Shopkeepers, Women, and Gendered Narratives

Abstract

This paper examines how male shopkeepers (esnaf) construct narratives about women on the basis of the fieldwork conducted in the district of Moda, Istanbul between 2009 and 2013. While drawing attention to shopkeepers’ significance in the discursive struggles over women, the essay aims to demonstrate that shopkeepers constitute one of the key social groups to be focused on for understanding narratives about women. I explore which types of narrative shopkeepers prefer to deploy, what references they make, and which ready-made narratives they disrupt. While placing these narratives within the context of everyday interactions between the two groups, this essay attempts to bring a fresh perspective on gender relations in the urban space. I argue that small shops represent a central site for the construction of social bonds between shopkeepers and women as members of a district community. Current forms of public discourse, hegemonic narratives, implied persons, various forms of gender ideologies, and the researcher herself are all deemed significant factors here. Moreover, processes of gender negotiations within everyday practices (including rapport-building activities) constitute the micro-politics of the construction and perpetuation of narratives. Shopkeepers’ narratives about women shed light upon their perceptions of their own occupation, their relationships with the district community and various types of gendered subjectivities they form. The essay aims to demonstrate how the micro-politics of the co-production and reproduction of gender narratives functions by highlighting their embeddedness in everyday practices, in which both male shopkeepers and female residents interact and play an active role.

Keywords: Shopkeepers (Esnaf), Occupations, Occupational Identities, Gender, Narrative and Narratives on Women