Turkey has bred a population that watches things. They love to watch things, especially people, to the extent that they will watch, with almost unflagging attention, the most mundane of spectacles.

To exemplify the degree of tediousness, I have come across a pack of three or four people watching the digging of a hole. Not an interesting hole, such as a hole which is being dug with the latest of John Deere and CAT’s combined technology, but a hole being dug by one man with a shovel. In this case, it was neither a unique shovel nor a unique man, just a regular guy with an average shovel.

It is quite possible that these people watching the regular guy with the average shovel were only captivated for a short period of time. But I question the brevity of their spectating since I have also seen groups drawn, and held for a considerable period of time, by activities such as putting down/taking up paving stones or washing windows on the first floor of a building. So, you can imagine the veritable melee that occurs when something interesting happens on the street, like a fight or someone getting hit by a car.

I wonder if it is enjoyable being so easily entertained. I can see how it would have its advantages in certain circumstances such as long bus rides and boring meetings.

The Scandal of Knees

The reaction of the general Turkish male populace to the sight of exposed female knees is similar to the reaction shown by the American male populace if a woman was walking down the street with a nipple slightly exposed.

It seems that anywhere in Istanbul it is obvious when an exposed-knee woman is walking down the street due to the flock of goggle eyed men turning, staring and commenting.

What I wonder is if they stare at local knees as well as foreign knees? Being a foreigner I can only speak to my own experiences which are composed of unremitting knee staring.

My theory is that they think that foreign female knees are different from Turkish female knees, for instance maybe there is a misconception that foreign knees bend backwards, in the opposite direction of regular knees. Or maybe they think that nipples sprout from our knees instead of our breasts thus they are giving thorough visual inspection in search of a knee nipple.