paint a heterogeneous picture. The author evaluates these mostly as confirmation for existing studies illustrating that “the young Turkish men” – torn between tradition and modernity – prefer traditional images of masculinity in the end. Extremely problematic in Mertol’s study is the uncritical usage of the category of “culture” as a central variable in the explanation of conceptions of masculinity. Thus the study becomes part of the pop-cultural discourse in scholarship, media, politics, and daily life that interprets attitudes, practices, communications, and conflicts mostly through a “cultural lens.”