Romantik İlişkilerde Heteroseksüel Erkek Olmak

Abstract

Emotions are one of the research areas that sociology has been directed towards. Social interactions, both interpersonal and at the level of the masses, always correspond to an exchange of emotions. Therefore, emotions can be considered as one of the main elements of the social. However, despite its importance and value for sociology, academic interest in emotions has been limited. This study aims to raise awareness of this limitation and the potential contribution of emotions to developing new perspectives for a sociologist and aims to use emotions as a unit of sociological analysis. This descriptive phenomenological field study, which has a qualitative research design, selected participants from heterosexual men over the age of 18 who had at least one year of romantic relationships. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 15 men. Participant statements were categorized according to their experiences in a phenomenological research-appropriate manner and subjected to thematic analysis. As a result of the analysis, a relational map of heterosexual masculinity and jealousy was created by revealing how the jealousy emotion is represented in the heterosexual male subject by which experiences and perceptions, how these experiences and perceptions vary in different men, and how they are related to each other. In this way, a description of the phenomenon of being a jealous heterosexual male in romantic relationships containing various aspects was reached. Jealousy is defined by participants as an expression of love, associated with possession and protectiveness. The state of being constantly alert and the resulting chronic suspicion that spreads to the overall life is highlighted as the main cause of jealousy. It has been observed that jealousy includes not only the danger of losing the partner but also the threat of losing a competition with another man. Therefore, it has been concluded that jealousy includes motivations arising from maintaining consistency in gender identity in addition to basic psychological motivations. In the experiences of masculinity described through jealousy, the representations of hegemonic masculinity in the context of emotions have been reached. Strategies created by the fragile masculine subject to maintain both inner and outer hegemony alongside the effort to prove his masculinity repeatedly have been encountered, as well as mosaic patterns created by the subject's own history of jealousy experiences.