Müslüman kadınların yeni tanışma ve evlenme biçimleri: Türkiye'de evlilik siteleri

Marriage and mate selection practices are two important issues that comprise a fundamental part of adult life in Turkey and elsewhere. In addition to the role it plays in individuals lives, marriage is highly important for the societies as it regulates "sexuality", "arrangement of procreation", "enforce monogamy", "maintain political economy", define "the rights to citizenship" as well as a "gender order" (Scott, 2002; Thernborn, 2004). However, marriage is widely accepted as a bond between couples based on free-choice, love and commitment (Scott, 2002; Borneman, 2005; Ingoldsby, 2006; Smart, 2011) in our age despite the critiques of scholars questioning the "freedom" in mate selection and marriage practices in consideration of ongoing socio-economical and political functions of the marital institutions and the marital regulations arranging marriages (Ingoldsby, 2006). In current Turkish society where conservative life styles are on the rise due to the influence of religious revivalism, the conditions and opportunities for meeting with spouse candidates are becoming more restricted and mixed-sex socialization facilities are getting more limited especially in the underdeveloped regions of Turkey. Besides, both internal immigration and neoliberal urbanization, gentrification projects in urban areas of Turkey complicate the practice of finding spouse candidate in the immediate environment. Therefore, the creation of new socialization facilities for individuals who are looking for spouse candidates are crucial for those who do not have the opportunities for meeting their prospective mates. In this context, one can assume that recent mediated communication formats that have gained world wide popularity and that substitute for face-to-face interaction offer new possibilities for individuals who search for mate candidates. An obvious example of this trend is marriage websites that have also gained immense popularity in Turkey in the last decade. Most importantly, as the findings of this dissertation study underline, a very significant percentage of Turkish citizens who are looking for spouse candidates appeal to online marriage websites for mate selection and marriage. This thesis study aims to bring an understanding of new dating and marriage practices of Muslim women in Turkey through the analysis of new communication technologies and aims to investigate how new media forms that are used for dating and marriage by Muslim women coincide & collide with established and emerging mate selection practices and gender norms and how the users of these websites negotiate with the norms of these websites, traditional/ modern mate selection norms and gender norms of the Turkish society. This study then builds on the findings that include the analysis of Islamic and liberal marriage websites in Turkey, the examination of self presentation practices of marriage websites' users and their usage practices with taking Bourdieu's relational epistemology into account and presents a comparative analysis of gendered self presentation and usage practices through the analysis of Islamic and liberal marriage websites in Turkey. Henceforth, this thesis proposes a comparative analysis of the leading Islamic and liberal marriage websites in Turkey with a trans disciplinary approach as the investigation and analysis of this subject requires the contribution of various disciplines together with media and communication studies. In this direction, it aims to introduce the main actors and users of these marriage websites in order to respond to two principal questions in the first place, "who are the play makers in online marriage field?" and "who are the users of these marriage websites in Turkey?". In the second place, unlike earlier Turkish works in this field of study, it explores the institutional identities, norms, architecture and self presentation infrastructure of these websites to be able present a comparative analysis of Islamic and liberal marriage websites in Turkey. In the third place, this study examines the self presentations of Turkish marriage websites users, here the focus is exclusively on the gender differences in self presentation. Besides, in addition to the comparison between male and female users of Islamic and liberal marriage websites, it also compares the mate selection criteria of Turkish citizens with the users of these marriage websites. On the fourth place, this dissertation study aims to analyze the gendered user practices based on the semi-structured interviews which are realized by the users of these marriage websites. In addition to all these, as different from the widespread "individualistic and rationalist approaches to online dating" (Schmitz, 2017: vii), this study refers to a structural constructionist theoretical approach to be able to explain the issues investigated in this dissertation study. Within this context, the first chapter of this study introduces Bourdieu's conceptual framework together with several other significant theories that are referred in this thesis to explain the issues embraced in this dissertation study. In parallel with Bourdieu's theoretical perspective which embraces "habitus, cultural and symbolic capital, and field" as "inherently historical" concepts (Steinmetz, 2011:51), an historical account of gender relationships, marriage and mate selection practices in occidental societies, Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic are presented briefly. In this direction, as Islam still plays a determining role in mate selection and marriage practices together with ongoing customs shaped partially around these religious norms in Muslim societies, Islamic marriage and mate selection principles (together with Islamic feminists' interpretation of these norms) will be presented in this chapter as well. In addition to the historical account of marriage and mate selection and the religious interpretation of marriage and mate selection practices, mate selection theories are also reviewed in this study. In this regard, classical mate selection theories which Schmitz refers as "Mate Choice as Agency in Structures or MAS" (Schmitz, 2017: 51) are introduced together with the Bourdieusian mate selection approach Schmitz proposes. In the third place, the first chapter of this thesis also covers media field to be able to explain the "symbolic power" of media on individuals (Couldry, 2003) as individuals learn "their earliest, and often most lasting, beliefs about the social meanings of being male or female and thinking and behaving in masculine or feminine way" from media together with family, education and religion. This analysis will provide the necessary theoretical background for the investigation of self presentation of marriage website users. Besides, an analysis of mediated mate selection practices in Turkey is also introduced in this chapter. In this regard, television dating games, marriage television shows, dating and marriage websites in Turkey are presented briefly within the analysis of mediated mate selection practices. In the second chapter of this thesis, Islamic and liberal marriage websites are approached with reference to Bourdieu's "field theory". The aim of this chapter is to present how marriage websites position themselves within the online relationship formation field. In this direction, the institutional identities of marriage websites are introduced together with the content and the architectural analysis (Papacharissi, 2009) of these websites. In this context, his chapter also covers the analysis of names, designs, connections (hyperlinks) and self-presentation infrastructures of principal marriage websites in Turkey. This analysis provides a comparison of mate selection criteria proposed by Islamic and liberal marriage websites and the mate selection criteria of Turkish society in general. Lastly, it highlights the symbolic differences between these questionnaires provided by Islamic and liberal marriage websites The third chapter of this thesis provides an account of the different ways marriage website users present themselves in marriage websites in Turkey. In the first place, it introduces a theoretical framework about the presentation of the self in general and furthermore it presents how gender, distinctive qualities of computer-mediated communications, symbolic differences of marriage websites affect users' self presentation strategies. In the second place, it introduces a detailed analysis of the self presentation of marriage websites users. This analysis highlights the similarities and differences between the ways Islamic and liberal marriage website users present themselves in these marriage websites as well as the differences between female and male users of these websites. The fourth chapter describes the habitus-based qualities of marriage website users in a more detailed manner. It also presents the perceptions of users about marriage websites, introduces their usage practices including their online self presentations, mate selection criteria, online relationship formation sequence and online / offline interactions with other members as well as it reveals users' motivations for being members of marriage websites in Turkey. In addition to these, this chapter also introduces a detailed presentation of how online marriage website users negotiate with the expectations of other users depending on their relationship goals and strategies, their gender, dispositions and capital(s). The findings of this dissertation study demonstrate that online mate selection practices can not be simply defined as practices based on personal choices within the limitations of this social space. Users' personal histories, the norms of religious field, media field and the regulations brought by the field of power as well as the distinctive features of online communication, the positioning of these Islamic and liberal marriage websites, their self presentation infrastructures, their architectures shape users' online mate selection and self presentation strategies and practices.