Re-reading men’s facial hair: the case of the modernization of the Turkish civil service

This paper presents a critical analysis of the links between modernization and masculinities in Türkiye through the case of the regulation of men’s hair in the civil service. The Turkish civil service is an institution where the state has accumulated and deployed power, disciplined its civil servant employees, and shaped and transformed masculinities as part of the broader process of modernization. Both the civil service as a research field, and men’s hair, despite its powerful symbolic importance in politics, have been neglected in critical studies on men and masculinities. To fill this gap, four momentous changes in civil service history in Türkiye are examined, as a part of the modernization project over the last two centuries and simultaneous reciprocal interrelations of macro- and meso-processes with men’s facial hair. These changes have been targeted towards or resulted in transformations of men’s facial hair in the civil service, in turn constructing state-sanctioned masculinities in the civil service and society.