internet through mobile phone and its cognitive and behavioral impact: changing sexuality

Journalism and

Mass Communication

Volume 5, Number 12, December 2015 (Serial Number 51)

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Journalism and Mass Communication

Volume 5, Number 12, December 2015 (Serial Number 51)

Contents Marketing Communication

Internet Users’ Attitudes Towards Online Targeted Advertisements 607

Mustafa Sait Yıldırım

Society and Network Culture

Internet Through Mobile Phone and Its Cognitive and Behavioral Impact: Changing Sexuality 614

Manoj Jinadasa

“How Satisfied Are You With Your MOOC?”—A Research Study About Interaction in Huge Online Courses 629

Hanan Khalil, Martin Ebner

Cultural Studies

“New” Translations of Japanese Literature: Socio-cultural Impacts on the Japanese Mind 640

Atsuko Hayakawa

Social Issues

Women Bodies at Trial by Ordeal since Christianity to Trier Movies 650

Sibel Kibar

The Surname of Turkish Women: A Question of Identity? 658

Seldag Günes Peschke

Journalism and Mass Communication, December 2015, Vol. 5, No. 12, 607-613 doi: 10.17265/2160-6579/2015.12.001

Internet Users’ Attitudes Towards Online Targeted

Advertisements

Mustafa Sait Yıldırım

Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey

Users leave their footprints about their interests while they are surfing on the Internet. Companies have the

opportunity of capturing user’s implicit data on the Internet by behavioral targeting. So that they can deliver the

advertisements of the products or services that appeals to those consumers. Users are being exposed to targeted

advertisements according to their demographic characteristics or web site choices. Each online behavior gives a

clue about the consumer’s product interests for the advertisers. Targeted advertising services such as these are

currently provided by many companies including Google and Amazon. There are differences between the users’

level of awareness and attitudes towards targeted ads. In this study Internet users’ attitudes and avoidance towards

targeted ads were evaluated.

Keywords: advertising, attitude, targeted ads, behavioral targeting, Internet

Introduction

Advertisers have started to attach more interest on the interactive methods for the promotion of their

products and services together with the prevalence of the Internet all around the world (Yaakop et al., 2012).

However, this paves the way for the new development. Consumers now want to have more control and are

picky about the messages that they would like to have (Curran, Graham, & Temple, 2011, p. 26). Advertising

professionals head for new techniques to minimize the avoiding behaviors of the consumers against the

message bombardment. The advance technology gives way to store and track the majority of the data of the

consumers for the institutions or businesses. Customers’ mobile phone call, Internet browsing or TV show that

they have watched can be useful for storing the data with respect to the personal interests (favorite movies,

music, restaurants or books etc.) and contents and advertisements can be provided fit for these behaviors

(Kurkovsky & Harihar, 2006; WANG et al., 2009). This technique can be conducted both on individual basis

and applied for the clusters for demographic targeting of the consumers. Advertisement network on the basis of

the behavioral targeting are provided by the companies in particular to Google and Amazon (Zhang et al., 2010,

p. 1416). These advertisements, which are referred with different names in the literature, are addressed as

online behavioral advertising, targeted advertising or behavioral targeted advertising. The basic principle of

such advertisements is to track the Internet users at a wide framework, and evaluate their traces and show the

best advertisement to the users, fit for their behaviors. In simple terms, advertisement networks select and

provide advertisement suitable for the content of the web page in any web page. This is called as contextual

advertising (Ur et al., 2012, p. 1). The more complicated form is to provide tailored made advertisement to the

Mustafa Sait Yıldırım, Ph.D. candidate, Faculty of Coomunication Sciences, Yunus Emre Campus, Anadolu University.

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INTERNET USERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS ONLINE TARGETED ADVERTISEMENTS

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consumers by using of the data related to the demographic, geographic features or web browsing behaviors.

Behavioral Targeting

Behavioral targeting is one of the new generation techniques, of which importance is getting increased day

by day in the advertisement sector and which is used to improve the efficiency of the promotions by the

Internet advertisements. According to Wikipedia, BT uses information collected on an individual’s

web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select which

advertisements to display to that individual. Targeting marketing, is addressed as the general strategy used to

reach the consumer by using these data and defining the characteristics shared by the consumers such as social,

economic, age, sex or ethnical origin (Johnson & Grier, 2015, p. 235). Behavioral targeting is one of the most

attention grabbing methods among the online advertisement techniques. Behavioral targeting is used to target

the best consumer for the advertisement provided to increase the effect of the online advertisement. Now, web

search of the consumer can be easily protected and tracked by the browser and exposed to advertisements

according to the consumer search behaviors. Social networks such as Facebook or search engines such as

Google provide advertisements, suitable for the field of interest of the users by using the consumer generated

data. Even if behavioral targeting yields positive results for the advertisers, there are some concerns in terms of

the consumers.

For example, in the paper of Johnson (2013) titled as Targeted Advertising and Advertising Avoidance, it

is concluded that consumers avoid of the advertisements targeted to them (Johnson, 2012, p. 140). The

advertisers are not target consumer groups that they can get feedback for their messages (Farahat & Bahiley,

2012, p. 111). The treatment effect for the targeted group should be higher than targeted group for behavioral

targeting to be significant and valuable. Several studies show that online tracking systems are capable to

comprehensively build the profiles of the customers’ online field of interest and cover most of their online

behaviors (Liu et al., 2013, p. 1). Behavioral targeting is used to provide advertisements by filtering some of

them from the huge advertisement data base and suitable for the field of interest of the users by following the

online behaviors of the consumers. For example, a customer may see car advertisements at his Facebook page

or movie web page. The reason is that he has visited the car web pages before. Targeted advertisements are

useful for the advertisers. It has been seen as an opportunity to provide tailored made advertisement for the

customer and specify who interested in more to the advertisement. For that reason, advertisement networks

started to spend much more money to the targeted advertisement in comparison to the general advertisements.

Online behavioral targeting provides suitable advertisements to the field of interest of the consumer and let him

stay away from the unrelated advertisements. In technical terms, there are different ways to operate this system.

The simplest way is that an advertiser may set a definitive cookie to the device of the consumer and relate it

with the browsing activities of the consumer (Ur et al., 2012, p. 2). It will be kept in that way since the

technicality is not our field of interest. Several topics such as privacy, trust, sex differences, interactivity and

refraining from the advertisement with respect to the advertisement have been the subjects of many academic

researches. The method of proceeding of the same variables in the new advertisement media and advertisement

application in these media have been studied.

There are two important factors related to the behavioral targeting. First of all, providing offers which are

suitable for the needs of the users by providing user friendly advertisements. The second one is the discussions

whether it violates the privacy or not, that in intervening the personal space of the consumer. The foundation of


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this research is the attitudes of the users towards these two factors. What do the Internet users in Turkey think

about the behavioral targeting and targeted advertisements and at which level are their avoiding or positive

attitudes? This study has been conducted to find answers to these questions.

Methodology

We recruited 21 participants for an interview. All participants were recruited from the students of Anadolu

University, Turkey. We choosed the participants who had no degree or job in computer science or information

technology. We conducted a semi-structural interview. Interview questions were adapted from Blasé Ur’s

(2012) research. Some questions were removed and some new ones were added to the interview in order to

adopt the semi-structural interview suitably for the research. At this stage, two academics expert in the field of

view is taken. In addition, because of the reliability of the interview questions, pilot interviews were conducted

with four participants, and the questions in the form were tested in terms of clarity and understandability. Due

care was given to prepare an interview environment in which the participants would feel comfortable and

peaceful to reveal their viewpoints, and a proper interaction medium was prepared. Information on the study

was given to the participants during the interviews. A recording device was used in order to prevent data loss

during the interviews. The participants were informed about the recording device, and it was added that they

could have some parts or the whole of the recording erased at the end of the interviews depending on their

wishes.

The semi-structured interview form consisted of 2 parts and 9 items (except for the sub-questions). In the

first part of the form, there were 3 items on the attitudes of the participants on Internet Advertisements. In the

second part: Firstly, questions on the information levels of the participants about Targeted Advertisements were

asked. Then, questions were asked about the benefits of the Targeted Advertisements for the Internet users and

other stakeholders. The participants were also asked about their information on the access level of the Online

Behavioral Targeting activities. In addition, they were also asked about their ideas on the disadvantages of the

Online Behavioral Targeting. The interviews were conducted face to face. Written notes were taken during the

interviews.

Participants

Twenty-one participants were included in the study: 10 of them were female, and 11 of them were male.

All of the participants were chosen among the undergraduate students of Anadolu University, and their ages

varied between 18 and 23. Special attention was given for the issue of selecting those students who had no

history on Computer Sciences or Information Technologies. Since the number of the sampling was limited, it is

not claimed that the participants represent the universe of the Internet users. Therefore, in this study, the

purpose is not obtaining statistically significant results; but rather, the purpose is to focus on the attitudes of

ordinary Internet users on targeted advertisements.

Analysis

The interviews were recorded with a voice recorder, and written notes were taken during the interviews.

After the interviews, the recorded information was converted into text. In order to ensure the reliability of the

information, two people from the field listened to the interviews and read the texts to test the agreement

between the recordings and the text.


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After the interviews were completed, a table of codes consisting of forthcoming themes was formed. The

raw data obtained from the interviews were encoded and the categories were defined. The data then were

classified under these categories and made meaningful. The encoding and categorizing processes were

performed in recurrent style. By doing so, the unnecessary encodings were eliminated sticking to the problem

and to the purpose of the study, and new codes were added into parts where necessary. In the last stage, the

findings were defined and evaluated. Also, some astonishing quotations, which reflect the viewpoints of the

participants, were given.

Results

The general attitude of the participants on “Internet Advertising” can be evaluated as being unreliable. In

addition, it was also determined that the awareness levels of the participants on the possibility of the Targeted

Advertisement Networks accessing the personal information of the consumers were high. In this part, the

attitudes of the consumers about the Internet Advertisements and Targeted Advertisements were given in titles.

Attitudes Towards Internet Advertising

When the attitudes of the participants towards Internet Advertisements are considered, it is possible to

claim that they have a negative perception on this issue. 16 of the 21 participants gave answers to the question

“What is the first thought that crosses your mind when you hear Internet Advertisement?” as follows; “They

appear always, I am subjected to them even if I do not want, I cannot get rid of them”. For example, 7th

Participant said “When I hear Internet advertisement, first of all, I remember the advertisements that prevent me

from watching the video I want to watch and annoy me. In addition, it is also annoying when another

advertisement comes right in the middle of the video and I have to wait for 5-10 seconds to skip that

advertisement”. 14 of the participants answered as “No” to the question “Do you like Internet Advertisements?”.

8 of the male participants used negative expressions about the Internet Advertisements. Based on this point, it is

possible to claim that male participants have more negative attitudes towards such advertisements than the

female participants. The number of the participants that answered as “Yes” to the question “Do you find

Internet Advertisements useful?” is 11. Based on this finding it is possible to claim that although the first image

that is formed in the minds of the consumers about Internet Advertisements is negative, they find them useful

and beneficial. During the interview, the 1st Participant said “In fact, many Internet advertisements help us to

reach the products we want. I find the Internet advertisements useful because we can reach the information on

the properties, the price and how to purchase the products”.

Tailored Advertising

The participants were asked the question “Do you think that the Internet Advertisements you are exposed

on the Internet appear in accordance with your areas of interest?”, and the majority of them answered that the

advertisements on the Facebook were in accordance with their areas of interest. In addition, when they were

asked whether the advertisements were useful for their areas of interest or not, it became obvious that 15 of the

participants found the advertisements useful.

Again, the majority of the participants who had positive attitudes about the issue of encountering Internet

Advertisements that were in accordance with their areas of interest consisted of females. 9 women participants

said that they found these types of advertisements useful. The participants who did not find these types of

Internet Advertisements useful showed the excessive exposure of the Internet Advertisements as their excuses.


611

For example, the 4th Participant said “For once, I am exposed to Internet Advertisements on the product I

search for, sometimes for days. Each time I enter Facebook I face the advertisements of a product that I

searched for days before or of a product even I have already purchased”. The participants were asked the

question “What are your opinions on how the advertisement companies determine your areas of interest?”, and

18 participants expressed similar opinions, stating that they were presented the Internet advertisements with the

data captured from Google Search Engine. Some participants said that some of the questionnaires on the

Internet were for archiving their information, and the companies made use of these questionnaires to reach their

target customers.

For example, the 9th Participant said, “Before I watch news or a video, I am subjected to questionnaires

having some questions on my gender, age, profession and areas of interest. They have information on me

because I fill in these questionnaires”. The 18th Participant said “We enter our information to Facebook,

Twitter or Instagram accounts, and in addition, we give the information about ourselves even our identity

number when we purchase something online, therefore, advertisement companies do not have difficulty in

presenting the advertisements of their products targeted to us”.

Attitudes Towards Online Behavioral Targeting and Targeted Advertising

First of all, Online Behavioral Targeting for all consumers in general have beneficial sides; however, they

also have some drawbacks like obtaining personal information. In this study, it was observed that the concerns

on privacy are dominant after considering the Behavioral Targeting and after thinking on the fact that the

personal information is more available rather than the beneficial sides of this technique.

The majority of the participants are aware of the beneficial sides of the targeted advertisements for the

advertisement companies. 17 participants said “Yes” to the question “Do you think that targeted advertisements

are beneficial for advertisement companies, and in your opinion, what are their benefits?”. 13 of the

participants said that this advertisement type made it easier for the advertisement companies to reach their

target audience; 4 of them said that it was a new source of income for the advertisers. The answer of the 6th

participant to this question is extremely comprehensive. “These types of advertisements are beneficial both for

the consumers as well as the product/service providers. Think about it, how wonderful is it to know how to

advertise and to know that the advertisement will not go in vain!”

All of the participants answered as “Yes” to the question “Do Behavioral Advertisements have negative

sides?” The point on which all of the participants agree is the privacy issue. Access to private life and personal

information are the clearest reasons for avoiding Behavioral Advertisements. 4 participants said that they found

the idea of being watched or being followed annoying. The 12th participant said “While I am searching online,

the idea of a company or someone knowing what I am looking for makes me feel annoyed. I do not find it

correct when my data are obtained by people I do not know”, and summarized the concerns of all participants.

As a result, when they were asked “What are your general viewpoints on targeted advertisements, and

why?” 9 of the participants said that they found it beneficial, and gave answers showing that their attitudes

about these advertisements were positive. 6 of the participants who expressed positive opinions on this question

were female. 4 participants, on the other hand, said that these advertisements were unnecessary and disturbing,

and they also stated that especially the idea of obtaining the search results by others was disturbing. 8 participants

gave double-sided answers expressing that they found it sometimes useful and sometimes boring. The 5th

Participant said “I can shorten the duration of my purchase with the help of these advertisements. In addition, I


612

have the opportunity of comparing the prices” showing her positive attitude about the Targeted Advertisements.

The 20th Participant said “I am afraid of searching on the Google because of these advertisements. When I search

for a product or a service, I encounter these advertisements on every website I visit, and this makes me annoyed”.

The 27th Participant said “Their obtaining my personal information and search records make me disturbed,

but there are times when I find these advertisements useful, because I think seeing different alternatives and

advertisements on my areas of interest is a useful opportunity” showing that his viewpoints were not

unidirectional on this issue.

The majority of the participants think that the advertisers reach their various information they share online

together with their browsing history. The question “In your opinion, which of your information is reached by

online advertisement networks?” was asked to the participants, and 17 participants answered that the

advertisement companies could reach the city they lived in, mail addresses, and genders; 3 participant said that

they could also reach their telephone numbers; 1 participant said that they could reach even their names. 5

participants said that the abovementioned information could be reached by companies and in fact they had

heard that the companies shared their information with other companies, and even they sold the information to

each other.

Discussion and Conclusions

In this paper, the attitudes of the participants about Targeted Advertisements and their awareness levels on

this advertisement technique were examined. It was observed that the participants were aware of the benefits of

the behavioral targeting both for the consumers and for the companies. It is possible to claim that the issue of

privacy is the only problem that poses a handicap for the full adoption of the Targeted Advertisements by

consumers. The most distinct finding determined in this study is the fact that although consumers do not deny

the benefits of the Targeted Advertisements, and even find them beneficial, they stay at a certain distance to

these types of advertisements because of the privacy issues and because the companies obtain their personal

information.

Most of the time, consumers find Internet Advertisements disturbing and over-persistent. Generally, not

having the control over the Internet Advertisements is the basic issue that disturbs them. They especially stated

that Behavioral Targeting was an advantageous method for companies. It was understood that most of the

participants did not have much information on Behavioral Targeting techniques. The participants have limited

information on how their areas of interest are detected, archived and how their personal information is obtained.

It was observed that the female participants were more open-minded about being subjected to advertisements

on their areas of interest than the male participants. It was observed that the group with higher-level privacy

concerns about targeted advertisements was the males. Consumers have concerns about their information being

obtained by companies for Targeted Advertisements, and they also complain about being over-exposed to these

types of advertisements. As the last item, although the attitude about Targeted Advertisements is positive in

general, privacy concerns damage it.

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Johnson, G. D., & Grier, S. A. (2011). Targeting without alienating: Multicultural advertising and the subtleties of targeted advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 30(2), 233-258.

Johnson, J. P. (2013). Targeted advertising and advertising avoidance. Rand Journal of Economics, 44(1), 128-144. Kurkovsky, S., & Harihar, K. (2006). Using ubiquitous com puting in interactive mobile marketing. Pers Ubiquit Comput, 10,

227-240. Liu, B., Sheth, A., Weinsberg, U., Chandrashekar, J., & Govin-dan, R. (2013). AdReveal: İmproving transparency into online

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advertising. Proceedings of Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). WANG, X. J., YU, M., ZHANG, L., CAI, R., & Ma, W. Y. (2009). Argo: Intelligent advertising by mining a user’s interest from

his photo collections. ADKDD’09. ACM. 18-26. Yaakop, A. Y., Mohamed Anuar, M., & Omar, K. (2012). A Liaw Consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards advertising on

Facebook in Malaysia. In World Business and Economics Research Conference, Auckland, New Zealand. YAN, J., LIU, N., WANG, G., ZHANG, W., JIANG, Y., & CHEN, Z. (2009). How much can behavioral targeting help online

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focus group study. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 54th Annual Meeting (pp. 1416-1420).

Journalism and Mass Communication, December 2015, Vol. 5, No. 12, 614-628

doi: 10.17265/2160-6579/2015.12.002

Internet Through Mobile Phone and Its Cognitive and

Behavioral Impact: Changing Sexuality*

Manoj Jinadasa

University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

This study investigates how Internet media in the mobile phone influence on the cognitive and behavioral aspects of

human sexuality. Sex is being deviating from socially accepted behaviors; ranging from bisexuality to

homosexuality. Based on the qualitative methodology using particular case studies and textual analysis as well as

survey research leading to quantitative methodology, this assumes of a transition of cultures as a result of the

thorough impact of Internet towards society. In conclusion, Internet implicit practices in the Mobile Phone in youth

and teen societies storms a big change in sexuality, is also affecting towards the human cognitive and behavioral

phases of the social life in traditional Buddhist rural village setting in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: Mobile phone-Internet, changing sexuality, cognitive and behavioral impact, Buddhist rural society,

youth and teen

Impact of Internet media and mobile phone on youth sexuality has been concerned by many scholars

(Livingstone, 1999; Flanagin & Metzger, 2001; Wei & Lo, 2013. See Pascoe, 2011; Ringrose et al., 2012). This

study was to identify the ill-effects of mobile phone usage in the rural Buddhist societies in Sri Lanka. In this, it

was focused to investigate about the phase of teen and youth behavior in usage of Internet through mobile

phone. Internet mobile phone impact can be studies on the basis of cognitive and behavioral changing patterns.

In such a broad perspective, this study focused to scrutinize on the changing pattern of sexuality among teen

and youth who are highly exposed to Internet mobile phone. In that, the most interesting fact is that the sexuality

has been changed from the heterosexual behaviors to bisexual and homosexual activities among the subjects.

Young people are commonly assumed to be highly susceptible to the influence of the mass media, which

have been blamed for a number of negative cognitive and behavioral influences (Annenberg Media Exposure

Research Group, 2008). Computers, video games, and the advent of the World Wide Web have been considered

potentially damaging to youth. In spite of the generally held belief that media act as vehicles of persuasion,

there are only mixed results linking exposure to media with various cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Some

studies have found evidence for substantial media effects, while others have not (Klapper, 1960). In a more

* Acknowledgement: This research has been sustained by the two research projects to which funded by the University of

Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. One was granted by the Annual Research grant fund of the University of Kelaniya and the other

was granted by the center for Social Sciences Research, faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. I

am totally indebted to the labour made by my research students in last couples of years from whom I grasped many information

from different perspectives so that finally I was possible to see them in a more broad framework of analysis. Special gratitude is

deserved for the anonymous reviewers of this paper.

Manoj Jinadasa, MSSc, Senior Lecturer, Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of

Kelaniya.

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social anthropological perspective that understand this prevailing situation emerges a contradiction in social

and cognitive behaviors in the rural Buddhist villagers lifestyles and at the phase of how they have been

practiced for many decades by a realistic Buddhist philosophical religion. In this, it was peculiarly visible of a

more contradiction of the real practice of religion and the way how modern new media man adapt and apt with

the new media society that is full of consumer and liberty in the social-culture and political-economy, so that

this assume of a more open and unlimited social and cognitive behaviors at the phase of delimited information

flow and high access to them in any physical or spatial place in the use of Internet through mobile phone.

In other words, this social change expresses that the social ethics and ambitions generated in the

well-sophisticated and realistic religious cultures that deeply rooted in the pre-media society could not have

possible to manage this modern new media society. As a result of this, it is crystal clear about the shift of

paradigm in the sexuality at the phase of youth cognitive and behavioral changings. However, this has given a

much debatable and burning issue of the fact that how Buddhist cultured rural villagers socially and morally

accept this sexual deviation; ranging from Bisexuality to Homosexuality. There are many incidents and cases

have been reported as the unpleasant criminal or discriminative social behaviors in this sexuality change. Even

though, it is not the fact that Internet media is not the one and only catalyst in this phenomena, however this has

open for many illicit and socially unacceptable contents of sexualities and personal entertainment. Therefore

relevance and importance of furthering our media and communication research on this social change created in

the usage of Internet mobile phone in rural Buddhist villagers’ cultures has been taking into significant

importance.

Moreover, even though it is highly appreciated of a long existing Buddhist educational system derived out

from piriwena; a monastic educational school from rural village to urban places and the long historical

evidence coincides in local religious practices in the Buddhist precept and discipline, accelerating number of

crime and murder with huge social destruction at the phases of family and society could be more explicit in the

modern new media cultural society.

Hence, it is our concern to draw the attention on to explore whether youth is moving towards socially

unaccepted illicit sexual patterns that is contradictory with the Buddhist religious practice in the phase of

Internet usage using highly expanding Mobile Phone.

Materials and Methods

Research Problem, Hypothesis and Research Questions

In this study, the fundamental problem of research is: How do Internet mobile phone effect on changing

sexuality from heterosexuality to socially unaccepted behaviors (bisexuality and homosexuality) in the rural

Buddhist societies in Sri Lanka?

So that the assumption made in the literary review is: Internet mobile phone has given a much platform to

express and activate hidden sexual desires and behaviors among the adolescents and youth even though they

have long been highly taught and practiced in Buddhist religion in local rural societies.

However, this has created to extend the sexuality from normative traditions to bisexuality and particularly

to homosexuality. As the fear and social deprivation, the new sexual orientations made by this situation, are

practicing in implicit ways, while in the dominant religious thought has not been given attention to this effects.

Moreover, this social change that is deeply associated with the sexual behaviors and new media effects on the

conventional religious societies has not been properly addressed by either religious or academic discussions in


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Sri Lanka. On the contrary, an interesting social and cultural contradiction is rapidly increasing in the rate of

sexual problems in the family, divorce rate, sexual crime, other crime and murder in a more religious practicing

society which is highly ethical and civilized according to popular religious talking and preaching.

None of the academic or religious school has paid yet their attention on this social destruction in a

cognitive and behavioral perspective. Hence, this has been given a contemporary relevance and importance as

the immediate effects of Internet and mobile phone are emanating to the society as their use rate is also

increasing day by day. So, amidst the new media under a high consumer and open economy society has led to

this cultural and moral changing pattern. In other words, while we talk about a highly sophisticated, most

cultured and civilized religious practice of life in the realm of Buddhism, we have to face to a most challenging

social and cultural life that constitutes many socially unacceptable and culturally in tolerable events and

incidents of sexual deviations, criminal offenders, that leads to a huge destruction of the social system of the

organizational malfunction in the Sri Lankan Society.

In this hypothetical framework, this study is addressing following research questions:

(1) Does Internet effect on changing sexuality? If so, how does it occur in the use of Internet Mobile

Phone?

(2) Do the changes of human sexuality correlate with the Internet using via Mobile Phone? If so, how does

it work in the practice?

(3) How does Buddhist rural society really respond to new media cultures? What are the effects of Internet

mobile Phone related to human sexuality?

(4) Why do the rate of crime, murder, sexual problems and other family destructions rapidly increase

amidst the most Buddhist religious media and communication society?

(5) Do widely expanding communication and media of Buddhist religious practices not having

relationship with increasing social changes in the facets of sexuality? If so what are the other issues related to

sexual changes?

Research Methodology

This study carried out using qualitative and quantitative mixed perspective including survey

(questionnaire), case study (participatory and Non-participatory Observation, In-depth and Focused-group

Interviewing) and textual analysis (Observation, Interviewing, reading, interaction).

Survey was done using questionnaire and personal interviewing that raised fifteen (15) questions and

questionnaire was distributed among 200 subjects representing geographical and demographical dimensions

associated with the research problem using convenient sampling. Age categories are 14-16, 17-19, 20-25, and

26-30 covering youth and adolescents in the Buddhist rural societies.

Five (05) case studies were conducted covering rural Buddhist societies refers to the effects of Internet

mobile phone on their sexualities over the last couple of years (2011-2014). These cases were more related to

sexualities ranging from hetero to Bi. and Homo. Basically these cases were identified from Newspapers and

thereafter cases were fully investigated using from police reports, participatory observations, in-depth

Interviews and focused group discussions serially.

Textual analysis was used to further read some of the Internet texts and mobile phone texts associating to

their behaviors of using new media in their personal life. For this, twenty five (25) fake FB (Facebook)

addresses were made and gather information of how they communicate and what they communicate. And


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another twentyfive (25) personal interviews were made to identify how adolescents and youth use Internet for

their sexual gratification and contentions through mobile phone.

However, this overall methods and materials were limited to age category of 14 to 35 including substantial

representation of gender, geography, age, culture, religion, associated to the fundamental research question.

The study occurred during a period of twenty four (24) months.

Ethical Considerations

All the subjects were previously being acknowledged, informed and aware of the purpose of being

selection of their subjective behaviors, attitudes and opinions of their sexualities, so that consent has been

granted through this formal acknowledgement before gathering data from them. Personal names were not

applied for the data collection methods and data analysis techniques. None of the subjects were used without

prior consent made by the key research officer.

And the gathered information was analyzed for this research study only and not being distributed or

revealed to any other third party. Part of the data collection is associated with my another research titled The

expansion of pornography through new media, which was institutionally granted by the annual research grant

program of the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. In that, institutional formal ethical permission has also been

made by the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

Limitations of the Study

This study is focused merely to impact of Internet mobile phone on changing sexuality. In that study

focused to limit on adolescents and youth. In the sense of sexuality change, it is given much attention on

bisexuality and homosexuality. In this, the contradiction of Buddhist preaching and rapidly increasing rate of

crime, murder, sexual problems, and socially unacceptable sexualities is given much concentration.

In identifying implicit behaviors of sexuality, it was hard to investigate true and natural gratifications and

entertainment in the use of Internet via mobile phone in the data collection method of questionnaire, so that

using interviewing and observation have been given considerable affording to fill this vacuum. As the sexuality

being the most dominant aspect of privacy and personal matters, collected data could have been mixed with

certain subjective values and norms more than objective aspects of the research analysis. In the content of fake

Facebook addresses, there might be certain false response to our requests. Even in the analysis of texts of their

usage of Internet forms in the mobile phone many real objective facts were not possible to collect as them being

the behind of the barriers of privacy and personal gratification.

Results

Survey

Questionnaires were given to 200 subjects (n = 200). Age frame is from 14 to 30, consisting similar 32.5%

in both 14-16 and 20-25 age categories. And 17.5% in both 17-19 and 20-25 age categories as being the same

percentage. Gender representation is included as male and female by 90 and 110 respectively to the percentage

of population.

39% of the subjects use Mobile Phone for the Internet while another 40.5% use Computer for the Internet.

Thus, almost 79.5% use Internet significantly, while another 20.5% do use Internet neither from computer nor

Mobile phone. However, the fact that these non-users of Internet are interested to see pornography contents,

which are downloaded from the internet, is also important in this context.


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Entertainment has been the most interesting Internet content by 89%, while Internet use for educational

purposes is 61% which is being the second priority in the serial order of Internet consumer. As in the Table 4

depicts (see the Appendix) Educational content is the most interesting feature of the Internet using by 47%,

which is the most highest rate and it represents from the age category of 20-25, while 12%, which is the minimal

percentage of the most interested Internet content of using in every contents. On the other, entertainment

content as being the most popularly expanded content of Internet using in each age category expanding from a

similar percentage. However, 29%, which is the maximum is shown in the age category of 17-19, while 23% in

the age category of 26-30, which is the minimal in entertainment content in the Internet using.

In the overall, male is the maximum by 96% who use Internet in mobile phone for the sexual gratifications,

while another 74%, is female for the same purpose. When it comes to the Internet for pornography, there are

several forms of Internet media; web pages of erotica and pornography, Facebook porn contents and using Web

cam for pornography behaviors have been popularly used by 67%, 38%, and 33% respectively.

Case Study

There were five (05) case studies in this research. The cases were reported first in the national newspapers

in Sri Lanka. Then, they were separately identified. In order to investigate further, method of In-depth

Interview was used in considerable time with the subject and received from his/her associates’ ideas and

opinions in addition to other observational information produced.

Ampara District (Eastern province) same-sex incident. Children used to watch CD films of pornography

when their parents were in faddy field. Two school boys who were having very much attention on pornography

film got the chance to enter to such contents in the Internet through their mobile phone. They were both fifteen

years old. Gradually they were being interested to watch different forms of sexual activities in the Internet so

that they got used to watchsame-sex (gay) web sites in the net from which first they felt quite uncomfortable

but later on the basis of increasing aptitude emanated, they were reluctantly addicted to same-sex behaviors by

touching their male genitals first. By the time pass, they felt that this sexual behavior enthrall them very much

more than their previous masturbation practice. Increasingly they just experienced of anal sex first and later

they experimented oral sex and with their new different sexual pattern they needed to search most updated

version of the gay web sites from which they having much sexual pleasure. Finally they were caught by the

police as the complaint made by their one of the closest friend in the same old. They have been grown in a

traditional Buddhist rural village from their early childhood. Despite the police inquiry they feel now much

comfort in engaging such kind of same sexual behaviors as they are updated with most recent gay web pages,

whilst they are having better sexual stimulation from watching such Internet web pages via mobile phone .

Kandyboys’ College (Central province) two teens. First they identified as the friends of same hostel in

the school. They were heavy Internet addicts, who chat and web cam with many other peers as well as elders.

In the hostels in their isolation after school, they were used to practice sports in the playground from where they

talk secret illicit sexual behaviors with peers. First they felt ashamed with each other and later on the

understanding of each perception at the phase of such contents and talks, they were reluctantly being absorbed

the stimulation of such peer talks. As a result of their on-going sexual talks, they found easy ways of

stimulation from their own gender as Internet remains consistent in gay web sites in one hand and on the other,

via mobile phone in addition to watching such web contents they were used to chat via FB their secret implicit

sexual desires. They are not gays in born but they have transformed their easy sexual gratifications from these


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easy contents of sexual behaviors that are widely expanded in the Internet so that using individual mobile

phone gave them to extent their secret behaviors. Finally they were unable to deprive from their practice. One

day school principle received massage of this secret relationship from one of the hostel students. However, the

principle had to channel a psychiatric medical doctor to consult them despite their arbitrariness.

Two adolescent girls from Kegalle (Sabaragamuwa province). One day the district psychiatric doctor

was consulted by two parents from two families of their two daughters that they were having an extraordinary

relationship between each other for couple of years. One is so beautiful and the other is quite fat and black in

skin-color. That the fat girl is quite hard to control her feeling in the mid night so that she goes to others home

in the mid night when her parent went to sleep. She entered to other’s room through window secretly. They

were falling in a strong love affair as they were using to enthrall each other by web cam their secret places

through Internet earlier. First they communicated via the Internet chatting of FB and later they used web cam

for their same-sex behaviors. Basically, they have been both fully grown amidst the Buddhist religious cultures

from their early childhood.

One youth and another teen (Northern Province). They found from the FB basically in the chatting and

later talked about many things and among them their personal sexuality has been the major event so that the FB

provides them a platform to exchange their individual ideas and opinions related to privacy and sexual habits,

from which their sexual orientation determined finally. Earlier that the youth had a girlfriend in his university

but she got revealed his sexual desires for same sex partners. Meanwhile, this youth found a very handsome

teen via FB. First they had communication of their sexual activities from the Internet and later they had more

chances and opportunities of having more and more same-sex seen and tube videos from the plethora of

Internet contents. Both of them are having most updated mobile technological phones are android smart phones

from which they able to engage in a variety of sexual contents; exceeding heterosexual contents to Bi and

Homo contents. They had unbearable satisfaction from this same sex opportunities found in the net linked

mobile phone. Consequently, that the youth guy has some heterosexual behaviors in real world addition to his

same sex opportunities.

One teen from prestigious college addicted to internet pornography (Western province). This school

teen, who was isolated in his family as he was the one and only child to his parent. Meanwhile his father was

also not in the home as he was engaged in a foreign work company so that the mother who has caring and

loving to his only child unlimitedly. In this venture, the child used to work under his mother’s full love and

caring in which he enthralled very much avoiding even in doing his own work without his mother’s labor.

Hence, this child always plugged in the Internet all over the day and time after the school and other weekends

in his own room locking the door. From the very first, when he engaged to Internet through his room computer

he was nearly 14 years old. And after a two years period when he was fully abducted by the noose of Internet

sex via most updated android smart mobile phone. He was finally channeled to a psychiatric medical doctor as

being suffering severely from high Internet pornography addiction. He used to masturbate from watching this

pornography content earlier. But later on his performance affected by the Internet porn web pages, he was

impossible to detract from them.

Textual Analysis

Textual analysis was used to further read some of the Internet texts and mobile phone texts associating to

their behavior of using new media in their personal life. For this, twenty five (25) fake FB (Facebook)


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addresses were made and gather information from them to know of how they communicate, what they

communicate. And another twenty five (25) personal interviews were made to identify how adolescents and

youth use Internet for their sexual gratification and contents through mobile phone.

Further, In order to scrutinize some of the implicit sexual behaviors associating with the Internet and

mobile phone, participatory observation was used at the places of public toilets in the major cities and couple of

school and university toilets.

First, when we concern on the texts of the fake FB which were expressive in very important features

related to how adolescents and youth gradually getting into their on line dating and particularly of their real

sexual cognition and behaviors. In this, one of the major findings is that the FB has been a platform to play

their socially unacceptable sexual desires in a more liberal manner so that in addition to heterosexual

intercourse, romantic male sexual desires are also activating from this and finally perhaps they were being

enjoying with both sexual behaviors (bisexual behaviors). At the same time, it was understood that many FB

users are also being gratified their sexual taste via hidden/fake FB addresses, so that they use other forms of

Internet; embark on web cam and chatting to extent their ideas into real practical incident.

In many times, it is more elusive of that large number of teens and youth naturally get into sexual ideas

and thoughts leading to their high growth of biological metabolism. However, Internet and mobile phone

freedom has been catalyzing them into more communicative sexual behaviors despite the social and cultural

norms and morals.

Another result is that the FB has been used by some of the elder people to noose teens and youth people

for their sexual behaviors illicitly. In that, these adolescents are also having fake FB and another fake e-mails to

hire them for money so that Internet has being a major commercial market for sex in bridging these both elders

and adolescents including teens for this implicit sexual panoramas and from them to real sexual practices

exceeding traditional sexual behaviors.

And in the personal interviews, it was understood that many teens and youth people have been very quiet

and calm in their external appearances. But in practice they have many strategic behaviors leading to use of the

Internet through mobile phone for their illicit sexual behaviors. And also gay and lesbian people that

useimmensely mobile phone with Internet connection for activating their sexual orientation amidst the sarcastic

criticism of dominant sexual thought. They perceive a substantial liberation in the sexual behavior in Internet

and mobile phone more than the other traditional media (Press, TV, Radio, Magazine, Film).

In our observation in the public toilets of the major cities of Colombo, Kandy, Kurunegala, Galle and

Anuradhapura, one of the interesting features was the fact that many teens and elders were used to write down

their mobile phone numbers in the walls requesting to call them for sexual association and implicit intimacy. In

this, maximum numbers of wall writers’ requests were for seeking adolescents and elders. Men to men sex are

more popular in the toilet scriptures. Many writings in the wall depict of a huge interesting for oral sex and anal

sex more than other heterosexual behaviors. Thisis very elusive in the signs and symbols depicted in the toilets

not only in the public cities but also in the school and university toilets scriptures.

In association with the language use in these wall scriptures, it is crystal clear of the very relationship with

the mobile phone short written sign language. Top, Bottom, … in English and mata oyage eka uranda asai… (I

like to suck your penis…), mama sudu malli kenekuta kamati… (I like to have a white color skin teen), wayasa

aurudu 15-24 sudu lassana kollekuge uranda asai… (I like to suck of a beautiful boy aged 15-24), gahaganda

asai… (like to been fuck), api 69 karamu... (we will do 69) are some of the most popular language used in both


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FB communication and public toilet wall writings that depicts of a more romantic and erotic cognitive and

behavioral aspects of language using.

In the video and pictures associating to these sexualities were also so figurative and artful in the nature. In

both gay and lesbian sexual communication, they used to apply on the handsome male figures and beautiful

girlish pictures and videos in both same-sexual behaviors.

Discussion

Despite the immense Buddhist religious thought persistent for years in the country and other modes of

Buddhist media (TV, Radio, Newspaper) including increasing number of currently popular Buddhist monastics

and temples that leads to a very modern type of Buddhist religious movement and practice including many

religious, racial, and ethnic struggles, lots of social intolerances and sexual & mortal crimes are mushrooming

over the country. In this study, it was focused to locate them in the place that existing huge Internet influences

on societal and cultural change exceeding traditional norms, values and morals. In this, highly expanding

communication tool is Mobile phone with the Internet and sexuality change leading to Bisexual and same sex

priorities have been the key focal research domain in this study.

In order to discuss the fundamental research problem and the assumption made upon it, first, basic

research questions are addressed in this discussion.

(1) Does Internet effect on changing sexuality? If so, how does it occur in the use of Internet Mobile

Phone?

According to the survey data analysis in Table 2 (Appendix), it mentions 79.5% of the subjects use

Internet and Table 3 (Appendix) notes that 89% of those Internet users use Internet for entertainment purposes.

Out of this, male receive maximum in Internet using through mobile phone for sexual purposes is 96% and

another 74% is female who use the same purpose. Conceptual and operational definition of terms is a

prerequisite to scientific discussion and research concerning sexually implicit materials, on or off the Internet.

A three-part conceptualization of erotica, degrading pornography, and violent pornography has been suggested

to guide theory and research in this area.

The Internet opens new opportunities for families but it also poses a challenge to current forms of family

interaction and the organization of everyday life. Teenagers have been found to use the Internet more than do

adults and there is also a tendency for homes containing older children to have greater Internet access

(Livingstoneet al., 1999). In younger age groups, only a small proportions are regular users of e-mail and

Internet, but the services are well-known to most children (Beentjes et al., 1999).

As a controversial and morally-loaded issue, homosexuality has often sparked heated debates (Gross, 1991;

Ho & McLeod, 2008). While these debates have been most prominent in Western countries, disputes over

homosexuality’s significance in society and its regulation are becoming more common in Asia (Detenber,

Cenite, Zhou, & Malik, 2009). Often the debates focus on the portrayals of homosexuality in the media, and the

influence they may have on impressionable populations. Since media content can be seen as a reflection of

societal values (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, Signorielli, & Shanahan, 2002), it is worthwhile to understand how

youth people engage in socially unaccepted sexual behaviors.

Up to 43% of Gay people have reported meeting sexual partners through the Internet. The literature review

conducted by Natale (2008) supported that gay people are much more likely than heterosexual men to meet

their sexual partners through the Internet. And western orientations have been found to be positively associated


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with acceptance of homosexuals (Detenber, Ho, Neo, Malik, & Cenite, 2010). As Pruitt (2005) found in his

research Internet has created a world of Online Prostitution over the vulnerable societies.

In the form of Internet through mobile phone, social media has been the most popular and widely used

Internet mode of youth engaging and this refers to media for social interaction, using highly accessible and

scalable publishing techniques on the web such as feeds from blogs, status updates, wikis, discussion boards,

and other forms of Web 2.0 technology (Wright & Hinson, 2009). It is well-known that the latest generation of

Web 2.0 technologies (blogs, wikis, RSS, etc.) are quickly becoming ubiquitous, offering many unique and

powerful information, sharing, and collaboration features which are accessible via the Internet on computers,

smart phones, and tablets or through device applications (Grosseck, 2009).

Today’s online experience involves new forms of user engagement with the media (Deuze, 2007) that go

beyond direct interactions with the media and encircle a set of activities on which audiences’ wider meanings

are inscribed. Differently from the past passive consumer, today’s audiences are more interactive (Ross &

Nightingale, 2003) performing several activities and developing new relationships at the same time in a more

engaging way (Livingstone, 2005).

Theory of selective exposure says that people tend to gravitate toward specific types of media content

because of certain pre-existing attitudes, value orientations, or personality traits (Zillman & Bryant, 1985).

Going by the premise of selective exposure, it may be that people who hold positive attitudes toward gay men

and lesbians will be more inclined to watch attractive contents depicting homosexuality.

Alasuutaari (1999) expresses an interesting possibility that the task of contemporary audience research is

to study the whole media culture on which audience activity takes place. This media culture encircles not only

traditional commercial audiences analysis that focus on ratings and measurement (Schroder, Droter, Kline, &

Murray, 2003) but also the understanding of what users are actually doing online. One theory states that the

cultural experience of a specific media can be treated as the process of involvement and understanding of that

media by a specific audience (McQuail, 1997).

According to Bandura’s (1973, 1983) social learning and cognitive theories, we learn either from

experience or observation. One of the ways we can learn is by observing people in films and documentaries. At

the same time that we observe behaviors we are also learning scripts, which according to Buckley and

Anderson (2006), define situations and guide behavior. Well-known scripts are known as knowledge structures.

They further claim that learning is a combination of personal and situational or environmental variables. Input

variables can make constructs more accessible in memory; they can influence mood and emotion; and the level

of arousal can also have an effect on learning. According to Buckley and Anderson, “behavior is guided by

learning, internalizing, and applying scripts” (2006, p. 373). Furthermore, they suggest development of these

knowledge structures can change an individual’s personality.

(2) Do the changes of human sexuality correlate with the Internet using in Mobile Phone? If so, how does

it work in the practice?

In addition to Internet downloaded pornography content using in the mobile phone, e-dating is the most

widely seen behavior in the forms of Skype and web cam cyber sexualities. Using Internet through mobile

phone for the purposes of sexual entertainment can be seen mostly 52% in once per a day and 39% and 27% in

twice and thrice per day respectively. When it is concerned on the various sexual contents that is interested in

using Internet is heterosexual interactions are being the maximum by 69% and Homosexual and Bisexual

activities mount by 17% and 13% serially. There are 2% of other sexual behaviors that consisting material and


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animal sexual contents. In the variety of sexual behaviors it is homosexuality that is gradually increasing as the

most interesting sexual behavior. And oral and anal sex are the most interesting behaviors in the homosexuality

that is determined by the Internet effect. In the Bisexuality, oral and intercourse are the two major sexual

behaviors, while in the heterosexuality is much popular in the form of intercourse as being the major sexual

behavior. An engaging fact is that the attraction to homosexual behaviors begins under the age category of

14-16 and bisexual behaviors receive in the age category of 20-25.

(3) How does Buddhist rural society really respond to new media cultures? What are the effects of Internet

Mobile Phone to human sexuality?

Ever since 1988, when both Richard Gombrich and Gananath Obeyesekere’s Buddhism Transformed and

George D. Bond’s The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka both appeared, numerous scholars have attempted to

account for the changes in contemporary Sri Lankan Buddhism.

Anthony Giddens’s work on modernity helps us to recognize some of these other influences behind the

most recent developments in Sri Lankan Buddhism. Briefly, according to Giddens, the intensive modernity that

characterizes our world is marked by radical discontinuities from a way of life where knowledge and social

organization was dispensed by locally transmitted traditions. As a result, traditional social relations have been

lifted out, or “disembedded”, from the immediacies of interactions strictly within local contexts and stretched

across indefinite spans of space and time, so that persons are freer than ever to disregard local habits and

customs and to adopt practices and ideas that have spread across the globe (see Giddens, 1990, pp. 20-22).

Buddhism in the face of Modern information, New Media, Liberal Politics has been changing in many

dimensions (Berkwitz, 2003) so that even though the spread of popular Buddhist in many ways its impact on

humanity to decrease social tension and liberate human mental stress could not be possible with modern social

cultural environment.

With global migrations and multi-cultural communities, it is possible for an individual to assume more

than one cultural orientation (Benet-Martı´nez, Leu, Lee, & Morris, 2002; Hong, Morris, Chiu, &

Benet-Martı´nez, 2000). Differing cultural orientations can affect perceptions, memories, and judgment, and

shifts in cultural orientation can be influenced by media representations. For example, Hong et al. (2000) found

that bicultural people were able to shift between their Asian and Western cultural frames when they were

exposed to cultural cues relevant to their respective cultural orientation. Western cultures have often been

described as “individualistic and conflict-ridden” whereas Asian cultures place less emphasis on individual

rights but more on harmony, family, and community as a whole (Pinches, 1999). However, Sri Lanka has been

long in the layers of highly sensational media practice that cover every social and cultural environment from

dominant cultural and political establishment.

(4) Why do the rate of crime, murder, sexual problems and other family destructions rapidly increase

amidst the most Buddhist religious media and communication society?

Buddhist practice has been originated fundamentally through the pillars of Buddhist thought and precepts.

Buddhist theories for practical solutions in the therapeutic treatment in gay and lesbian issues has been widely

researched (Blando, 2009; Finucane & mercer, 2006; Follette & Linhan, 2004; Ma & Teasdale, 2004; Mason &

Hargreaves, 2001; Zettle, 2005). As Jones (2003) identified the following sets of core Buddhist concepts:

(1) The four noble truths;

(2) The three signs of being (impermanence, insubstantiality, and dukkha);

(3) The three fires (greed, aggressiveness, and existential delusion);


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(4) Dependent co-origination;

(5) Mutual causality;

(6) The moral precepts;

(7) The noble eightfold path;

(8) Karma.

However, Currently widespread media and communication of Buddhist religious practice have not paid its

most essential elements that deeply discuss human nature and its natural science which is highly concerned in

the core substance of the Buddhist religion. And at the same time in a much liberal economic and high

commercial and consumer society, it is very minimal to concern such real essentialities of Buddhist which, it is

immensely popular in petty aspects of religion related to race, ethnicity and cultural differences.

In this, the dominant religious discourse has paid their attention onto such popular market oriented

consumerist aspects of Buddhist preaching, no solution to made for the decrease of increasing rate of crime,

murder, and sexual depression that are emerging in day to day cross-currents in the society. Moreover, this

dominant religious discourse and practices are always having a symbiotic relation with the dominant economic

and political sectors; they do not address the real secular burning issues that remain constituently in the Sri

Lankan society.

(5) Do widely expanding communication and media of Buddhist religious practices not having

relationship with increasing social changes in the facets of sexuality? If so what are the other issues related to

sexual changes?

Sri Lanka’s media channels are divided along linguistic and ethnic lines, with state-run and private stations

offering services in the main languages (Coperahewa, 2009). Even though Coperahewa concerns as the Internet

is a growing medium for news and current affairs, and many newspapers have online editions, Internet has been

given much attention on pornography contents (TRC-Sri Lanka. 2014) rather than other informational factors.

And on the other hand Internet using for pornography and illegal sexual entertainment (E-dating) has been

accelerating more than in other south Asian countries (TRC-Sri Lanka. 2014).

Sri Lanka ranks among the nations that have the highest levels of literacy in Asia, considered in the

context of its low per capita income. According to figures estimated by UNESCO, in 2001 the literacy rate in

Sri Lanka was 91%. The adult illiteracy rate is 9.8% in Sri Lanka, but it is 36.6% for South Asia (UNESCO,

2000). Literacy has increased to 91.9% by 2012 according to central Bank annual report (Sri Lanka, 2013).

Many factors contribute to this state of affairs; one of these is the position literacy occupies in the historical and

cultural life of Sri Lankans in general and of Sinhalese in particular (Dissanayaka, 1990). However nature of

the media literacy is relatively minimal comparison to the expansion and extending of mass media and other

forms of new media.

It is estimated that nearly 55 TV channels, 35 Radio channels, and 120 weekend and weed days

newspapers including in all three languages; Sinhala, Tamil and English could be conducting in Sri Lanka,

which is relatively very high in comparison to population (20,328,000) and land area including inland waters

(62705KM2) as per the central Bank annual report 2013 of Sri Lanka. However, the amount of using Internet

for awareness and other forms of intelligent factors have been minimal at the high rate of using mobile phone

for general entertainment and general informational messaging purposes.

The system of education in Sri Lanka evolved over centuries, originating with an indigenous system of

education provided in Buddhist temples (pansala) and pirivenas. A prominent place was given to the


625

promotion of literacy under the curriculum of monastic education, no doubt accounting at least in part for the

high literacy rate among the population. The sanghas, or Buddhist monks, were the custodians of education and

literary activity. At the village level, literate monks taught students in the temple school. However, colonialism

brought European style “school education” to Sri Lanka in the 17th century. Its momentum sustained, during

the early 19th century, the tradition of literacy and scholarly activity that had undergone a revival in the

mid-eighteenth century. The pirivenas were reorganized during the early 19th century, but they were never

integrated into the modern education system. In the early 20th century, pirivena education provided training in

Buddhist doctrine and oriental languages, mainly Pali, Sanskrit, and Sinhala (Coperahewa, 2009). However the

Media Education has implemented in 2009 from grade 9 and it boost to ordinary level and Advanced level

school curricula serially in 20011 and 2012 (National Education Institute, Sri Lanka, 2013) so that there is an

insufficient media literacy that causes on both media audience and media industry for sensational practices

exceeding comprehensive media usage that is expected in the new media society.

Conclusion & Recommendation

This study concludes that the expending rate of Internet in Mobile phone has been a platform to present

hidden and implicit sexual desires and taste in more liberal manner at the expense of others romantic feeling.

This is expressive in more fundamental and rigid religious societies. Even though, the countries which are

highly fundamental and rigid in their religion, while they highly emphasis on the so-called well-civilized

religious land, it is shown a contradiction in the increasing rate of crime, murder, and social destruction while

they talk about a moral and ethical principles of a fundamental religion. This has been phenomenal at the social

change catalyzed by Internet in the mobile phone.

This has given a dilemma in the field of sexual behavior over the vulnerable groups. In Sri Lanka,

currently increasing social criminal problems and other every form of social unethical and unprofessional

incidents and situations are shown as the results of this incompatibility in long driven religious cults when they

do not associate the current social conflicts and psychological conflicts in a narrow framework of analysis. In

other words, in the dominant religious discourse, it has no solution to current social change. Moreover, in a

more new media operated online world as they expand their capacities and strengths delimiting into existing

behaviors and social system, vulnerable groups in adolescents and youth play their cultures in a more broad

perspective delimiting into existing cultural and moral peripheries so that the traditional sexual behaviors are

also disappearing. And implicit and socially unacceptable natural cognitive and perceptional behaviors of sex

are flooding into the conventional cultures disastrously. This begins a new conflict over the traditional cultures.

This contradiction is not in its early canons in the Buddhist religion. Diversity and variety of sex and

sexual behaviors are fully elucidative in the early Buddhist canon and other parallel sources of early Buddhism,

so that the current social and cultural dilemma comes under a pseudo religious discourse. In other words,

Modern Sri Lankan widespread popular Buddhist discourse do not deals with the very natural and authentic

basic principles of early Buddhist discourses and precepts as well as percepts. In brief, Modern Buddhist rural

societies do not remain on the supreme practice of Buddhism.

In this scenario, Internet media through the mobile phone has been activating in its full strengths and

capacities delimiting into morals, ethics, good & bad, well-made. Even though language literacy rate is high,

media literacy, which leads to a broad analysis of social and cultural criticism is still in a low level that

incompatible with the use and expansion of internet and mobile phone media in Sri Lanka. Lack and absence of


626

a new media policy as well as a high discipline made in both from academic and religious discourse has been

the stage, where to dance this issue in its full and open manner so that the prevailing sophisticated discourses of

religion has not been sufficient to contribute positively for this situation.

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Appendix

Table 1

Survey Data Analysis

Age category sample Percentage %

14-16 65 32.5%

17-19 35 17.5%

20-25 65 32.5%

26-30 35 17.5%

Sample Total 200 100%

Table 2


Age category sample Male/Female Total Percentage %

14-16 65 30/35 32.5%

17-19 35 15/20 17.5%

20-25 65 30/35 32.5%

26-30 35 15/20 17.5%

Sample Total 200 90/110 100%

Table 3


Age category Sample Male/Female Mobile Phone Internet and

Computer Internet Total Percentage %

14-16 65 30/35 24/22 32.5%

17-19 35 15/20 13/14 17.5%

20-25 65 30/35 26/28 32.5%

26-30 35 15/20 15/17 17.5%

Sample Total 200 90/110 78/81 100%

39%/40.5%


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Table 4


Age category sample Male/Female

Mobile Phone

Internet and

Computer Internet

Most interested

internet

content-Education

Most interested internet

content-Entertainment

Total

Percentage %

14-16 65 30/35 24/22 12% 28% 32.5%

17-19 35 15/20 13/14 13% 29% 17.5%

20-25 65 30/35 26/28 47% 24% 32.5%

26-30 35 15/20 15/17 28% 23% 17.5%

Sample Total 200 90/110 78/81 100% 100% 100%

39%/40.5%


doi: 10.17265/2160-6579/2015.12.003

“How Satisfied Are You With Your MOOC?”—A Research

Study About Interaction in Huge Online Courses

Hanan Khalil

Arab East Colleges, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Martin Ebner

Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

This research work investigates the importance and satisfaction on the level of interaction in MOOCs (Massive

Open Online Courses) as perceived by learners and instructors. The study is based on data from online students and

instructors of MOOCs. Two web-based surveys were used to collect data. The theoretical bases of the two surveys

is the five-step model for interactivity developed by Salmon (2001). Salmon’s model proposed effective

e-moderating in five discrete steps (Access and Motivation, Online Socialization, Information Exchange,

Knowledge Construction and Development). Findings of the survey revealed that students rated the importance of

interactions in MOOCs as highly important. However, they reported negatively the availability of many criteria

suggested by Salmon. On the other hand, Instructors rated nearly half of Salmon criteria as less important, and

consequently did not offer them in their MOOCs. In addition, the study revealed that students and instructors rated

a high level of satisfaction in MOOCs. In contrast, some students expressed their less satisfaction of interaction in

MOOCs. They revealed their dissatisfaction to that lack of instructor interaction. Instructors suggested that it is

impossible for instructor to interact with this huge number of students in MOOCs. As a result, some strategies were

suggested to enhance instructor interaction with students of MOOCs

Keywords: MOOC, interaction, Salmon interactivity model

Introduction

With the potential to redefine education, a product of the Internet evolution, MOOCS are “Massive Open

Online Courses” designed to reach as many students, formal and informal, as possible. MOOC is a new concept,

where learners study alone, outside a traditional university and helping each other. They assemble by affinity or

language communities to exchange, share and solve all theirdifficulties they encounter in their learning

(Epelboin, 2013). The New York Times and other periodicals have proclaimed that 2012 was the “Year of the

MOOC” (Pappano, 2012). MOOCs are a relatively recent online learning phenomenon, having developed from

the first early examples five years ago. They are now generating considerable media attention and significant

interest from Higher Education institutions and venture Capitalists that see a business opportunity to be

exploited (Yuan & Steven, 2013).

The term MOOC was first coined by Dave Cormier, Manager of Web Communication and Innovations, at

Hanan Khalil, Assistant Professor, Department of Methods and Instructional Technology, Arab East Colleges.

Martin Ebner, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Learning, Graz University of Technology.

DAVID PUBLISHING

D

“HOW SATISFIED ARE YOU WITH YOUR MOOC?”

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the University of Prince Edward Island in 2008 for a large online class taught by George Siemens and Stephen

Downes (Mcauley, Stewart, Siemens, & Cormier, 2010). Siemens and Downes envisioned “MOOCS as an

environment for enacting connectivist pedagogy, an approach to teaching focused on building networks

between participants, based on, but moving rapidly beyond, a foundation of shared content” (Mahraj, 2012, p.

360), and making use of social networking tools (Mak, Williams, & Mackness, 2010) for further student

interaction and collaboration. The promise of MOOCs is that they will provide free access, cutting edge courses

that could drive down the cost of university-level education and potentially disrupt the existing models of

Higher Education (Future learn, 2013). In contrast to traditional university online courses, MOOCs have two

key features (Wikipedia, 2012):

(1) Open access—anyone can participate in an online course for free.

(2) Scalability—courses are designed to support an indefinite number of participants.

MOOCs offer students the chance to take courses from celebrated specialist experts, without any required

course prerequisites. They are presented over a set length of time, just as regular classes are, and follow a set

syllabus (Dikeogu & Clark, 2013). Butler (2012) pointed out that these massive courses cover not only a very

broad range of technical subjects such as math, statistics, computer science, natural sciences, and engineering,

but, increasingly, also courses in social sciences and humanities (Becker & Posner, 2012). MOOCs provide an

online version of complete courses, with video instruction, online quizzes, forums to encourage student

participation, but without having much direct interaction with the instructor (Khalil & Ebner, 2013), except in a

pre-recorded sense (Walker, 2013). MOOCs generally serve a huge number of students. For example several

early MOOCs done by Stanford University served over 100,000 students (Koller, 2012). This form of massive

education is interesting to the world, because it can serve those who would have otherwise no other access to

Higher Education. Because of this massive number of learners, several platforms have been launched to make

teaching, learning resources and courses in various subjects and levels, available online (Carson & Schmidt,

2012). The most important platforms are Udacity, Coursera, edx, udemy, and the Khan Academy. They all have

one thing in common provide opportunities for anyone to learn with experts, peers andothers outside traditional

universities (Daniel, 2012).

Theoretical Background

As a result, it is assumed that within few years, many MOOCs will find a possibility for offering credits.

Walker (2013) pointed out that a problem could come in from the type of interactivity found in MOOCs. Most

MOOCs are highly interactive, with students interacting with each other, and interacting with the content. On

the other side the interactivity is lacking with the instructor (Khalil & Ebner, 2013). In fact creating

interactivity in MOOCs by creating a learning community is essential to the learning and success of the

students. Therefore, many educators pointed out the importance of interactivity for high quality MOOCs

(Mcauley et al., 2010; Waard, 2011; Levy & Schrire, 2012; Fisher, 2012). They suggested that interaction and

communication in MOOCs will help students to construct their own knowledge and develop their personal

learning network from the nodes and connections in the digital environment. Mak, Williams, and Mackness

(2010) indicated that interaction in MOOCs assits students to develop their own ideas, express themselves,

establish a presence, and make thoughtful long-term relationships.

Moore (1989), in his seminal piece, defined three categories of interaction evident for Online Learning:

learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-content. According to Moore (1989) “student to student”


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interaction refers to the exchange of information and ideas amongst students with or without the real-time

presence of an instructor. “Student to instructor” interactions refer to the interaction between student and expert

which establish an environment that encourages students to understand the content better. “Student to content”

interaction is “a defining characteristic of education” and “without it there cannot be education” (Moore, 1989,

p.1). Khalil and Ebner (2013) pointed out that these types of interaction happen in many different forms in

current MOOCs. “Student to student” interaction includes using social networks (like Facebook, Twitter, blogs,

YouTube, or Google+) as well as discussion forums. “Student to instructor” interaction includes using quizzes,

assignments, activities, and group projects. Whereas, little “student to instructor” interaction happens in

MOOCs through announcements, guides, asking and answering questions, or participating in discussion. They

carried out that “student to student” interaction is the most type of interaction that is used in MOOCs. Whereas,

little interactions in MOOCs are happening between students and instructor. Therefore, the goal of the present

research work is to investigate the causes of limited interaction between students and their instructors through

understanding of the students’ and instructors’ perception and satisfaction of interactivity in their MOOCs. As

such, this study asks the following questions:

(1) How do students and instructors perceive interaction in their MOOCs?

(2) How satisfied are students and instructors with the interaction in their MOOCs?

Research Methodology

In this section descriptions for the instruments, the participants of the study, and data collection and

analysis is provided

Instruments

Two online questionnaires are designed to evaluate students’ and instructors’ perception and satisfaction

of interaction in MOOCs. The questionnaires are implemented by a learning management system at Graz

University of Technology. The theoretical bases of the two questionnaires is the five-step model for

interactivity developed by Salmon (2001). In this model, Salmon offers several key observations regarding

interactivity in online courses. Both questionnaires consist of two sections, the first section of the

questionnaires related to the importance of interaction in MOOCs. It consists of 35 items for students

questionnaire and 19 items for the instructors’ questionnaire. The second section of the questionnaires had

items about satisfaction with general interactivity in MOOCs. At the end of the questionnaires, one question

about any comments of interaction in MOOCs is included.

Participants

The online questionnaires were sent be e-mail to a sample of students and instructors of MOOCs with a

consent form seeking their permission for participation in this study and assuring them of the confidentiality of

their responses. The e-mail included information about the purpose of study as well as the URL to the survey

site. 250 students who received the e-mail request, 48 completed the survey (19%) and 40 MOOCs instructors

who received the e-mail request, 11 completed the survey (28%).

Data Collection and Analysis

The data were stored automatically in the hosted online survey service into two separate databases

(students and instructors responses) after submission of the responses. Descriptive data analyses (such as

average) were conducted using the data analysis tool provided.


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Results and Findings of the Survey

Research question 1: How do students and instructors perceive interaction in their MOOCs?

a. Students’ Perception of Online Interaction

Thirty-five questions in the students’ questionnaire asked to measure the importance of interaction in

MOOCs. As mentioned before Salmon’s model suggests many criteria as effective e-moderating techniques

within her five-step model of interactivity. The scales of one to four represented one as “Very Important” and

four as “Not Important”. Table 1 presented the results of importance scale of the five step model.

Table 1

Students’ Perception of Interaction in MOOCs.

Steps of interaction Average of importance

Access and motivation 1.96

Online socialization 1.8

Information exchange 2.56

Knowledge construction 2.72

Development 1.92

Overall interaction 2.20

Access and motivation. Students rated the importance this criteria as important (average = 1.96). They

pointed out the importance of easily starting the course and feeling “welcomed” and received proper guidance

and clear information about the purpose of the MOOC. However, many students who pointed out the

importance of this criteria, commented negatively to the availability of many items in their MOOCs. Some of

them reported the lack of guidance and clear information provided by their MOOC instructor. One wrote “One

week the instructor is telling us we don't need to do math to do science and then the next week the one quiz is

ALL math. Not very clear”. Other students commented negatively to the usability of their MOOCs, one of them

reported “It is crucial to find two things quickly: (1) Course Content; (2) Students with similar

problems/questions/courses”. Another one wrote “This is important, but not followed through on as I have

questions on how to submit some of my material”. In addition, one of the students responded negatively to the

availability of welcoming new participants by the instructors, he wrote “Dude, It is important, but the people

that joined late didn’t even get welcomed by the staff members, they got welcomed by us other students and

there questions got answered by us”. Another student suffered about lack of technical help, he reported “Very

important but not supplied”.

Online socialization. Salmon (2001) suggested that online socialization and the creation of interactivity

are vital to the success of online courses. The course design should empower online students to interact

formally and informally and allow them to discuss course content in a comfortable environment. Students rated

the importance of this criteria as important (average = 1.8). They pointed out the importance of communication

and socialization in MOOCs. They reported that social interaction in MOOCs enhance their own knowledge

and increase their personal learning network. Nevertheless, some items in this criteria were scaled as less

important. For instance, students rated the item “MOOC environment provided me with a sense of confidence in

discussing unfamiliar topics” as less important. One of students who rated this item as less important wrote

“Don’t really think the environment has much to do with it, more a matter of personality”. In the same way,

other students rated the importance of the item “Students’ introduction of themselves was helpful in interaction


633

during the MOOC” as rather bad. One of them reported “This is not important to me. I notice the people that I

want to know what they are doing and can easily send them private message if I want to know their background,

etc.”, another student who perceive this item as less important wrote “Not important, there are too many

people”.

Information exchange. Salmon (2001) suggested that a well-designed online course should begin with

information focusing on the course objectives. This stage serves as an orientation to the course. Students learns

where to find or get to access information relevant to the course. Also, the instructor can provide frequently

asked questions to ease some of the unnecessary communication students rated the importance of this criteria as

less important (average = 2.56). One of them wrote “This wasn’t necessary for the instructor to give any

instructions”.

Knowledge construction. Salmon (2001) suggested that students should get assistance for online

discussion (e.g., how to use the most relevant content material). Also, she suggested that creating relevant

exercises could promote critical thinking for students in online discussion. Students rated the importance of

criteria in this step as less important (average = 2.72). One of the students who rated this item as less important

commented “It is not important, I did not join a group”. In the same way, some students rated the item of

providing the instructor incentive to put the necessary time and effort into online discussionas less important.

One of them reported “The necessary time varies massively among different students. The best thing is to

neither encourage nor discourage the students to spend time with online discussions”. Another student wrote

“This is a personal thing, there is no incentive they can provide”. Also, students rated the regularly monitoring

of the discussion by the instructor as not important: “Students have to monitor their discussions. The only

intervention should come when they exchange solutions or the vast majority of them has technical problems”

and “Not important, the teachers aid was monitoring the groups”. Finally, the importance of posting discussion

topics by the instructor on a regular bases (i.e., weekly) to encourage communication is rated as less importance.

One student commented “Again not important. If there are worthy discussion topics then they are a natural

side effect of doing the course. The instructors do not need to facilitate this”.

Development. Students rated the importance of this criteria as important (average = 1.92). They pointed

out the importance of using the information provided to construct their own meaning based on their

interpretation, past experiences and knowledge. However, some students negatively responded to the

availability of some items. For example, they reported the lack of giving students the opportunity to lead the

online discussions. One of them wrote “it is important, but it is not given”.

Overall, students perceived interaction in general as important. They rated the importance of five-step

model of interactivity in MOOCs as important (average = 2.20).

b. Instructors’ Perception of Online Interaction

Instructors were asked to respond to 28 items in the questionnaire to measure the importance of interaction

in MOOCs. Criteria designed based on Salmon’s interactivity model. The scales of one to four in “Importance”

section represented one as “Very Important” and four as “Not Important“. Table 2 presented the results of these

items from the most important to the lest important.

Nearly half of the criteria that were suggested by Salmon’s interactivity model were rated by instructors as

less important for MOOCs. The first 15 items on Salmon interactivity model received very important or

important. But, instructors perceive the overall interaction in MOOCs as important (average = 2.18). One of


634

instructors who rated interaction in MOOCs as important commented “The emphases on two-way

communications I think are the most important things. When students get involved in discussing with each other,

talking and arguing and that’s where the learning is”. Another instructor reported “the best instructors are

those that enjoy intense interaction with their students”.

Table 2

Instructors’ Perception of Interaction in MOOCs

Items of interactivity Average of

importance

Offering a user-friendly MOOC site. 1

Creating a sense of community in the MOOC 1.3

Providing opportunity to students to interact by email, social networks, or online discussion 1.35

Providing a sense of community through online discussion. 1.35

Offering structured exercises and activities 1.6

Providing frequently asked questions or other information to ease unnecessary communication. 1.65

Providing an environment with a sense of confidence to encourage students in discussing unfamiliar topics 1.65

Encouraging interaction through online discussion. 1.6

Giving students the opportunity to lead the online discussions. 1.7

Describing clearly the MOOC objectives and the requirements during the first session. 1.8

Providing links to suitable sites to stimulate online discussions. 1.8

Greeting students before the first Lecture 1.85

Contributions to the online discussion by majority of the students. 1.85

Providing guidance to the students and explains necessary steps to succeed in MOOC. 2.2

Providing opportunities for students to participate in a group class project. 2.46

Providing a sense of community through online group project(s). 2.55

Monitoring the discussion regularly. 2.64

Assigning assignments/activities to help the online discussion. 2.72

Posting regularly (i.e., weekly) discussion topics to encourage communication. 2.72

Ensuring students can send and receive online messages as soon as they are online. 2.82

Providing practical ways of sharing information online. 2.82

Providing direction for online discussion. 2..82

Providing incentive (i.e., points) to the students to put the necessary time and effort into online discussions. 3.26

Preventing the domination of a few students in the online discussions. 3.4

Offering advice and 'tips' for developing online skills. 3.4

Offering access to the permanent records of discussion to students. 3.62

Providing technical help in a variety of formats (online, phone, etc.). 3.82

Summarizing online discussions at the conclusion of each discussion. 3.82

Over all interaction 2.18

Research Question 2: How satisfied are students and instructors with the interaction in MOOCs?

a. Students Satisfaction of Interaction in MOOCS

Students were asked to respond to “How satisfied are you with the level of interaction in MOOCs?”.

Sixty-five percent of them reported that they either very satisfied (21%) or satisfied (44%) with the level of

interaction in their MOOCs. Figure 1 presented the results of Students’ Satisfaction with the Level of

Interaction in MOOCs.


635

Figure 1. Students’ satisfaction with the Level of Interaction in MOOCs.

Many of the comments that students provided about Interaction in MOOCs were about their satisfaction

with the MOOC they participated. One of the students wrote “The MOOC I had was a great class, it was

manageable, and I would definitely take another MOOC”. Another satisfied student reported that “I was

completely satisfied with that—I enjoy working with my course mates”.

Nevertheless, 29% of the students expressed their less satisfaction of interaction in MOOCs, one of less

satisfied students indicated the need to structure discussion forums. He suggested: “The discussion forums

should be more structured. I know its difficult with so many students, especially when nobody is paying

attention to the instructions. But there must be a way to do this. The forums are mostly being used to express

the views and its so chaotic with everyone trying to explain there point of view, as if everyone has gone mad

(imagine thousands of people talking in a hall). I am not against that, everybody has a right to express but

there should be allocated place to address questions directly related to the lectures”.

In addition, 6% reported that they were not satisfied with the level of interaction in MOOCs. Many of the

dissatisfied students pointed to lack of instructor interaction as measure of dissatisfaction and even suggested

that “The teacher that taught the course had absolutely no interaction with students, no reply to posts, or

e-mails. I didn’t get anything from announcements until the 2nd or 3rd week of class. It’s my believe that the

teacher must have some interaction with the class. I think that MOOC interaction needs drastic reorganizing to

be made effective”. In the same way, another student confirmed his dissatisfaction due to the lack of instructors’

interaction. He said “This was my first one and I found it a great way to learn. I have signed up for two more

MOOCs. One thing about this course, there were no instructor interaction”. Another dissatisfied student

pointed out that his dissatisfaction of interaction in MOOCs based on the problem that he doesn’t know how to

use interaction tools. He commented “I have no idea about using social network like face book, twitter that

makes me unable to submit some activities and assignments. For instance, the instructors asked to use some

social networks to complete assignment It’s very frustrating as I couldn’t do my home work. As far as my

professors know, I am not doing my homework! One of the professors commented that some of my

fellow-students are ‘native’ to the age of this technology while older students [including myself] are

‘immigrants’. Perhaps so, but immigrants build great nations once they are up and running”.

0%

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15%

20%

25%

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35%

40%

45%

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Very satisfied satisfied less satisfied not satisfied


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b. Instructor Satisfaction With Online Interaction

Instructors were asked to respond that they were “Very Satisfied”, “Satisfied”, “Less Satisfied”, or “Not

Satisfied” when asked “How satisfied are you with the level of interaction in your MOOC?”. Eighty-two

percent of them reported that they either very satisfied (55%) or satisfied (27%) with the level of interactivity in

their MOOCs. Figure 2 presented the results of Instructors’ satisfaction with the level of Interaction in MOOCs.

Figure 2. Instructors’ satisfaction with the level of Interaction in MOOCs.

Most of the comments that instructors provided about interaction in MOOCs reported their satisfaction

with the interaction of MOOC they have given. One of the instructors expressed his satisfaction with the level

of interactivity in MOOCs: “What I try to do every day is to respond students’ discussions and I find those

usually work pretty well”. Another satisfied instructor pointed out that “I find I am very ‘close’ to my on-line

students through weekly discussion posts and shared lectures (everyone has access and can comment, etc.)”.

Only 18% reported that they were less satisfied with interaction in MOOCs. One of the dissatisfied

instructors reported that a lack of time, prevented him from achieving a high level of interactivity in his MOOC

with that big number of students. He suggested: “Although interaction is one of leading factors in a successful

online learning, it is impossible to have ‘substantive’ interaction in MOOCs with that massive number of

students. For example, in the case of a MOOC with 50,000 students, if each student only received 1 minute of

an instructor’s time, and the instructor taught for 8 hours per day, it would take 104 days to interact with every

student”. Finally it is remarkable that there is no dissatisfied instructors concerning interaction in MOOCs.

Discussions

Firstly, students and instructors perception of interaction in MOOCs: Salmon’s interactivity model was

used as a bases for creating interactivity criteria for online courses. Salmon’s model proposed effective

e-moderating in five discrete steps (Access and Motivation, Online Socialization, Information Exchange,

Knowledge Construction, and Development). Students were asked to respond to 35 items of interactivity

designed based on Salmon’s interactivity model. Students rated the importance of interaction in MOOCs as

important. However, they reported negatively to the availability for various interactivity items suggested by

Salmon. It can be reasoned that instructors were not familiar with these moderating techniques and

0%

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60%

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637

consequently did not employ them in their MOOCs. On the other hand, Instructors also were asked to respond

to 28 items based on Salmon’s interactivity model to measure the importance from their perspective. The result

of instructors’ survey revealed that they perceived nearly half of these items as less important for student.

Consequently these items were unavailable in their MOOCs.

Secondly, students and instructors satisfaction of interaction in MOOCs: Students rated their level of

satisfaction in MOOCs as satisfied. Some of them commented that they would very likely to enroll to other

MOOCs. Nevertheless, 35% of students stated their level of satisfaction in MOOCs as less satisfied or not

satisfied. Most of them reported their dissatisfaction due to the lack of instructor interaction. On the other hand,

instructors rated a high level of satisfaction of interaction in their MOOCs. However, they reported that there is

alack of interaction between students and instructors. They revealed this lack of interaction to the huge number

of students, the thing that makes it is impossible for instructor to interact with this huge number of students.

As discussed above, there is a gab between students’ perception and instructors perception of interaction in

MOOCs, Students perceived many criteria of interactivity as important, but they reported negatively to the

availability of these criteria. On the other hand, instructors perceived nearly half of the interactivity criteria as

less important. So, they didn’t offer these criteria in their MOOCs. In addition, there is another gab between

students’ satisfaction and instructors satisfaction of interaction in MOOCs. Instructors were very satisfied

although, they reported that there is alack of instructor to student interaction. They suggested that it is

impossible for MOOCs instructors to interact with the big number ofstudents in MOOCs. While, 35% of

students are not satisfied because of lack of instructor interaction, and they ask for more instructor interaction.

Consequently, some techniques and strategies should be taken by instructors to enhance their interaction with

students and make MOOCs students more satisfied.

Conclusion

Because online students and instructors have the most immediate experience with interaction in MOOCs,

it is important to assess their perceptions of this method of teaching and learning. The current study was

designed to assess the perceptions and satisfaction of online students and instructors about the importance of

interaction in their MOOCs. Two web-based surveys were used to collect data. The surveys revealed that there

is a gab between students perception and satisfaction of interaction in MOOCs on one hand and instructors

perception and satisfaction on the other hand. Students perceived interaction in MOOCs as important, how ever

they reported negatively to the availability of many criteria of interaction. Whereas, Instructors perceived

nearly half of interactivity criteria as less important. Consequently, many of interactivity criteria weren’t

available in MOOCs. In the same way, students rated their satisfaction of interaction as satisfied. How ever

35% of them were not satisfied of interaction in MOOCs. They reported their dissatisfaction to the lack of

instructor interaction. On the other hand, instructors rated their satisfaction of interaction in MOOCs as very

satisfied. They believed they are working well, although they reported that there is alack of “instructor to

student” interaction. They suggested that this lack of interaction due to the big number of students and it is

impossible for MOOCs instructors to interact with ten thousands of students in MOOCs.

Consequently, Some techniques should be used to enhance “student to instructor” interaction and make

students more satisfied. For example, Instructors can offer trained teaching assistants (TAs) in their MOOCs.

As long as, it is impossible for instructors to interact with this huge number of students, TAs can assist the

instructor to interact with students. TAs help students who can’t complete tasks, they can answer students


638

questions, provide their advices if students have technical problems, post some discussion topics, monitor the

discussion forum on a regular basis, and they can filter out questions that need an instructor response. In

addition, Instructors can use also peer-based rather than computer-based assessment to make MOOCs more

interactive, it has been shown that students are willing to step in and help others Peer assessment is a key

challenge in the delivery of MOOCs. Coursera also acknowledges that “In many courses, the most meaningful

assignments do not lend themselves easily to automated grading by a computer”. Peer assessments in Coursera

leverage a “grading rubric” to help students to assess others reliably and provide useful feedback. Cronenweth

(2012) pointed out that peer assessment process is a useful form of learning for students. In addition, Wong

(2013) stated that peer assessment process does a good job of exposing students to someone else’s work. “That

is where the learning is at”. Using the previous techniques will enhance interaction and make students more

satisfied of interaction in MOOCs.

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doi: 10.17265/2160-6579/2015.12.004

“New” Translations of Japanese Literature: Socio-cultural

Impacts on the Japanese Mind*

Atsuko Hayakawa

Tsuda College, Tokyo, Japan

In terms of translation theory today, the essential discussions of “otherness”, coupled with the agenda of bilateral

approaches to its untranslatability, are much more intense than ever. The stereotypical images of Japan as

something quite alien yet enchanting in Japanese literature, in The Tale of Genji for instance, are drastically

different from those in modern novels, where the experience of conflicts with the West in the course of

modernization could not be ignored. Shusaku Endo’s Silence for example, paradoxically questions the

translatability of Christianity in the historical context of the Japanese mind. By reading some translated texts of

Japanese literature, we come to be aware of the essential factors of “otherness” inherent in Japanese culture and

language which, in some socio-cultural ways, has had an interesting effect on Japanese minds. With the growing

interest in “world literature,” “otherness” and “untranslatability” illuminated in the translations of Japanese

literature offer a new perspective with which we can re-think our sense of history of modernization on the one hand;

and re-evaluate the uniqueness of Japanese language on the other. The remarkable influence of translators whose

mother tongue is not Japanese, but who have an excellent command of the language, enables a new Japanese

culture to emerge. This is evident in the works of Arthur Binard, an American poet and translator, who

enthusiastically criticizes the Japanese policy of atomic energy in his translations of the Japanese poems after

World War II, and in the very inspiring essays on Japanese by Roger Pulvers, an Australian writer and playwright

who won prizes for his translations of Kenji Miyazawa. Along with such new trend of translations of Japanese

literature, how it affects the Japanese mind will be discussed.

Keywords: translation of Japanese literature, Orientalism, “otherness”, modernization, world literature, translation

studies

Focus on “World Literature” in Japan Today

In March 2015 the newly established forum with a very big name “Cross-lingual Network of World

Literature” (CLNE)1 held its second conference in Tokyo where very energetic academics not only of literature

but also of cultural studies and translation studies had evocative discussions on various topics such as

“Nationalism in the South African Literature under Apartheid” to “Polish-Jewish Identity of Writers in Exile”

* This paper is based on my presentation at British Association for Japanese Studies Annual Conference 2015, at SOAS,

University of London, on 11 September 2015, in the panel session “The Current Status of Translation Studies in Japan—The

Perspective of Literary Translation Research”.

Atsuko Hayakawa, Professor, English Department, Tsuda College. 1 CLNE (Cross-lingual Network of World Literature) is a network of the academics of foreign languages and literature in Japan

established in 2014. One of the most important and unique characteristics is the idea to exchange views and opinions between the

scholars beyond boundaries of various languages.

DAVID PUBLISHING

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“NEW” TRANSLATIONS OF JAPANESE LITERATURE

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attracted audiences of all ages. One of the panel sessions was on “Translation”. It was amazing that the

presentations concerned primarily the problems of translations in Japan—both from and into Japanese—in

historical context. Among them, “Translation and Adaptation of Japanese Theatre into Chinese in Edo Period”,

and “How was the Modernization in Japan Made Possible in Meiji-Period?” were the examples focused on

what Translation Studies (TS) could have dealt with in the context of “foreignization/domestication” of other

cultures. As has been often referred to Lawrence Venuti’s term, these two polarities of foreignization vs.

domestication in translation clearly put a border between source text (ST) and target one (TT). Historical

background of Japan as an alienated country cut off from the rest of the world by the national policy of closing

the country for centuries until the late 19th century had obviously affected the development of Japanese culture

and literature as something unique and different. TS eventually seems to illuminate the way how Japanese

literature has changed after Japan came to open the country to the world, when great many “others” rushed into

the small country through translations.

On the other hand, in the wider arena of “world literature” (following Wolfgang von Goethe’s famous

manifesto that motivated translations, according to TS2), “otherness” of Japanese literature was highly

appreciated as in the case of The Tale of Genji. The translator’s perception of “otherness” was crucial when

evaluating TT as a reflection of ST from a different culture. Historically speaking, many people consider The

Tale of Genji representative of translated Japanese literature: The translation of an exotic far-east culture whose

“otherness” enraptured the Western mind. It happened once with Arthur Welly’s translation, with a kind of

Victorian tonality, and later with Edward Seidensticker’s modernistic consciousness of human mind that

reflects upon the nostalgic lost time. In this sense, Japanese literature in translation as TT was read and

appreciated in the similar vein with “Orientalism”.

From a Country of “Orientalism” to a Modern Nation

With the social and cultural turn activated by translations inevitably necessary for Japan to be an opened

country at the time of new period called Meiji Restoration in the 19th century, the Japanese psyche was shifting

from traditional, culture-based identity toward more individualistic, Westernized modernity. The Government

initiative of regarding Western society as superior, and its policy of “Datsua-nyuo” (leave Asia and join Europe)

had a lasting effect. It was in this context that “translation” of Western knowledge was highly appreciated

where the East meets the West as a completely different “other” came into the Japanese mind. Then, in

responding to its urgent need for the country to be a Modern Nation, Japan’s rapid adoption of Western culture

made the Japanese people turn their eyes to outside, to “others”, and to different ways of thinking. It was in this

turn that “so-called series of the world classics in translations were published, coupled with urgent urge to have

broader viewpoints and the Western ideology of liberal-art’ agenda” (Ikezawa, 2015, p. 15). Introducing ideas

of “identity” explored in bildungsroman for example, literature in the West awakened the Japanese readers to

self-consciousness as an individual.

Japanese literature obviously showed the thematic concern with the problem of “selfhood”, facing “others”

in different cultures. Soseki Natsume (1867-1916), for example, expressed his acute anxiety when facing

European culture when he was studying in London. Though being a very able teacher of English himself, sense

2 History of Translation Studies and its relation with literary criticism have been discussed in Honyakuron towa Nanika: Honyaku

ga Hiraku Aratana Seiki (What is translation studies?: A new horizon of translation), the author’s research project published in

2013.


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of alienation overshowed his life thereafter, whose unsolved dilemma of being an outsider as Japanese even

when he was back in his mother country was put in the centre of his fictions.

One of the Catholic writers often referred to as “Japanese Graham Greene”, Shusaku Endo (1923-96) in

the next generation, also grappled with his dialectic conflict between “otherness” and “self” deeply rooted in

his experience of being away from his mother country Japan when he was in France in his young days. Along

with his consciousness of being an outsider both to Japanese and the Western cultures, his inner quest as a

Christian writer could not but lead him to the fundamental question how the Japanese mind could accommodate

itself to the ultimate “other”, Christian God in the West. His well-known novel Chinmoku (1966, Silence)

focuses on the conflict in the Japanese mind when Christianity was encountered; the struggle between the West

and the East, Christianity and Japanese traditional culture, and God’s silence and human faith. Rodrigues, a

young Portuguese Catholic missionary in the 17th century Japan when Christianity was prohibited by the

Japanese government at that time, endured the painful experience of witnessing the severe persecution of

Japanese Christians. His inner conflict culminates in his decision to trample on “fumie” (images of Christ on

which suspected Christians were required to step to prove they did not follow the religion) at which point he

eventually hears the voice of God beyond silence. Rodrigues’ reflective view becomes a kind of prism through

which to view Japan as “other”, and his world of Western “self” had to be discarded when he apostatized. In

this complex perspective, the paradoxical relation between “otherness” and the original “selfhood” is vividly

illustrated. In this sense, Endo’s challenge in Chinmoku is not concerned only with his personal dilemma but

also with what the Japanese mind had to face in the process of modernization. It is actually very interesting to

learn that the translations of this novel in English and French have been widely read and “universality” rather

than “uniqueness” of human nature explored in this novel was highly appreciated3.

After the World War II: Another Turn

In terms of TS, the rapid shift from the isolated country with unique traditional identity to a modern nation

facing “others” via translations urged Japanese mind to make a new challenge to re-discover inherent

“translatability” by overturning what apparently seemed to be “untranslatable”. In other words, like the attempt

Endo seriously made, Japanese writers became to be more consciously looking Japan from objective

viewpoints from which they try to translate her into the language of others in a metaphorical sense of the

meaning. Especially after the end of the Second World War when Japan was forced completely to be a

democratic nation, “the trial of the foreign”4 cannot be out of scope for those who are engaged in humanities.

Japan is not an isolated island any more but closely connected to the global network.

Kenzaburo Oe (1935- ), one of the most conscious writers of Japanese and its history, was awarded the

Nobel Prize in Literature (1994) nearly three decades after Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) had the same honor

in 1968. The sharp contrast between these eminent Japanese writers seems to reflect such drastic turn after

3 It is quite interesting to know that the English translator of Endo’s novels, Michel Gallegher who was teaching Japanese

literature at the University of John Caroll in the U.S., points out that the thematic concern of “the marginal against the power”

could be found in Endo’s works which has made them universally appreciated (cited in Van C. Gessel, et al., Silence and Voices:

The Writings of Shusaku Endo, 1994, 45).

In Endo’s context, it is always “the marginal” facing the great “other” with power that suffer and need to think deeply on

existential questions of selfhood. In this sense, Chinmoku can be read as a novel of universal human dilemma as well as a unique

historical fiction with specific Japanese background. 4 The term is from the title of Antoine Berman’s book on translation, L’epreuve de l’etranger (Paris: Galliard,1984), cited in

Lawrence Venuti (2004) as Translation and the Trials of the Foreign.


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WWII in which “element of untranslatability” which used to be highly appreciated as Japanese uniqueness has

been taken its place by “translatability” to be shared with the rest of the world on the common ground. As for

Oe, how to pinpoint the problems and experiences of Japan in Japanese language, while making them

universally comprehensible, seems to be his mission as a writer today. His consciousness is clearly expressed in

his acceptance speech of the Nobel Prize entitled Japan, the Ambiguous, and Myself. Referring to Kawabata’s

speech Japan, the Beautiful and Myself, Oe points out that “Kawabata talked about a unique kind of mysticism”

whose uniqueness Oe means “a tendency towards Zen Buddhism”. He continues:

Even as a twentieth-century writer Kawabata depicts his state of mind in terms of the poems written by medieval Zen

monks. Most of these poems are concerned with the linguistic impossibility of telling truth. According to such poems are

confined within their closed shells. The readers can not expect that words will ever come out of these poems and get

through to us. One can never understand or feel sympathetic towards these Zen poems except by giving oneself up and

willingly penetrating into the closed shells of those words. (The Nobel Speech, 1995)

While attributing Kawabata’s “Japanese” uniqueness as a writer to his sense of “belonging to the tradition

of Zen philosophy and aesthetic sensibilities pervading the classical literature of the Orient”, Oe “feel[s] more

spiritual affinity with the Irish poet William Butler Yeats”, appreciating him whose “wake I [Oe] would like to

follow”. What Oe might find in Yeats with respect is a poet’s penetrating insight into the human history always

in perils of “insanity in enthusiasm of destruction”. He believes, “as someone living in the present world such

as this one and sharing bitter memories of the past imprinted on [his] mind”, that he is “one of the writers who

wish to create serious works of literature which dissociate themselves from those novels which are mere

reflections of the vast consumer cultures of Tokyo and the subcultures of the world at large”. So, he questions:

“What kind of identity as a Japanese should seek?”

To seek for the answers himself, Oe reconsiders Japan as “ambiguous”, quoting Kathleen Raine and said,

quoting George Orwell, on the other;

To define a desirable Japanese identity I would like to pick out the word “decent” which is among the adjectives that

George Orwell often used, along with words like “humane”, “sane” and “comely”, for the character types that he favoured.

This deceptively simple epithet may starkly set off and contrast with the word “ambiguous” used for my identification in

“Japan, the Ambiguous, and Myself”. There is a wide and ironical discrepancy between what the Japanese seem like when

viewed from outside and what they wish to look like. (Ibid.)

What should be noted here at the end is his consciousness of the “other” to look Japan from outside.

Looking back the process of modernization of Japan that results in “insanity in enthusiasm of destruction both

on its own soil and on that of the neighouring nations”, Oe hopes to “be of some use in a cure and

reconciliation of mankind”. His stance clearly shows another turn of Japanese mind after WWII from which a

new perspective to re/define “Japan” was offered. In other words, what had been left unsaid in the deep strata

of Japanese mind came up to the surface to be defined and “translated”, in the course of which “foreignization”

of such words as “insanity”, “reconciliation”, or “ambiguous” in Japanese language invites in effect the

inherent “otherness” that Japanese mind should comprehend. In return, once translated, its “translatability” is

also illuminated, letting Japanese literature go forward into the arena of world literature.

Natsuki Ikezawa (1945- ), a Japanese writer and a poet, who produced Sekai Bungaku Zenshu (30 volumes,

2007-11, Collected World Literature) re-defined “world literature” as “qualified literature that enables readers

to understand not the nation of its origin, but the whole world itself” (Ikezawa, 2015, p. 20). In this respect, we


644

can say that uniqueness of each piece comes not from its national traits but from the way how universality from

different perspectives is expressed, namely, in a “translatable” way beyond “untranslatability”. Sharing with Oe

the sense of identity of being a writer of post-war era, Ikezawa eventually selected for the collection those

writers after WWII, for the world itself drastically changed and their literature was the very response to such

seemingly “untranslatable” upheaval. In order to make sense of the world, they needed new language of

“translatability”. With this, “era of national literature from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century

came to an end” (Ikezawa, 2015, p. 19), and the paradigm-shift toward “new” world literature appeared.

Post-colonial, feminism, and so-called diaspora literature are the examples.

Now, in this new category of world literature, there are many Japanese writers who write with the

consciousness of translatability that their texts produce: among them, there appeared Haruki Murakami (1949- ),

Natsuki Ikezawa and Yoko Tawada (1960- ) whose works have been translated into many languages.

Importantly, rather than their themes and topics being translatable, the close relationship between their ideas

and language use consciously put in the core of their texts are. Murakami admits in his essay on translation that

“When writing in Japanese, I may have been trying to put Japanese, my mother tongue, in foreignization of an

imagined different language—say, foreignizing the familiarity of the Japanese language within my

unconsciousness—in the process of constructing sentences to make up a coherent whole as a novel” (Murakami,

1996, p. 283, author’s translation). Therefore, in his novels at least, we can find some space where “otherness”

can get into, to be translated and even to be welcomed. Murakami further says that “by way of being

transplanted into a different language system, the original world of my own creation would be able to be

re-read and be seen from a certain distance” (ibid, author’s translation). He feels somehow “rather relieved” to

find such space between ST and TT.

What should be emphasized here is that those writers on the list are all translators themselves who learn

“otherness” through translating. World literature written in Japan today owes more to such “new”

writers/translators rather than to the heritage of “Orientalism” in the past.

Japanese Language at Cross-roads: Crisis to Perish?

As has been discussed, modernization motivated the Japanese mind to be more conscious of cultural

“others” which accelerated interests in translation that eventually opened the ways to the potential world

literature in Japanese. However, another turn in the sphere of linguistic culture has been pointed out as serious

aspect of modern life. That is, Japanese language at crossroads, or, in crisis to “fall” or “perish”. Minae

Mizumura (1951- ), a bilingual writer writing in both English and Japanese, wrote a provocative essay on

Japanese entitled Nihongo ga Horobirutoki: Eigo no Seiki no nakade (2006, Fall of Japanese Language in the

Age of English). In the book, she says of her own novel using both languages5 that her intention was to reveal

the unequal balance of power between English, a dominant language, and other languages. She also makes

clear the originality and uniqueness of Japanese language: its elusiveness, complex structure with three types of

letters, and its materiality (Mizumura, 2008, p. 119).

This is “otherness”, and untranslatability of Japanese language. However, as she points out in the book,

with the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, Japanese as language is falling (perishing)6, being changed into a

5 Shi-shosetsu from Left to Right (An I-novel from Left to Right) 1995. 6 Mizumura uses the English word “fall” in her essay, but it seems to be more appropriate to put it as “perish” when the nuance of

what she implies is considered..


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different form as sign. The shared Internet culture dominates the uniqueness, changing language as something

through which bilateral translation with “otherness” is made possible into one-way transmission of signs in

mass media as information. The more the words are simplified as signs of information, the more difficult it

becomes to contemplate on the questions of life without answers. And so, people’s minds are more inclined

towards getting information by Google, rather than reading between the lines of literature or challenging

untranslatability of the others. What happens is that Japanese as national language is not consciously read or

written in the internet-society whose phenomenon she puts “falls” (perishes). These are Mizumura’s analysis on

what has happened to the Japanese language in modern life. Mizumura’s substantial essay with careful

consideration of Japanese language—difference between spoken and written Japanese, history of Japanese as

“national language”, theory of translation as a novelist, and so on—could not be so easily simplified as the title

signifies, but her anxiety signals that “Japanese” is now standing at cross-roads. To what extent her opinion

could be shared is not clear enough, but her book at least gave a certain impact to the conscious Japanese

readers at home.

New Approach: Re-evaluation

Then, is Japanese really falling or perishing? Another possibility could be noticed that “Japanese” has

been re-created and re-vitalized by those whose first language is not Japanese. As is often the case with writers

worldwide today, there are many who write excellent masterpieces in a language other than their native tongue.

Kazuo Ishiguro—a winner of the Booker Prize in the United Kingdom—Salman Rushdie, Nancy Houston, and

so on. In Japan, the names Roger Pulvers (1943- ) and Arthur Binard (1967- ) come to mind. Pulvers is a

talented polymath: writer, playwright and co-director of the film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. He is also a

translator of Kenji Miyazawa, and speaks seven languages fluently. Although his first language is English,

Pulvers’ inspiring essay on Japanese entitled Odorokubeki Nihongo (2013, published only in Japanese

translation, An Amazing Language) begins with his remark that Japanese is thought by the Japanese people to

be a kind of secret code which foreigners cannot understand:

The Japanese language has been thought of as a kind of exclusive code used the Japanese people. Foreigners could

learn to “decipher” this code, but the deeper meanings of the words—those words that gave voice to the kokoro (emotions)

of the Japanese minzoku (ethnicity)—were considered by most Japanese people to be beyond their grasp, just as beautiful

stones at the depths of a clear pond cannot be reached by those destined to remain on the edges of the pond. (Pulvers, 2014,

p. 6)

However, what Pulvers tries to prove in his book is the translatability of the “code”, analysing the cultural

context of how “untranslatability” affects the versatility of the Japanese language as its characteristic. As an

example, he explains how the untranslatable secret code is employed in “Haiku”, a traditional short-poem form

which is popular all over the world. He says:

Haikus comprise a single “sight-sound image”. You can see the pond and hear the splash of the frog jumping into it. It

describes an instant in time. I described haiku in another book as “re-designing of time and space within 17 syllables”. The

working principle in haiku is “the three abbreviations”: abbreviation of sight, abbreviation of sound and abbreviation of

time. In much of Japanese art—and Japanese communication—what is left out is more important than what is put in.

Japanese people, in art and life, are leaver-outers, not putter-inners. Leaving out is “suggestive and nuanced”; and the

Japanese people definitely use the three abbreviations when communicating with each other. (Pulvers, 2014, p. 141)

So, this tactic of abbreviation contributes to the very implicative nature of communications between


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Japanese people. It is a cultural phenomenon, and difficult for outsiders of that culture to grasp, and to translate

the implied meanings when the code is more sophisticated.

When his book was translated and published, it was surprisingly sold very well in Japan. Positive book

reviews appeared in the major papers, most of which highly appreciated the author’s insight into a language

which might have been considered intrinsically untranslatable. The book itself was evidence that the secret

code of Japanese language is, albeit opaquely, readable not only to outsiders but to Japanese readers who could

view the language they use from a different perspective. It is interesting that a translation of the book on their

own language could re-evaluate its own nature, by being a target text via translation by another’s view.

In responding to Pulvers’ proposal, to re-think Japanese not as a secret code “that foreigners cannot

fathom”, but a source of universal language in which untranslatability becomes translatable, readers are made

aware of the necessity to rethink the relations between the secret self, implied and nuanced, and the other

cultures, to be understood and shared in the name of globalization.

Another “spokesman” of Japanese, Arthur Binard, is an American poet who has been writing very

insightful poetry in Japanese. Tsuriagetewa (2001, Catch and Release), his collected poems in Japanese, won

the 6th Nakahara Chuya Prize, which proved his talent as a poet whose words are “multivocal, harbouring a

multiplicity of meanings that can be particularized only in precise linguistic contexts or social situations”7.

His writing career has been amazingly rich in “multivocal” ways; translations of Japanese classic poems

into English, also of English children’s picture books into Japanese, essays on social affairs, and so on. Always

with his excellent preface in perfect Japanese, his translations re-activate Japanese words in the new lights.

One of the most challenging works he so enthusiastically created is Koko ga Ie da: Ben Shahn no Daigo

Fukuryu-maru (2006, Here is our Home: Ben Shahn’s Lucky Dragon), a picture book with his Japanese text in

collaboration with Ben Shahn’s series of paintings of “Lucky Dragon”. The story is about the Japanese

fishermen who narrowly survived the nuclear test in the Bikini Atoll while fishing there in 1952, when the

Captain Aikichi Kuboyama’s tragic death immediately after his return home foretells what would be waiting in

the future. Binard’s challenge is to select himself the paintings of Ben Shahn and wrote text with a poet’s magic

and imagination to create a picture book which is both works of art and of criticism at the same time. By letting

the Lithuanian artist’s paintings speak in a different “language”, Binard successfully achieved foreignization of

the real story happened to the Japanese people, while re-activating and translating the word “home”, a word

quite familiar to the Japanese mind as something that evokes sense of security, into the one more threatening

and dangerous. It is a kind of paradox that foreignization and foregrounding as such more sharply illuminate the

real story concealed and untold in Japanese society. In this sense, Binard is an activist with a real critical

mind who accuses “insanity in enthusiasm of destruction”. His work as social criticism is followed by other

ones in the similar vein; Sagashite-imasu (2012, I’m looking for), a book of photographs of the survived

mementos of the atomic-bombing of Hiroshima with Binard’s Japanese text. He makes “things” speak as

narrator of each story on that day, August 6th 1945; a broken clock, atomic-bombed lunch-box, burnt cloth,

shadow of a human instantly printed on a stone by a moment of radiation, etc. Those voices make the book

itself a kind of historical record, turning untranslatability into translatability beyond time and space. Binard’s

tireless challenge is now extending to Fukushima nuclear disaster, which makes his “Japanese” a new kind of

political discourse.

7 Minoru Nakamura, cited in Catch and Release, p. 12.


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What should be emphasized at least is that these writers are creating a new style of Japanese, in their

foreignizing translations, translating fundamental “leaver-outer”—to use Pulvers’ term—culture back to the

Japanese readers’ consciousness. In this sense, a new arena of Japanese texts has been explored by “others”.

Along with these non-Japanese writers who have been re-activating and re-vitalizing Japanese, Natsuki

Ikezawa also made a new challenge, after having completed Collected World Literature series; he launched a

new project of Collected Japanese Literature series with the same volume of 30 books each of which has

translator. This time, the “translator’s task”8

is not to translate ST of foreign language into Japanese, but to

translate Japanese of ST into modern Japanese to make it a TT in the contemporary world. Ikezawa himself

translated the first volume, Kojiki (Record of ancient matters), one of the oldest literary writings in prose in the

early 8th century, into the language of the 21st century. The preface in the form of a letter to the original author

is itself a translator’s note, making his stance clear; how he dealt with untranslatability caused not only by the

language but by the cultural and social difference, and what he wanted to put at the core of the story in

translation for the readers today. So, readers can hear the voice not only of the author in the past but of the

translator in the present.

By this big project, Ikezawa makes two questions to readers; one is “What is Japanese?”, and “Who are

the Japanese people?” on the other. As for the former, readers are made aware of the language they use through

time and history, while as for the latter, they need to think again of their own identity as recipient of world

literature today. Bilateral relations between ST and TT are necessarily put into focus, stimulating readers to be

more conscious of the time they are living in. And so, Japanese as language will never fall nor perish.

Conclusive Statement: Translation as Motives to Create Culture

Along with world literature, translation studies have received much more attention due to the powerful

investigation of the nation’s history in which language inevitably affects people’s minds. From the perspective

offered by TS, Japan is a very interesting country where the interactions of language and the nation’s history

have been closely related through translation.

The remarkable upsurge of translations of Western knowledge in the rapid process of modernization of

Japan, and the influence of censorship after the war (the Japanese mind was translated by the others under the

scheme of censorship9) are the examples. And now, the “new” trend of cultural translation coupled with

re-evaluation of Japanese language continues apace. The study on “untranslatability” in the field of TS

encourages Japanese academia to be concerned with language of translation. With this turn, what had long been

hidden in the deep strata of Japanese culture—about which even the Japanese people had not been aware—has

been gradually revealed by way of translations. Translation is made possible only when “the other” comes into

the mind of a translator.

Facing many “others” in the time of globalization, the so-called Japanese mind has been challenged

socially, culturally, politically and ethically. The new translations are welcomed much more than before,

8 The term originally used in English translation of Walter Benjamin’s famous essay on “translation”, cited in Marcus Bullock

and Michael W.Jennings (Eds.), Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings Volume 1 1913-1926. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,

1996. 9 The drastic movement toward further modernization was urgently needed under the pressure of GHQ of the allied power after

the defeat of WWII. Under the strict political control, not only literature but also every printed materials were censored in Japan

under occupation. Details are discussed in Atsuko Hayakawa’s “Translation as Politics: The Translation of Sadako Kurihara’s

War Poems” in Traduction, Terminologie, Redaction. Vol. XXV, numero1, 1et semester 2012, pp.109-131.


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inviting foreigners to look into the pond and find the beautiful stones hidden in its depths.

Haruki Murakami’s speech entitled Always on the Side of the Egg for the Jerusalem Award in 2009 is

implicative:

I have only one reason to write novels, and that is to bring the dignity of the individual soul to the surface and shine a

light upon it. The purpose of a story is to sound an alarm, to keep a light trained on The System in order to prevent it from

tangling our souls in its web and demeaning them. I fully believe it is the novelist's job to keep trying to clarify the

uniqueness of each individual soul by writing stories—stories of life and death, stories of love, stories that make people cry

and quake with fear and shake with laughter. This is why we go on, day after day, concocting fictions with utter

seriousness. (Haarets, 19 Feb., 2009)

Though different in context, his words would be of some interest to writers, readers, translators, and to the

academics of TS living in the time of globalization.

References

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Volume 1 1913-1926 (pp. 253-263). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Berman, A. (2004). L’epreuve de l’etranger (Translation and the trials of the Foreign). In L. Venuti (Ed.), The Translation

Studies Reader (2nd ed). London and New York: Routledge.

Binard, A. (2002). Catch and release. Yamaguchi: International Publishing Institute.

Binard, A. (2006). Koko ga Ie da: Ben Shahn no Daigo Fukuryu-maru (Here is our home: Ben Shahn’s Lucky Dragon). Tokyo:

Shueisha.

Binard, A. (2012). Sagashite-imasu (I’m looking for). Tokyo: Doshinsha.

D’haen, T. (2012). The Routledge concise history of world literature. London and New York: Routledge.

Damrosch, D. (2003). What is world literature? Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Endo, Shusaku. Chinmoku (Silence). Tokyo: Shincho-sha, 1966.

Gessel, V. C. et al. (1994). Endo Shusaku and Shusaku Endo: Silence and voices: The writings of Shusaku Endo. Tokyo:

Shunju-sha.

Goethe, J. W. (1819). West-Ostlicher Divan. In A. Lefevere (Ed.), Translating literature: The German tradition from Luther to

Rosenzweig (pp. 35-39). Amsterdam: Van Gorcum.

Goethe, J. W. (1827). “On World Literature” from “Conversations with Eckermann”(1823-32). In D. Weissbort & A. Eysteinsson

(Eds.), Translation—Theory and practice: A historical reader (pp. 132-3). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Redaction (pp. 109-131).

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of translation). Tokyo: Sairyu-sha.

Ikezawa, N. (2007). Collected world literature. Tokyo: Kawade-shobo-shinsha.

Ikezawa, N. (2014). Collected Japanese literature. Tokyo: Kawade-shobo-shinsha.

Ikezawa, N. (2015). Ten great novels in the modern world. Tokyo: NHK Shuppan-shinsho.

Mizumura, M. (1995). Shi-shosetsu from left to right (An I-novel from Left to Right). Tokyo: Shincho-sha.

Mizumura, M. (2008). Nihongo ga Horobiru toki (The Fall of Japanese language in the age of English). Tokyo: Chikuma.

Murakami, H. (2009). Always on the side of the egg. Retrieved from

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/leisure/always-on-the-side-of-the-egg-1.270371

Murakami, H. (2015). Zatsu-bun-shu (Scribbling essays). Tokyo: Shin-cho-sha.

Numano, M. (2013). Shifting borders in contemporary Japanese literature: Toward a third vision. In K. Joachim (Ed.),

Approaches to world literature (pp. 147-166). Akademie Verlag.

Oe, K. (1995). Aimai na Nihon no Watashi (Japan, the ambiguous, and myself). Retrieved from

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1994/ oe-lecture.html

Pulvers, R. (2014). Odoroku-beki Nihongo (Japanese, an amazing language). Tokyo: Shueisha International.

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Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism: Western representations of the orient. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Sontag, S. (2003). The regarding the pain of others. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Venuti, L. (1992). Rethinking translation: Discourse, subjectivity, ideology. London and New York: Routledge.

Venuti, L. (1995). The translator’s invisibility: A history of translation. London and New York: Routledge.

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doi: 10.17265/2160-6579/2015.12.005

Women Bodies at Trial by Ordeal since

Christianity to Trier Movies

Sibel Kibar

Kastamonu University, Kastamonu, Turkey

In his Antichrist and Nymphomaniac, Lars von Trier seems to defy norms on sex and women’s desires. However he

actually reproduces Christianity’s perspective that women are sinful by their dispositions. According to the classical

creation story, Eve falls into temptation and then, convinces Adam to commit the same crime. All Abrahamic

religions but especially Christianity identifies women with the body and bodily desires, rather than the mind which

comes from nonmaterial and divine substance. Accordingly, women can easily be deceived by Satan since they contain

a lesser amount of mental substance compared to men. In Antichrist, Trier reiterates the story of Adam and Eve in a

different context. The woman writes her dissertation on women who are burnt with the accusation of being a witch.

But she realizes that her body is sinful and deserving of punishment, too. She finds her salvation when she cuts her

clitoris. In Nymphomaniac, the main character gets her clitoris whipped. While she resists traditional and bourgeois

morality, she defines herself as morally evil because of her unmanageable sexual desires. Thus, reputed as critical

of all social structures and morality, Trier in fact simply rehashes the classical sexist and misogynist perspective.

Keywords: Lars Von Trier, Nymphomaniac, Christianity, women’s bodies, witch trials

Introduction to Hostility against the Female Body

Although it is not known exactly when misogyny has started, bodies of women have been an issue of

curiosity and dread since the beginning. Women’s biological specialties which men do not have, such as

menstrual bleeding, multiple orgasms, procreation, and breastfeeding have rendered women as mysterious

creatures in the eyes of men. Ancient Greek texts very often exemplify this fear about the mystery of the female

body; for example, Ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras claims: “There is a good principle that created order,

light and man and a bad principle that created chaos, darkness and woman” (Pomeroy, 2013). Another Ancient

Greek philosopher, Aristotle says: “The female is female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities” (de Beauvoir,

2010, p. 25). Thus, women are positioned opposite of men, which are the symbol of brightness, goodness, and

rationality whereas women are identified by dusk, obscurity, irrationality and evil.

As it is well known, acquisition of property triggered domination of men over women, which have been

enduring for centuries, even today. Oppression of women and hatred towards women continue under different

guises even in so-called developed and civilized countries. Admittedly, the appearance of private property and

class society created gender discrimination and domination of men over women. However, economic reasons

are not adequate to account for the misogyny focused on the female body. In addition to class societies and

prevalent patriarchy, this hatred can be explained through the enigmatic bodies of women. This enigma or

Sibel Kibar, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Kastamonu University.

DAVID PUBLISHING

D

WOMEN BODIES AT TRIAL BY ORDEAL SINCE CHRISTIANITY TO TRIER MOVIES

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mystery has not been attempted to be solved and explained because of this fear; on the contrary, women’s body

and sexuality have been proclaimed as taboo and sin. Even science hesitated to explore this issue until the

second half of 20th century. The clitoris was mapped in 1998 whereas the first satellite was sent to space in

1957 and the first atomic bomb exploded in 1945 (Kolodny & Genuske, 2015). When research on sexuality

began in 1966—still too late compared to other scientific achievements—, it was harshly criticized not only by

churches but also academies.

In a modern world, sexuality is still a taboo even in Northern countries and the enigma of the woman’s

body and sexuality has not been entirely explored. In such a situation, Trier’s shooting a film on nymphomania

seems very valuable. In his Nymphomaniac, the director summarizes Western hypocrisy on sex through the

main character of the movie called Josephine or shortened as Joe, who is forced to attend to a sex addiction

therapy group. Joechastens the psychotherapist and other members of the therapy group. She accuses the

psychotherapist of being a society’s morality police since the therapy’s aim is to make all people alike and to

repress uncontrollable sexual desires and convert them in a permissible way. However, when this movie

Nymphomaniac is analyzed together with Trier’s former movie called Antichrist, we can clearly see that the

female body and sexuality are matched with sin in both. Tearing down sex taboos, Trier implies that women are

sinful by their disposition.

Therefore, the problem of misogyny is still waiting to be solved even in our century. To begin with, the

solution to the problem passes through the detection of the problem and uncovering hostile attitudes towards

women’s sexuality. Thus, in the paper, the Christian roots of misogyny are traced and a comparison is made

between Christianity’s comprehension of female bodies as sinful and Trier’s reflection. Today this hostility is

usually covered up with more nudity and pornographic images as seen in Trier’s example. Facing with this

example and revealing its primordial roots, we ought to know better our body and admire our sexual desires as

they are.

Trier: Breaking Taboos?

Lars von Trier is a contemporary avant-garde director, disturbing audiences by pushing boundaries,

questioning even basic norms and provoking political correctness. The author of the book called Lars von Trier,

Badley (2010) portrays him as the most “polarizing” figure of world cinema (p. 1). If we hastily review his

major films, his provoking stance can apparently be appreciated. Trier boldly shows what is unspoken and

invoiced on the big screen. For instance, in his Europa, he tells the situation of Germany after the Second

World War through the perspective of a Nazi woman. Nazis’ underground resistance after the War is actually

represented as a homeland defense against USA’s policies under the pretext of peace-building pass. While,

some authors such as Richolson claim that Trier attempts to show that there were no innocent Germans since all

were under the hypnotic influence of Nazism (1992, pp. 62-63), many years later in the 2011 Cannes Film

Festival, Trier admitted that he has sympathy for Hitler and Nazism. Although he later expressed his regrets

insisted that his joking words were misunderstood, he expelled from the Festival and got reactions from

audiences. However, Cündioğlu interprets a scene in Nymphomaniac as Trier’s defiance in which Joe yells that

she does not care about anyone and is against being politically correct (2014).

In his Breaking Waves, Trier speaks for a husband, who is paralyzed in an accident and convinces his wife

to have sex with other men. The husband thinks in the name of his wife, who has been raised in a very religious

and conservative environment, and intends to save her sexual vividness from the rigid constraints of society.


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Trier’s movies shot in the US, especially Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Manderlay harbor some

reservations on the presumption that human beings are essentially good by their dispositions. He shares Plato’s

view on democracy that the line between democracy and tyranny is indeed quite thin and vulnerable.

In all his movies including his last trilogy called Depression, Trier shows some extreme examples in

which the human condition comes before bourgeois morality. That is, he acknowledges human beings as

ambiguous subjects who are sometimes in conflict with themselves and societal morality. He refuses to

categorize what life brings to us as good and evil. Besides, he discards politically correct language. For instance,

in Nymphomaniac the main character Joe expresses her desire to have sex with a “negro”. Then, she is warned

by the other major character Selligmannot call black people as “negros”. Selligman reminds the importance of

political correctness as an indication of respect for minorities in democratic societies. But Joe disagrees with

him and claims that whenever she uses a politically incorrect word, she undermines the bases of a democratic

and cowardly society.

Admittedly, both Trier’s narration and his technique break ground. He defines himself as “the best director

of the World” (Peacock, 2012, p. 149). Some critics and audiences agree with him but some others have charge

him with being a Nazi, a misanthropist and misogynist especially following his trilogy, Depression composed

of Antichrist, Melancholia and Nymphomaniac. In my opinion, his movies like Europe, Dancer in the Dark,

Dogville and Manderlay force audiences to confront themselves and traditional moral values. Besides, they

leave room for choosing one’s own moral way while exposing societal hypocrisy. However, in his last trilogy,

all the doors are closed for any confession and moral choice. Although Nymphomaniac seems to be a story of

defiance, it is actually a confession and religious submission of wickedness.

Trier: Amoralist or Immoralist

Some authors, artists, and directors may claim that they have a right to hold an amoral position, which is

neither moral nor immoral but a stance lying outside the sphere of any morals and values. They usually call

themselves as “nihilist” and “existentialist”. But they are far from being a genuine existentialist and nihilist

artists instead; they just hide behind some existentialist and nihilist mottos in order to get rid of some

humanitarian responsibilities. According to Sartre’s existentialism, a person ought to live as if he/she is a model

for all humanity and taking on responsibility for all people.

… man is responsible for what he is. Thus, the first effect of existentialism is that it puts every man in possession of

himself as he is, and places the entire responsibility for his existence squarely upon his own shoulders. And, when we say

that man is responsible for himself, we do not mean that he is responsible only for his own individuality, but that he is

responsible for all men… When we say that man chooses himself, we do mean that every one of us must choose himself;

but by that we also mean that in choosing for himself he chooses for all men… Our responsibility is thus much greater than

we had supposed, for it concerns mankind as a whole. (Sartre, 1946, p. 68)

So, it is not even possible to claim that existentialism is an immoralist or amoralist philosophy; it is based

on the view that everyone ought to construct their own values instead of escaping their freedom by sheltering

religion or morality for themselves. Nietzschean nihilism is of course amoralist but this does not mean that it is

immoralist; that is, opposing to anything related with morals. Nietzsche himself is in a combat with all current

societal and Christian values since religion and morality conceal weakness, cowardliness and resentment.

What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself.

What is bad? Everything that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that


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resistance is overcome. Not contentedness but more power; not peace but war; not virtue but fitness. The weak

and the failures shall perish: first principle of our love of man. And they shall even be given every possible

assistance. What is more harmful than any vice? Active pity for all the failures and all the weak: Christianity

(Nietzsche, 1976, p. 570).

Trier seems to have a Nietzshean amoralist stance since he tries to show shockingly that what are

accepted as morally good behaviors actually cover some wicked intentions or weaknesses. For example,

ordinary people in Dogville, accept to help Grace who runs from gangster in the first place, but then when they

realize that she is needy and vulnerable, they begin to exploit her mercilessly. In this sense, Trier is very

talented since he shows us that what we call as human essence is indeed conditioned by what life brings. So,

moral templates do not usually fit into life and they are mostly artificial in front of the intricacy of life. Yet

some people try to hold moral norms tight to cover their impotence and vitiation. Trier has a presumption

exposed in several of his movies that the human being has a wicked inside which can be a viable argument

since benevolence and malignity are usually ideological categories. For example, motherhood has represented a

purified status in our age but in his movie Dancer in the Dark, Trier reflects a “selfish” blind mother on the big

screen.

Trier’s Nietzschean amoralist stance, avoiding any values either good or evil while driving audiences to

contemplate on what is good and what is evil is usually appreciated. However, his Depression trilogy, assumes

Christian guiltiness and sinfulness, which is just the opposite of the Nietszchean amoralist attitude. So, his

efforts to question what is good and to provoke our settled categories are very valuable. However, in Antichrist

and Nymphomaniac, he does these provocations on the basis of a Christian presupposition that all human

beings are sinful because of having a body and women are more sinning since they have less rational substance

and more material substance. Thus, his last movies pass beyond the recognition of self-interestedness or

wickedness which all human beings have owing to conditions. On the contrary, they ascribe this wickedness to

the essence of human beings.

Antichrist and Nymphomaniac

In Antichrist, while a woman and man (they have no name) are having sex and the woman is climaxing, at

that moment their little child, who is approximately three years old, climbs on the table while the window is

open and falls from the window. The woman indeed has seen that her child was climbing on the table and about

to fall down. However, she does not want to interrupt her orgasm. In the aftermath, she blames herself and is

depressed. Her husband is a therapist and tries to help her. She is skeptical of this therapy and tries to harm her

husband, too. Then she decides to go away from the therapy and moves to their chalet in a forest, called Eden.

In this wooden house, she had spent some time when she was writing a dissertation called “women genocide”

which was about witch hunting. Until this scene, the movie can be interpreted as a narration on a selfish mother

as in the Dancer in the Dark which tells us a story of a blind mother giving birth to a child knowing that the

child will be blind, too. However, after she comes to their so-called Eden garden, the director makes a reference

to witch hunting and relates her selfishness with Eve’s first sin. He reinterprets the story of Adam and Eve

through a deep Catholic perspective. According to the story, while Adam and Eve were living happily in

heaven, namely, Eden garden, Eve succumbed to worldly desires. She deceived Adam using her body and thus

caused their expulsion from heaven. Eve’s willingness to sacrifice heaven for the sake of bodily pleasures was

the first sin and this sinfulness has been inherited and continued by her female descendants. In this movie, the


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female character feels that she is going to destroy her husband too; in the end, she cuts her clitoris which ends

her sufferings and saves her from being a witch.

In Nymphomaniac, Trier repeats almost the same story: A woman, Josephine (or Joe) is married with a

man whom she actually loves and gives birth to a child. However, she does not have any warm feelings towards

her child. One day, she leaves both her husband and her child forever due to her sexual dissatisfaction despite

the fact that her husband is aware of her wife’s sexual hunger and leaves her free to have sex with others. While

her husband is so benevolent that he understands and lets her go, she behaves very brutishly. Besides, Joe lacks

understanding of herself. On the one side, she recognizes her nymphomania and resists society and bourgeois

morality. On the other hand, she feels guilty and sometimes defines herself as perverted and evil. Finally, she

has her vagina whipped in order to get rid of it. Joe discovers that she has been a nymphomaniac since her

childhood; so, no matter how much she tries to change herself, she will never change since she is a natural born

nymphomaniac. Unachievable satisfaction of pleasure is both a source of pride and shame for Joe. She never

accepts being labeled as a sex-addict because she claims that such labels are used by society as a means to hold

abnormal persons under control. Sometimes, she associates her nymphomania with a resistance to the order;

she thus smashes cars, has intercourse with her dad’s corpse, joins the mafia and tortures people to get their

money, gets beaten, is urinated on by her ex-husband, and so on. When she lives through all these, she

sometimes behaves in an arrogant way; sometimes she feels shame and repeats that she is a terrible human

being.

References to Christianity, Witch Hunting and Bourgeoisie Morality

In Christianity, the body is inherently sinful, even infants are blamed for the first sin inherited from Adam

and Eve which St. Augustine calls “original sin” (Couenhoven, 2005, p. 360). Consequently, even babies are

baptized in order to be freed from this original sin. God is an incorporeal being and is the unique source of

absolute mind and goodness. When a human being is detached from God and has acquired a corporal existence,

he or she immediately turns out to be a culpable being. An animalistic human body is prone to controlled by

Satan. Fortunately, human beings, unlike other animals, have minds and wills in addition to their physical

bodies, and through their mental faculties and with the help of their wills, they can have faith in God. However,

human beings’ bodies often impede them from going with God. The body always requires consumption and

annihilation. More consumption brings more desires for more and different things. Thus, according to

Christianity, rational human beings must stay away from their bodies for as long as and as much as possible.

Accordingly, a good Christian has to fast periodically with only bread and wine, have sex only for procreation,

close his/her eyes to worldly pleasures, all of which keep people from wickedness and evil (Ramsey, 1988, p.

60). To put a stop to the desires of the body and to prevent the body’s temptations are the duty of a strong will.

Since men are more rational than women, they can have stronger wills and so, they can stay away from some

desires and pleasure. However, women are weaker and less rational; thus, they can easily succumb to physical

needs. While they are in the grip of desire, they can deceive men and invite them to temptation. Therefore, the

only impediment to going with God is the human body, but when human beings die and dispense with the body,

they can reach God.

For Augustine, Adam and Eve originally would not have died, not because their bodies were not mortal,

but because their bodies were so united with their souls in union with God that death would have been

prevented. They would have had sexual intercourse and produced physical offspring. But this original sexual


655

intercourse would have been completely free of “concupiscence” or sexual lust. In Augustine’s words, Adam

would have performed sex as a rational act completely under the control of his mind, as a farmer sows a seed in

a field. Eve would have remained virginal in this intercourse and subsequent parturition, just as Mary remained

virginal in her impregnation by God and the birth of Jesus. But this lust free insemination and birth of offspring

never actually happened, because the creation of Eve was followed immediately by the fall of Adam and Eve

into sin. Eve took the 2 initiative in this choice to disobey God, because as a woman she had less rationality and

was closer to the bodily lower self and so was easily deceived by the tempting serpent. Adam, in Augustine’s

view, was not deceived but went along with Eve in an act of kindly companionship lest she be left alone

(Ruether, n.d., pp. 1-2).

Trier seems to be impressed by Augustine’s views on sex, women, and rationality. As mentioned in the

previous section, Antichrist replicates the story of the first human beings’ exile as a consequence of a sin for the

sake of an animalistic pleasure.

Women’s reproduction, menstrual cycles and complexity of sexual organs lie in the roots of this malicious

view of Christianity towards women. These malicious views are neither peculiar to nor the outcome of

Christianity; they have been rooted in a very remote history. Indeed, theorization of the split of mind from body

has originated in Plato and has been persisted in almost the whole history of philosophy.

With procreation, women literally create a new creature from nothing, which has been perceived as a

magical or divine facility. Moreover, men can die when they are bleeding because of a serious injury.

Nevertheless, women bleed every month but they do not die because of this menstrual bleeding (Houppert,

2004). Furthermore, sexual organs and sexual reactions of males can be easily seen but women’s sexual organs

have two complicated parts composed of layers. A large portion of it is inside and invisible through bare eyes.

The vagina looks like a dark and deep hole, which can pull bigger organs inside and bring out much more

bigger creatures, that is, babies. In addition to these, during the female orgasm, men sometimes may feel that

their penis is lost in this misty abyss.

Another fear, which is fear of so-called witchcraft, comes on the scene mainly around 15th century to 18th

century in Europe. Women have been responsible of gathering as a result of the first division of labor which

was obviously gender based. This led to an inclination of women to prepare some medicines and some healing

solutions or poisons. So, some women working with herbs are called witches, who are believed to have a power

“to call life and death” (In his movie Day of Wrath [Vredens Dag, 1943], another Danish Director Carl Theodor

Dreyer tells a story of witch hunting with its backgrounds in the seventeenth century Denmark. He uses the

term “to call life and death” for witches but in this movie, the director does not make explicit either a positive

or negative attitude towards witch hunting, either). Witch hunting actually first appeared in ancient Egypt and

Babylonia and is still found in India, Saharan Africa, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia and Cameroon.

In Antichrist and Nymphomaniac, we witness the endless desire of women. When the church began to lose

its power, it became more authoritarian and harsh towards some women incompatible with the church or

society. Thus, they were burned by the accusation of being a witch and entering the devil’s service. The witch

hunting is implicitly approved in Antichrist by von Trier. Antichrist as a word denotes the devil, which is

matched with the woman in the movie; conversely, Christ corresponds to the man since man carries a heavenly

substance whereas woman has an evil spirit. For this reason, women’s liberation from evil is possible only

through liberation from sexuality. In both movies, both female characters realize this truth after causing great

harm not only to others but also themselves, and they get rid of their sexual organs. In the former one, the


656

woman cuts her clitoris with a scissor and in the latter she has her vagina whipped. Thus, they find salvation by

destroying their sexuality.

Trierhas been applauded for these scenes, the disposal of the vagina and clitoris since he displayed the

nastiest taboos (Cündioğlu, 2014). If there were no apparent references to Christianity in his movies, we could

read these scenes as extreme stories of extreme individual characters or a relatively naive misogyny which can

be seen in Michael Haneke, Zeki Demirkubuz and Nuri Bilge Ceylan, too. Their naive misogyny can be

explained as hatred towards the cunning of women and their slave morality owing to their suppression.

However Trier avoids this reading by his obvious hatred of the vagina and clitoris.

Afterwards, we can conclude that instead of using hyper sexuality or sex addiction Trier has not chosen to

use the word nymphomaniac accidentally. Trier uses the word on purpose in order to underline women’s

obsession with intercourse since the “word” nymphomaniac denotes females’ excessive sexual drives. In the

mid-nineteenth century, nymphomania has been certified as a disease in which century kleptomania, alcoholism

and pyromania were also certified. The bourgeoisie which had completed its development had begun to draw

its own moral boundaries explicitly and to exclude those remained outside these limits, as criminal, insane,

diseased, and abnormal. However, excessive sexual desires in women cannot be compared to taking excessive

amount of alcohols, and unlike stealing something and starting fires, sexual drives of women do not harm

anyone. To determine the limits of what is normal and excessive or abnormal is rather ideological. Here again a

hypocritical attitude against women is apparent. Woman’s sexuality has been confined into the home; sexual

pleasure has been reduced to procreation and to make happy the husband. On the one side, women who cannot

be satisfied are labeled as “excessive” but on the other side, those who cannot make their husbands happy are

categorized as “frigid” (Groneman, 1994, pp. 337-367).

Conclusion

Trier, while positioning himself as opposed to morality and other social values, offers deeply rooted

misogyny wrapped in the guise of radicalism and pornography. Even though Trier undertakes a mission to

provoke, provocation does not always work against the current order. Order sometimes is fed by provocations

and provocateurs do often what order tells them to do. Bourgeois ideology imposes that human desires are

limitless and people can annihilate anything if they are given the opportunity. While Joe is climaxing, she

always wants more and tries to go to extremes which is not actually in opposition to bourgeois ideology; on the

contrary, it lies at the basis of it. According to Trier, a person always pursuing to be more heretical cannot be

created by a merciful God, but by Satan. Indeed, he claims that the world is not created by God, but Satan

(“Personal Quotes of Trier”). He makes the nameless woman character in Antichrist say the same phrase:

“Nature is Satan’s church”.

Nature is obviously neither a heaven nor a hell which is a home for all rational and irrational creatures and

for their good and bad deeds. Perceiving the body and bodily desires as insignificant and even inferior,

constitutes the essence of Roman Catholicism. In this respect, it is not difficult to share Trier’s claim that

human beings often succumbing to their desires and physical needs cannot take part from a divine or pure

mental substance. Fortunately, contemporary mind researches show that there is no distinction of this kind

between body and mind. Thus, we do not have to look at our body and vagina as a source of sin and wickedness.

On the contrary, we better grasp our bodily desires, sexuality and sexual organs as means of enriching

ourselves without separating our body from our mind.


657

References

Badley, L. (2010). Contemporary film directors: Lars von Trier. Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Couenhoven, J. (2005). St. Augustine’s doctrine of orginal sin. Augustinian Studies, 36(2), 359-396.

Cündioğlu, D. (2014). Nymphomaniac: Bir sinema delisinin öyküsü (Nymphomaniac: A tale of a man who is crazy about filming).

Retrieved December 12, 2014, from

http://ducanecundioglusimurggrubu.blogspot.com.tr/2014/04/nymphomaniac-bir-sinema-delisinin-oykusu.html

De Beauvoir, S. (2010). The second sex. New York: Vintage Books.

Dreyer, C. T. (1943). Day of wrath [Movie]. Denmark.

Groneman, C. (1994). Nymphomania: The historical construction of female sexuality. Signs, 19(2), 337-367.

Houppert, K. (2004). Lanet: Son tabuyla yüzleşme adet kanaması (The curse: Confronting the last unmentionable taboo:

Menstruation). İstanbul: Ayrıntı yay.

Kolodny, C., & Genuske, A. (2015). The Overdue, Under-told story of Clitoris. Retrieved December 18, 2015, from

http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/projects/cliteracy/intro

Nietzsche, F. (1976). The Antichrist. In W. Kaufmann (Ed.), The portable Nietzsche. New York: Penguin Books.

Peacock, S. (2012). A review of Linda Badley’s Lars von Trier. Studies in Popular Culture, 34(2), 149.

Personal Quotes of Trier. (2014). In Lars von Trier (Under the headline “Lars von Trier”). Retrieved February 15, 2015, from

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001885/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm#quotes

Pomeroy, S. B. (2013). Pythagorean woman: Their history and writings. Maryland: JHU Press.

Ramsey, P. (1988). Human sexuality in the history of redemption. The Journal of Religious Ethics, 16(1), 56-86.

Richolson, J. M. (1992). Review of Zentropa. Cinéaste, 19(2/3), 62-63.

Ruether, R. R. (n.d.). Women in creation, fall and redemption: The classical paradigm (unpublished paper). Retrieved from

http://esr.earlham.edu/sites/default/files/1Quaker.pdf

Sartre, J. P. (1996). Existentialism is a humanism. In R. Kearney and M. Rainwater (Eds.), The continental philosophy reader.

London and Newyork: Routledge.

Von Trier, L. (Director). (1991). Europa [Movie]. Denmark & Germany.

Von Trier, L. (Director). (1996). Breaking the waves [Movie]. Denmark & Sweden & France &Netherlands.

Von Trier, L. (Director). (2000). Dancer in the dark [Movie]. Denmark & USA.

Von Trier, L. (Director). (2003). Dogville [Movie]. Denmark & Germany.

Von Trier, L. (Director). (2005). Manderlay [Movie]. Denmark & Sweden.

Von Trier, L. (Director). (2009). Antichrist [Movie]. Denmark &Germany & France &Sweden.

Von Trier, L. (Director). (2011). Melancholia [Movie]. Denmark & Sweden & France & Germany.

Von Trier, L. (Director). (2013). Nymphomaniac I & II [Movie]. Denmark & Germany & Belgium & UK.

http://ducanecundioglusimurggrubu.blogspot.com.tr/2014/04/nymphomaniac-bir-sinema-delisinin-oykusu.html

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001885/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm#quotes


doi: 10.17265/2160-6579/2015.12.006

The Surname of Turkish Women: A Question of Identity?

Seldag Günes Peschke

Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey

After the foundation of Turkish Republic in1923, Turkish Civil Code which was codificated from Switzerland in

1926 was a new code for modern Turkey that aimed gender equality. Even if, there were some articles, contrary to

the equality of men and women, they were ignored when they were compared with the reforms performed in favor

of women. The surname of woman was one of the issues where there was gender discrimination. In the Civil Code

of 1926, it was stated that the married woman must have taken her husband’s surname after the official marriage

and she had to use it through her marriage life. In 1997, there was an amendment in TCC Article 153 that the

married woman had the right to register her maiden name in front of her husband’s surname which was also

accepted in the new TCC in Article 187 in 2002. As the equality of the spouses is neglected under Article 187,

many women are trying to change the current situation, by lawsuits. In this article, the regulations about the

surname, will be discussed under personality rights and identity, within the current legislation with some court

decisions from the last years in favor of women.

Keywords: surname, women, Turkish Civil Code, women rights, personality rights, identity, gender equality

Introduction

Social and political improvement, legal background are the most important factors for the development of

women rights in Turkey. Towards the end of the 19th century, the status of women began to be improved to

some extent. Turkish women played an important role, especially in the Turkey’s War of Independence. Within

the declaration of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the reforms of Atatürk gave Turkish women new rights and

opportunities. By these reforms, a new secular legal system was introduced that completely affected women,

marriage, and family relations.

The Codification Movement After the Republic

The reformation movement began with the modernization of the constitution, including the adaptation of

European laws which were based on Roman Law1. The new legal system made all citizens equal before the law,

the gender or the social status did not matter. By the codification of the Swiss Civil Code (ZGB) as Turkish

Seldag Günes Peschke, Ph.D., Professor, Head of Private Law, Faculty of Law, Yildirim Beyazit University. 1 Stein, 1999, p. 110; Sherman, 1917, p. 243; Williamson, 2008, p. 400; Schulz, 1946, p. 119; Roby, 2000, p. 75; Baumann, 1989,

p. 39; Jolowicz & Nicholas, 2008, p. 478; Towards the end of the 19th century, many European countries started to codify their

laws according to the new social and political changes in Europe. First codifications were completed by Denmark (1687) and

Sweden (1734). Later on, Prussia (1794), France (1804) and Austria (1811) adapted themselves to new legal systems. Later on,

Prussia (1794), France (1804) and Austria (1811) adapted themselves to new legal systems. It could be recognised that French law

and German law had common roots in Roman law. The French Civil Code was comprehensively accepted with some

modifications in the Netherlands (1838), Italy (1865), Romania (1865), Portugal (1867), Spain (1888), Germany (1900), and

Switzerland (1912).

DAVID PUBLISHING

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THE SURNAME OF TURKISH WOMEN: A QUESTION OF IDENTITY?

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Civil Code (TCC) in 1926, women’s situation before the law was improved according to the Ottoman times2.

The new Civil Code was a code of reforms for its age which abolished polygamy and recognized the

equal rights of women in divorce, custody, and inheritance. It created a priviledge for women beyond its era.

For that reason, some articles contrary to the equality of men and women didn’t take so much attention at those

times. TCC of 1926 brought many rules in favor of women, but it was taken into consideration vis-a-vis its own

time.

During the 80 years, it became older because of the social and economic changes in Turkey. There was

need to renovate some articles and make necessary arrangements. There were some unequal situations of

women in some articles of the 1926 TCC and these were especially on family matters. There was an implicit

gender discrimination in some articles of 1926 TCC. So, a comprehensive amendment was carried out to

change various articles of the TCC since more than 50 years (GüneşPeschke, 2014, pp. 21-39).

“Surname” in Turkish Civil Code

Name is one of the most important personality rights that identifies an individual. It is inalienable,

indispensable and connected closely to personality and identitiy3. The surname was one of the unequal legal

situations in the TCC between man and woman. In the Civil Code of 1926 according to the Article 153, it was

stated that the married women must have taken the surname of their husbands after the official marriage and

they had to keep their husbands’ name throughout their marriage life. In TCC, it was not mentioned that every

citizen should have a surname. For that reason on 21st June 1934, Surname Code was enacted which enforced

every citizen to have a surname as a family name (Ü nal Ö zkorkut, 2014, pp. 23-30, 23).

According to Surname Code Art. 1. “Every Turk should have a surname besides his/her first name”.4

Name has an important role on the personality. It is a sign to identify people in the society from the others.

Even in the antiquity, it was used for the same aim to distinguish people from each other. Name has two parts

for the real persons: first name and surname (Helvacı, 2012, p. 169; Akipek, Akıntürk, & AteşKaraman, 2011,

p. 419; Erdoğan, 1998, pp. 705-712, 705). First name determines people who are in the same family where

surname passes from one generation to another. For that reason, surname shows the people to which family

they belong to (Ataay, 1960, pp. 185-208, 187). The surname concerns and identifies a person in their private

and family life regarding the ability to establish and develop social, cultural or other relationships with other

people in the society5. Name is closely connected with the identity which is an integral part of identity. This

includes also the digital identity by choosing nicknames. Nicknames are like masks. They protect the real

identity, but create a cyber identity, as well (Peschke, 2015, pp. 117-126).

Under TCC and Surname Code, women had to take their husbands’ name when they were married. So

there was no alternative for them to reject to take the husbands’ name. As 1926 TCC was a code of reforms for

the time of its age, during more than 80 years, it became older because of the social and economic changes of

the society. The women were much more aware of their rights according to the past. As a result, there was a

need to change some articles and make necessary arrangements in the civil code, especially the unequal

situations against women.

2 Peirce, 2010, p. 368; Davis, 1986, p. 88; Ortaylı, 2010, p. 37; KabaklıÇimen, 2008, pp. 252-254; Ediz, 1995, p. 93; Lewis, 2009,

p. 335; İnal, 2010, p. 533. 3 Yılmaz, Ejder: Hukuk Sözlüğü (Law Dictionary), Ankara 2005, p. 26. 4 After Surname Code, Surname Regulations were in force on 27.12.1934 with similar arrangements. 5 mutatis mutandis, Niemietz v. Germany, judgment of 16 December 1992, Series A no. 251-B, § 29.


660

On 14 May 1997, there was an amendment in the Article 153 of the Civil Code that the married women

had the right to register their maiden name in front of their husbands’ surname. Afterwards, on 22 November

2001 the new Civil Code was enacted and the new TCC was valid after 1st January 2002. The aim of the

reforms of 2002 TCC was to place married women on an equal position with their husband in representing the

couple, in economic activities and in the decisions to be taken affecting the family and children. With the new

TCC, the husband’s role as head of the family has been abolished. Both married couple have acquired the

power to represent the family (Akıntürk, 2008). Although there were positive changes in the TCC in favor of

women, the provisions concerning the family name after marriage, including those obliging married women to

take their husbands’ name, have remained unchanged.

In the new civil code, the surname was regulated under article 187, instead of 153 of the old TCC, which

kept the same regulations, according to the change in 1997. It is stated in the Article 187 of 2002 TCC that, the

married woman must take the surname of her husband’s, after the official marriage. Besides, she had the right

to register her maiden name in front of her husband’s surname. Now the current situation is the same as 1997

and 2002, that the wife can use her maiden name (surname from her family) only together with her husband’s

surname6. In another sense, women can have the possibility to keep their maiden names after the marriage, but

they are obliged to use their maiden names only with their husbands’ surname. So, according to TCC, married

women in Turkey cannot use their maiden names alone without their husbands’ surname, even if both spouses

make an agreement for that. There has been a big debate in the last years over the surname of the married

woman.

“Name” as a Part of Personality Rights: In International

Treaties and Current Turkish Regulations

After marriage the woman is forced by law to use another surname than her maiden name7. Name is

considered as one of the personality rights. The name of a person is a part of personality rights. A person’s

name is important not only in the construction of his/her identity, but also it is a part of his/her identity which

he/she keeps in all through his/her life.

Personality rights are mentioned in several international treaties. According to the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights (UDHR) dated 10 December 1948, Article 12, “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary

interference of his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation.

Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks”.

In the European Convention on Human Rights (04 November 1950), in article 8, it is stated that everyone

has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence8. This article respects

private life and protects people against interference by other individuals.

6 In this subject there is a European Court of Human Rights decision (UnalTekeli-Turkey case) which indicates that woman can

use her own name without the surname of her husband, but the amendments for this change have not been made in the Civil Code.

So this decision is enforceable only for this case. As it doesn’t create a general rule, TCC Art. 187 is applied to all the cases about

the surname of the married woman which means that women can use their maiden names only with their husbands’ surname

(http://turkey.setimes.com/en_GB/articles/ses/articles/features/departments/national/2013/09/17/feature-01, 17.09.2014). 7 Zevkliler/Havutçu, p. 132. 8 In the European Convention on Human Rights article 2/2 states that there shall be no interference by a public authority with the

exercise of this right. There can be exceptions in accordance with the law and when it is necessary in a democratic society in the

interests of national security, public safety, the economic well-being of the country. The prevention of disorder or crime, the

protection of health or morals, and the protection of the rights and freedoms of others are also included in these exceptions.


661

Article 8 of the Convention does not contain any specific provisions on names, but as a means of

personal identification and the link to the family, a person’s name concerns definetely, his or her private and

family life9.

According to the Article 14 of the convention “The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in [the]

Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion,

political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other

status”.

Besides these basic treaties there is an other convention which is inforce in the last years. Convention on

the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), strongly supports protection of

women and girls through law and provides concrete strategic guidance for actions to be taken for the equality of

women and men under legal regulations10

. According to Turkish Constitution Article 90, “International

agreements duly put into effect have the force of law. In the case of a conflict between international agreements,

duly put into effect, concerning fundamental rights and freedoms and the laws due to differences in provisions

on the same matter, the provisions of international agreements shall prevail”.

In the Turkish Constitution the privacy of individual life (Araslı, 1979) and the nature of fundamental

rights and freedoms are published in two different articles (Article 12 and 20)11

. Everyone possesses inherent

fundamental rights and freedoms which are inviolable and inalienable. The fundamental rights and freedoms

also comprise the duties and responsibilities of the individual to society, their family, and other individuals. The

privacy of individual life is also taken under protection as everyone has the right to demand respect for his

private and family life. It is added that the privacy of an individual or family life cannot be violated

(GüneşPeschke, 2014, pp. 21-39; Bayraktar, 2007, p. 111). Besides, in Article 17 it was regulated that everyone

has the right to life and the right to protect and improve his/her corporeal and spiritual existence.

The fundamental rights are protected under Turkish Constitution while the personality rights in TCC

(Moroğlu, 2004, pp. 281-307, p. 282). The personality rights are not specified individually in this code, as

numerous clausus principle is not accepted. The legislator did not want to limit the content of the personality

rights. For that reason, all the values that are related with the personality can be included in the personality

rights12

like name, life, honour, freedom, health, body, secrets, photos, voice, and many more (Dural & Öğüz,

2006, p. 98; Özsunay, 1982, p. 98; Akipek, Akıntürk, & AteşKaraman, 2011, p. 56). But especially, some of

them are protected in different articles separately because of the importance given to the subject, for example

name is one of these, which is protected against infregements in TCC Article 26-27, besides the general rules

about personality in articles 23, 24, and 25. TCC Art. 24 protects the personality against the individuals who

made the assault. The breach against personal rights is considered contrary to the law unless the assent of the

person whose personality right is damaged, is based on the reasons related to private or public interest and use

of authorisation conferred upon by the law.

9 Ü nal-Tekeli v TurkeyJudgement, p. 11. 10 Ü nal Ö zkorkut, p. 27. 11 The right to legal protection of private life, honour, name and the right to determine one’s private life were introduced in Turkish

Constitution which also contains guarantees of freedom to communicate and protection of secrecy of communication, guarantees of

freedom to express opinions and to obtain and disseminate information, as well as guarantees of consumer protection against the

actions threatening their privacy. 12 Honsell, H./Vogt, N.P./Geiser, T.: Basler Kommentar, Zivilgesetzbuch I, 3. Auflage, 2006, Basel-Genf-München, Art. 28, N.8;

4. H.D. 10.02.1998, 9037/317 (YKD. 1998/4, s. 509).


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The Infregment of Personality Rights for Women in the

Usage of “Surname” After Marriage

Changing the name of a person with the legal regulations, without her will, as mandatory can be

determined as an infringement against her personality rights, and this leads to a confusion in the society. A

person’s name was particularly important in the construction of his/her identity. To change woman’s maiden

name as a result of her marriage can rise to an irreversible severance with her past. Besides, it can be thought

that, Article 187 is against the Constitution Article 10, which states that legally men and women have equal

rights. In another sense, TCC accepts that men can use their surnames all through their lives, where this right is

not given to women13

.

Ü nal/Tekeli case is one of the first which took the subject to European Court of Human Rights (Council of

Europe). A woman who is practicing her legal training opened a suit that she can not use her own surname

alone after her marriage whereas Turkish law allowed married men to bear their own surname all through their

lives. She submitted that this resulted in discrimination on grounds of sex and was incompatible with Article 8

taken together with Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (there was a breach of Article 8,

in accordance with the Article 14). According to ECHR, the applicant’s complaint concerns the fact that,

legally, married women cannot use their maiden name alone after they marry whereas married men keep the

surname they had before, when they were married. This is undoubtedly a “difference in treatment” on grounds

of sex between persons in an analogous situation. The Court stated that there was discrimination in the current

regulations on “Surname” between man and woman in TCC14

. As a result the Court decided in favor of the

plaintiff and against the Turkish regulations.

The Constitutional Court decided in 2011 on a similar case, about the surname of a woman that there is no

discrimination and breach of constitution, in the change of woman’s surname after marriage15

. Under the case,

it was requested that the Article 187 should have been cancelled, as this article was against several articles (2.,

10., 12., 17., and 41. ) of the Constitution16

.

In the Turkish Constitution Article 10, it is stated that everyone is equal before the law without distinction

as to language, race, colour, sex, political opinion, philosophical belief, religion and sect, or any such grounds.

Men and women have equal rights. The State has the obligation to ensure that this equality exists in practice. It

is also stated in Article 41 that family is the foundation of the Turkish society and based on the equality

between the spouses. This equality should be considered before law and also in social life in every situation.

According to Turkish Constitutional Court, Article 10 of the Constitution, under the context of surname,

there is no any discrimination on the ground of sex. Because, “the principle of equality within the meaning of

13 There is an article (Article 173) for divorced women, which states that a woman is allowed to retain her former husband’s

name only if he agrees on it or if she proves, that she has an interest in using this name. The judge can give a decision in favor of

the woman to use her ex-husband’s surname. But in the future, if the conditions change and the husband does not want, he has the

right to take his surname back from the woman. 14 http://www.menschenrechte.ac.at/orig/04_6/Unal%20Tekeli.pdf (29.09.2015), p. 11. 15 The decision of the Constitutional Court dated 10.03.2011, No. 2009/85 E., 2011/49 K. 16 In Turkish Constitution Article 2—The Republic of Turkey is a democratic, secular and social state governed by rule of law,

within the notions of public peace, national solidarity and justice, respecting human rights, loyal to the nationalism of Atatürk, and

based on the fundamental tenets set forth in the preamble. Article 12—Everyone possesses inherent fundamental rights and

freedoms, which are inviolable and inalienable. Article 17—Everyone has the right to life and the right to protect and improve

his/her corporeal and spiritual existence. Article 41—Family is the foundation of the Turkish society and based on the equality

between the spouses.


663

Article 10 of the Constitution does not mean that everyone is subject to the same rules of law”. The special

characteristics of each person or each group of persons may reasonably justify the application of different rules

of law. The rule according to which married women use their husband’s name derives from certain social

realities and is the result of the codification of certain customs that have formed over centuries in Turkish

society17

. Constitutional Court comments that the purpose of the rule Art. 187 is to establish the family unity

and protect women, who are in a more delicate nature than men18

. This decision is strongly discussed in the

doctrine, among women’s associations and politicians.

In the Article 20 of the Constitution, it is regulated that everyone has the right to demand respect for

his/her private and family life. Privacy of private or family life shall not be violated. Besides the Article 41

states that family is the foundation of the Turkish society and based on the equality between the spouses. Under

this concept, of course “customs and local traditions” are important, but it should be clear that these legal

systems should not include any discriminatory provisions. According to European Union regulations, although

it is difficult, while making a norm in any subject, the diversity of customs and local traditions should be

respected and it should be seen possible to form a uniform system.

In this case in 2011, the Constitutional Court refused to cancel Article 187. According to Article 152/4, no

claim of unconstitutionality shall be made with regard to the same legal provision until 10 years elapse after

publication in the Official Gazette of the decision of the Constitutional Court dismissing the application on its

merits which means that, the cancellation of the same article can not be asked again within the 10 years.

The Legal Implementations in the Last Years in Favour of Women’s Surname

Under all these contradictions about the surname of women between the legal regulations in Turkey and

the international treaties, the subject was taken to the Constitutional Court in several times. In the

Constitutional Court decisions, it was generally stated that there was a link between family unity and the family

name which the married woman had to take after the marriage. It was thought that because of the Turkish

traditions, the family unity was reflected in a joint name which is considered as the husband’s name.

SevimAkatEşki was a lawyer from Istanbul who was using her maiden name with her husband’s surname.

She took the subject to the court, just to use only her maiden name during her marriage in 2013. In the

jurisdiction procedure, both the local court and the Supreme Court of Appeals rejected her demand. So, she

made an individual application to the Constitutional Court to use only her maiden surname without her

husband’s surname19

. The Constitutional Court found her claims right and decided in favor of her. The lawsuit

was sent to the 1. Instance Court again to give the last decision, as in the Turkish jurisdiction system, the

Constitutional Court decisions are binding for the courts in the same subject matter.

Two years after this decision, another lawyer, NeşeAslanbayAkbıyık opened a lawsuit to use only her

maiden name, without her husband’s surname. Then, both the local court and the Supreme Court of Appeals

rejected her demand. At the end, she made an individual application to the Constitutional Court to use only her

maiden surname without her husband’s surname20

.

17 http://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2011/10/20111021-8.htm. 18 http://www.kararlaryeni.anayasa.gov.tr/Karar/Content/8d95104c-3cad-4461-bae2-a1b1a3b59dc8?excludeGerekce=True&words

Only=False. 19 http://www.kararlaryeni.anayasa.gov.tr/BireyselKarar/Content/68aa4186-521f-4bf9-9c03-f0e0bbf55a88?wordsOnly=False. 20 http://www.kararlaryeni.anayasa.gov.tr/BireyselKarar/Content/68aa4186-521f-4bf9-9c03-f0e0bbf55a88?wordsOnly=False(29.0

9.2015).


664

The Constitutional Court gave a decision in 16 April 2015, similar to SevimAkatEşki case, that preventing

woman from using her maiden name after marriage, is a violation of Article 17 on the personal inviolability and

corporeal and psychological existence of the individual. The Constitutional Court decided that plaintiff’s rights

regarding Article 17 had been violated. Name is one of the most important personality rights that identifies an

individual. It is inalienable, indispensable and connected closely to personality and identity. Preventing women

from using only their maiden name after marriage is against equality between the couples and article 17 of the

Constitution. In Article 17 it was regulated that everyone has the right to life, the right to protect and improve

his/her corporeal and spiritual existence. As a result, the constitutional court decided which is contrary to its

earlier decisions, that any married woman can use only her maiden surname after marriage by the decision of

the court.

The Constitutional Court has ruled in 2015 that preventing woman from using her maiden name after

marriage is a violation of Article 17 on the personal inviolability and corporeal and psychological existence of

the individual. The Constitutional Court decided that AslanbayAkbıyık’s rights regarding Article 17 had been

violated, as the same as AkatEşki’s.

The last decision from the Court of Cassation Assembly of Civil Chambers was a turning point for the

married women’s surname. On 30 September 2015 there was a decision from the Court of Cassation Assembly

of Civil Chambers that the woman could use only her maiden name after marriage without her husband’s

surname. In the Assembly of Civil Chambers it was voted 45 to 2 in favor of the woman’s surname that married

woman can use only her maiden surname without her husband’s surname. This decision is important because, it

is the latest decision from one of the highest judicial jurisprudence given in favour of women, opposite to the

old ones.

As a result, the last court decisions show that there is a big change in the opinions of the Constitutional

Court and The Court of Cassation that the woman can use only her maiden surname, while she is keeping her

family unity.

According to Turkish legislation, the decision of the Constitutional Court is not applied to all women. For

that reason, to spread this court decision to the wide in general to all married woman, Article 187 should be

changed in a way that the woman should have the possibility to use only her maiden name after marriage,

without husband’s surname.

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