Introduction to manhood: digital rituals, gender performance, and male circumcision ceremonies in Türkiye

This article examines how male circumcision ceremonies in Türkiye are being reconfigured within digital platforms, focusing on their performative, affective, and gendered dimensions. Drawing on a purposive sampling of publicly accessible Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube posts (2022-2024), we analysed reels, captions, hashtags, comments, and visuals curated under culturally specific tags such as #sunnetdugunu (circumcision ceremony), #sunnet (circumcision), #sunnetannesi (circumcision mother) and #sunnetbabasi (circumcision father) #erkekligegiris (introduction to manhood). Findings reveal a gendered division of aesthetic and affective labour: mothers are positioned as the orchestrators of emotional intensity and visual spectacle; fathers embody restrained authority and patriarchal stability; and boys are staged as future masculine subjects through ceremonial attire, convoy displays, and performative rites of passage. Far from destabilising tradition, social media amplifies hegemonic masculinity and normative femininity by transforming family rituals into algorithmically visible spectacles.