Monday, April 23, 2012

Further Observations on the Mating Rituals of Turkish Males

Some time back I gave a brief, if not completely over generalized, overview of how Turkish men tend to date foreign women.  I've dated a couple (which clearly makes me an authority, does it not? hehe).  I stated that they tend to fall in love (and declare it openly and with passion) in the first hour or two of meeting their date.  I also stated that these declarations and mooning goes on for about 4-6 weeks before they disappear altogether (and by disappear, I mean they truly vanish), only to resurface at some later date apologizing for their fear or the worry that said foreign chick won't mesh with the Turkish family or whatever the excuse du jour may be.  But I missed something... I missed something vital that I hadn't been exposed to... okay, part of it I'd been exposed to but as a foreigner living in foreign-to-me places for 13 years it's excusable that I missed part of it, but the other part... well... just odd.
The first part is the gawk or leer or shameless stare.  I kinda got used to that after living in East Asia for 8 years.  Looking different and being stared at was my norm for a long time so I kind of missed that.  But Turkish guys are really skilled at staring you down while walking in a completely different direction.  This was pointed out to me this past weekend as I was out with some friends at a small watering hole.  Lots of Turkish men (there were few foreigners of the male persuasion in the place) walked past where we were sitting and they stared... and stared... and stared... I'm surprised several of them didn't walk into tables or break through the glass doors nearby!  It was some serious rubber-necking... and it happened the next day while shopping with another one of my gorgeous friends (I have a lot of beautiful friends and I'm thinking of developing a theory of how my singleness is their fault because all the cute and quality men fall for them before they can get to me... still working on that though).  I'd been somewhat immune until it was in my face big time for the past few days...
The second part of the Mating Ritual of the Turkish Male that I'd previously missed was the "Surround and Conquer" move that I witnessed while out dancing with my gorgeous friends a few weeks back.  By the way, I also have a theory that dating is kind of like war sometimes (I'm working on an entry for this based on the Art of War too, so don't worry... more entertaining observations of dating and singleness are on their way) so sometimes I name the tactics guys use after what I would like to think of as tactical maneuvers. Anyway, the gorgeous and I entered the club  to dance and hang out and were immediately encircled by a number of Turkish men who just stood really close, really still and really creepy.  It was laughable, especially since they rarely spoke to the women they were circling and staring at... apparently one of them kept saying "are you married?" to one of my friends but that's all I could figure out that they said the entire time... and they weren't deterred by the husbands and boyfriends in attendance either... interesting.... I'll have to be better at observing these unusual mating rituals... stay tuned... can't wait to get to Singapore and see how it works there! ;) hehehe