Neoconservative socialization places: Masculinities in new generation hookah cafes

The concept of hegemonic masculinity introduced by Raewyn Connell and her colleagues, in its first formulation, tries to understand how men monopolize their positions of power and how they maintain male-dominated relations. At the same time, while this concept examines an ideal masculinity position that can be shaped according to the specific conditions of each society as a model, it does not focus solely on the power relations between men but focuses on the social, cultural, and political construction of different masculinity positions as a result of these power-based relations as well. Since the Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities (CSMM) gained momentum over time, as a result of the criticisms brought to this concept, Connell and Messerschmidt presented a reformulation of the concept. Yet, in its amplified form, gender-based unequal relations now operate more implicitly, and the studies to be made to understand masculinities today will be based on local patterns– the importance of intersectionality of differences, life experiences, and, how men strategically respond to social transformations is emphasized. This field study, fueled by reformulation, deals with the construction of different masculinities and how they intersect in hookah cafes, which were very popular before the pandemic and were closed due to the suspension of social life for a while. Furthermore, by interpreting the field findings with the feminist standpoint theory, which makes the identity of the researcher an important part of the study, and the intersectional approach, which is functional in understanding different masculinities, this field study shows that hookah cafes serve for male socialization and how male regulars are gathered around the hookah material despite their differences. Besides, this field study focuses on how each male regular configures their own masculinities from their own life stories and how the spatial practices of the regulars here, together with the mentioned cafes, were affected after the pandemic as well. As a result of the fieldwork, it has been observed that, in the axis of the transformation of social life in today's Turkey, Hookah cafes have intensely conservative symbols and spatial practices, and these places appeal to a new understanding of entertainment. At the same time, these places are an example of a new place for masculinities, where the gender of the place is more implicitly shaped by separating from other places in which men prefer to spend time, while both holding different masculinities together and revealing a new hybrid masculinity pattern that can be dubbed as hookah cafe masculinity.