Familial Citizenship

Sociology 462: First Response Paper

“The Making of Familial Citizenship” by Sirman vs. “The Sexual Citizen” by Weeks In “The making of the familial citizen” and “The Sexual Citizen”, Sirman and Weeks (respectively) discuss what it means to be a citizen through specific lenses. The arguments presented in each of these articles as they search to define citizen can be summarized by three different categories: transformations in the public and private spheres; the transition from traditional values to love relationships; and the formation of identity. Through comparing each article’s approach, we find commonalities in the modern search for citizenship and in the discussion on nationalism’s relation to sexuality and gender. In every society, the

For both Sirman and Weeks, one new set of values is the value of the “love relationship”; it is through the love relationship that emerging governments were able to eradicate previous obligations and promote a tie between the nation-state and citizenship. For Sirman, the promotion of the love relationship was intended to promote the idea of a nuclear family. She argues that the new government in Turkey wanted to move towards nuclear families not only because they were a symbol of modernity but also because they helped rid citizens of their obligations to what she refers to as the “big houses”. This helps to promote a new bond to the nation state in order to replace the old

Sirman uses the term “familial citizenship” to describe how the relations within a family have come to aide the new nation-state in defining citizenship. She argues the nation-state’s subordination of women in the family perpetuates the idea that citizens should identify as either the “sovereign husband” or the “dependent wife/mother”. She then argues that the state reproduces these identities through various institutions in order to appropriate them. This ties back to the idea that the separation of men in women into dominant and subordinate categories allows the state to shape the way in which women interact in a public sphere; by encouraging women to identify through her relationship with her family (i.e. a dependant), the state is able to keep women in the private sphere and promote the idea that although citizenship is gained through family for both men and women, this citizenship is inherently