Grace: Let's start by talking about your paper. I really enjoyed reading it. Can you walk me through your process of how you developed your thesis?

Carl: I think I did a similar process to what most students do when they're writing a paper. I had to watch the film several times to get a sense of what themes I was going to go with and what scenes seemed to stick out to me. Then, I had to do a bunch of research and gather sources to support the points that I wanted to make. I don't really start writing until I get a very large foundation of research. Some people are more like, “I'll start writing whenever I get an idea, and then I'll add the research in later.” I'm very much the type of person that writes their paper in the last couple of days or so because I feel like once you get all that research, it comes out a lot easier.

Grace: What inspired you to explore LGBTQ+ representation in Turkish cinema? 

Carl: Personally, I always veered towards LGBTQ+ representation because I, myself, am trans. So I'm part of the community and gender and exuality studies have always been interesting to me because of that personal connection.

At the same time, I just like learning more about marginalized cultures in general. Again, that probably just comes back to who I am as a person I'm also mixed race. So, race studies are interesting to me as well. I just like learning topics that aren't necessarily mainstream or  discussed a lot, which is weird to say, because it almost feels like queer studies is becoming mainstream. However, I think there's still a lot of work to be done in the area, and I would like to contribute to that however I can. 

Grace: So in your paper, was there anything you found that really surprised you or that you found particularly interesting?

Carl: A lot of it isn't surprising, and I think that's what is surprising about it. Among all these different cultures that you examine, you see a lot of commonalities that keep popping back up. When I was reading about Turkish culture and how the move away from Islam controlling the government caused the modernization of Turkey which caused them to drift into a more Western system of how they regulate homosexuality. When I was reading about that, at various points, I would read something that struck me like, “Wow. This is a lot like how things have historically been here [in the United States].” , 

Seeing all the similarities that pop up is just fascinating. I think when you are part of a specific culture you're more inclined to believe that cultures outside of yours are vastly different, but then when you dial in, you see all these similarities and you're just like, “wow.” I think it's because we all come from  a central hub of ideas. All cultures can be traced back to a lot of common ideas, so that was one thing that I found really interesting while I was researching. 

Grace: Can you give me an example of one such similarity that you found between Turkish and US culture? 

Carl: So actually I was thinking about this for my queer cinema class. We read an article, I think it’s called “From Pansy to Predator” that was talking about how during  the pre-code error- So, before the production code came about- there was this habit of having performers who were coded as homosexual men that would play this role that was really what we socially think of as feminine. So, prissy, effeminate, and goofy.

Then, there was this transition. After the code came into place, there became more representation that was sinister. So, that's where you start getting more of the queer-coded villains, specifically thinking of films like Basic Instincts where you have the murderous lesbian or Disney films, where you have characters like Jafar.

So, when we were talking about that, it just made me think back to my paper and how a similar thing happened in in Turkish representation because prior to them becoming more westernized, there was evidence of homosexuality in texts and it was more of a carnivalesque or festival thing.  I specifically talk about the practice of Köçek. That specific practice involved young men dressing up in feminine assigned clothing and performing for elitists of the Ottoman empire in a carnivalesque type atmosphere.

After the Westernization of the country, suddenly all of that becomes taboo. They didn’t discuss it at all after that, not even for joking purposes. I feel like that's similar to how there was a shift in America from, “Oh yes, this is all fine and good if they're, you know, mocking themselves.” But after conservative groups in either country start to see this as, “This is allowing too much freedom. This is allowing too much representation. We have to not just scale it back, but remove it completely.” I think that's very similar to what the production code did as well. 

Grace: Do you have any other advice you would like to give to people who have a paper that they really want to submit?

Carl: Talk to your professors. I say this meaning a couple of different things. 

First of all, when you're creating the paper, obviously talk to your professor to get their advice on how much or what different resources there are that you can go to because sometimes professors will have  ideas for research that you don't think of.  They'll have books that they know of. They'll have people you can talk to that can give you a lot of good information. 

Also, once your paper is written, don't be complacent. Even if you've done a bunch of drafts and you're like, “yes, this is perfect. I've got it.  I did all these drafts and this feels complete,” Don't rest there. I would say again, turn to your instructor. Obviously, if they have time, you want to be thoughtful and professional. 

This is what I did for my paper. I sent my instructor for that class [that I wrote my paper for], Dr. Rawitsch, saying that I was interested in submitting my paper to Visions and I wanted to get further feedback. She was nice enough to go through and give me really detailed feedback throughout the entire paper. That helped not only with thinking about what other research I might do but also thinking about how I might restructure the paper.