(Above: "A feminized man...")
(Left: Sold in the US under the names Metandren and Hormale, Hormobin was the Turkish name for the drug Methyltestosterone.)
Two random pictures from 1940s Turkish magazines I came across while reviewing research photos. At the risk of essentializing gender constructs and ideals of masculinity across different decades and cultures, this pair of images seems to reflect the same dichotomy articulated so well by Sean Connery in The Rock: You're either the kind of guy who takes Hormobin or the kind of guy who sits around playing chess...
Skipping back to the late Ottoman Era, we're indebted to Ümüt Akagündüz's work for drawing out attention to a work by Ali Seydi Bey called Kızlara Mahsûs Târîh-i Osmânî, or Ottoman History for Girls. You should check out the whole article but in short Ali Seydi Bey explains that women need to develop a sense of historically informed patriotism so they can pass it on to their male children, and has some cautionary examples from the Ottoman court about how bad wives can bring ruin to their husbands.
And if all that weren't exciting enough, the book also includes a version of one of our favorite maps from after the Balkan wars...
