Rotten Bodies / Idealized Masculinities: Reconstructing Hegemonic Masculinity Through Militarized Medical Discourse in Turkey

In Rotten Bodies / Idealized Masculinities, Alp Biricik discusses the intersectionality between the construction of hegemonic masculinity and the militarist medical discourse in Turkey. He analyzes the role of military and militarist medical gaze in eleven men's narrations about the medical report, known as the rotten report which is given to male citizens before or after they are conscripted to the military service. The report certifies mental and/or body disabilities of the person. Biricik explores male bodily experiences, which took place between 1991 and 2006, and he discusses how the militarist medical gaze functions as an apparatus of militarist and nationalist discourses to determine the fit and rotten citizens in the military system.