Winter of 2007. Another Sunday night, new episode of Popstar Alaturka, Turkish version of Pop Idol. Minority and human rights activist Hrant Dink has recently been assassinated by an ultranationalist youth and Turkey is experiencing of few notable instances of spontaneous collective action in past two decades.1 It has been only days since tens of thousands of people marched in streets, chanting, We are all Armenians! to express their sympathy for Dink and Armenian community. Hence, TV show opens with popular Armenian folk song Sari Gelin-which, later in evening, will lead to rather long and interesting monologue by of jury members. This member is glamorous lady in her fifties, wearing haute couture dress revealing her long legs and shapely breasts. She expresses her discontent with slogan We are all Armenians! Underlining fact that she is the Muslim daughter of Muslim parents, she emphasizes that no can ever make her say she is Armenian or Christian. Claiming that it would be more acceptable if slogan had been We are all Hrant, she deems it intolerable for Muslim person to say that s/he is Armenian-and therefore Christian. But who is this glamorous woman who seems in desperate need to underline her Muslim, nationalist identity? For readers who take an even slight interest in Turkish popular culture, answer would be quite obvious. The person is Bulent Ersoy: self-proclaimed expert on classical Ottoman music-though singer of popular genre arabesk-one of first Turkish men to undergo sex change and very first to ask for female passport, and hater of transgendered prostitutes. Ersoy has been an extremely popular public figure in Turkey since early 1970s and is very likely to remain so. Following Simone de Beauvoir's claim that one is not born, but, rather, becomes woman, in this essay I seek to trace how Bulent Ersoy has Muslim, nationalist, upper-class woman. In doing so, I aim to understand strategies that define spaces of abjection reserved for transgendered individuals in Turkey in post- 1980s and examine tactics for survival that are available to them.2 I will try to explore Ersoy's personal history in context of events in Turkey since 1970s and discuss cultural atmosphere and dynamics of gender in country in light of Ersoy's narrative. A YOUNG, FLAMBOYANT MALE SINGER The renowned singer of classical Turkish music Bulent Ersoy was born as Bulent Erkoc in 1952 in Istanbul. Named after soccer player, Bulent was only son of an urban middle-class family. He was introduced to classical Turkish music by his grandfather, who played zither, and his grandmother, who played lute. Shown to have talent, he took private lessons with acclaimed musicians at an early age and later attended conservatory. While he was still student, he began singing professionally under stage name Bulent Ersoy-the name Erkoc, meaning brave ram, was probably too masculine for this rather androgynous young man, so it was replaced by Ersoy, brave lineage. Ersoy is also easier on tongue. Ersoy's first record came out in 1971. At that time, nighdife in big cities, especially Istanbul, mainly consisted of Greek tavernas and nightclubs called gazinos. Those nightclubs provided middle- and upper-classes with hours-long programs bringing together several singers as well as comedians and belly dancers. There would often be lead singer, called an assolist, who would take stage last and sing classical Turkish music. The extremely competitive atmosphere made it difficult to become lead singer. At time, many established lead singers sang arabesk, genre influenced by Turkish folk and Middle Eastern music, that had come out in Turkey in 1950s and 1960s. Martin Stokes, of leading experts on arabesk, claims that it is a music inextricably linked with culture of gecekondu, literally night settlements which mushroomed around Turkey's large industrial cities after Menderes government program of rural regeneration in 1950s produced large rural labor surplus (1989, 27). …