There are two videos about Turkish culture that shaped my understanding of Turkish culture, one of which is about a female Turkish writer and another about a Turkish transgender.
In the first female writer’s TED talk, she talked about her life experience. Growing up in a single-family, she is always the outside in her neighborhood, since, at that time, divorce is not common in Turkish and she lived in a small city when she was a child. She was lonely and had no friends. In order to help her, her mother encouraged her to write down her daily life. However, the lease thing she wanted to do it to face her boring everyday life again, and she began to write fictions. She created many characters from different nations and background. After she grew up, she went to Boston and began to write in English. She felt that writing in English provided a brand-new feeling. According to her, writing in English is more rational and discipline, whereas writing in Turkish is more emotional and imaginative. However, there were some critics assaulted her since her characters did not represent the Turkish culture, and they thought that since she grew up in Turkish, it is her responsibility to embody the Turkish culture into her books. Facing such an absurd requirement, she was determined. She said fictions are fictions. Even though she would write a Turkish woman one day, she would not write a pathetic woman who suffers from an unhappy family and social judgment as other people expects. I was deeply touched and motivated by her TED talk, she showed an amazing woman who is brave enough to challenge the cultural stereotype other people imposed upon her and insisted whatever she believed is right.
Another impressed video is a documentary about a Turkish male to female transgender. Growing up, she loves makeup and floral dresses and regarded herself different from other boys. She lived in a remote small village, and residences there are relatively conservative. In the beginning, no one talked to her because she is different from their traditional perception. She spent a lonely time for several years. One day, she could stand other’s discrimination any more, and burst into a bar and shouted at everybody. Since then, people’ attitude began to change and they realized that she had feelings and emotions as well just like everyone else. Also, he was always willing to help others. She helped the chef to cook for busy hours. She helped women to do house cleaning. She even helped men to renovate the houses. Residences there began to accept her as one of them because of her kindness. They invited her to have dinner and danced with her. They even offered her job opportunities to help her make a living. However, she was still pessimistic about love. She said no one would love a person like her except for trying to steal her money. After watching this video, I was really impressed by her bravery and kindness. Although she received unfair treatment at the beginning, she is still kind to people and willing to help.
Comments
This posting is so touching! I On the one hand, I feel empathy with them, but on the other hand I look at them with admiration, because they can still maintain themselves in the prejudice and biases of others. Their kindness derseves fair treatments from the world!
That transgender video was so touching to me, it is hard to imagine how to live with all those biases and misunderstandings every day, and I admire her spirit that she never gave up herself and made people like her through her own efforts. When people hurt her, she didn't hurt back, instead, she tried to help everyone. That's just so brave and kind.
Thanks for posting this cultural post about the writer and transgender. I think I relate with the Turkish writer because I think it is important that we embody our language and culture in not only the books, but also our very being.