Lets talk about Sex, baby.

“The American culture is the most sexually saturated culture in the world.”

“Because of America’s sexually tarnished culture, women are forced to contort their bodies to unrealistic standards.”

“America’s media is destroying our culture.”

In the United States we have this idea that America has the most sexually saturated culture in the world. We look at our own media and shake our heads and believe that women wouldn’t be pressured to look a certain way if American media weren’t the way it is. Now looking at Turkey with respect to sex, the first thing that used to come to my mind was women in veils and head coverings. I believed that women were kept covered in Turkey, and coming into this trip I never would have dreamed that I would be fascinated by Turkey’s sexual culture. In many ways Turkey’s sexual culture is very similar to but also very different from America’s sexual culture, and while it may be awkward to talk about, I feel like it is of important note.

In the past couple of days, I have really noticed the connection between Turkey’s past sexual culture and their present sexual culture. We have visited Aphrodite’s temple, who is the goddess of love, and Artemis’ temple who is the goddess of fertility. In each of the temples I have noticed fertility statues, which are basically, to say this in the most polite way possible, statues of very well endowed men and women.

Statue of the Great Artemis of Ephesus that would have stood in her temple.

In ancient times, people bought these statues to ensure fertility in their families. In the different cities I have also noticed many statues of naked men. The naked male body was seen as powerful and prestigious. We have visited many stadiums and gymnasiums where we were told that men participated in their sports naked. Personally I feel like that would be uncomfortable, but for that time it was seen as natural. The male body was worthy of emulation. The male body was a gift to the universe in a sense. This wasn’t a problem because women were kept in the homes.

The Caesars were often depicted nude in statues because the male body was seen as powerful. In this frieze from the Sebaesteion in Aphrodisias, Tiberius naked leads a captive away.

Back at school we talked about the corrupt sexual culture back in Paul’s day and temple prostitution. While making sacrifices to fertility goddesses, men would also have sex with the local temple prostitutes to ensure fertility for their family. Women’s bodies were an object, and women were enslaved to their husbands as husbands owned their wives. Wives were their husband’s property. Kings had harems, sometimes hundreds of prostitutes on call that they could choose from. A women’s body was an object to be used and a man’s body was worthy of emulating.

Fast forward to the Turkey of 2014… Women have gained rights and freedom in most parts of Turkey. In western Turkey women go without head coverings and attend Universities and are able to obtain well-paying and prestigious jobs. Turkey is no longer the back-woods country we once believed it to be. It is developed and only in some parts are women kept silent and covered and concealed to the home. With this freedom also comes the downfall of a sexually freed country. I have noticed some of the commercials on Turkish TV, and it’s true that in all parts of the world, sex sells. However, the Turkish commercials are more sexual than anything I have seen on American TV. Also with TV, there is very little censorship of nudity as is the case with most European countries. Women are still plagued with body image issues as they are in the United States, and eating disorders are just as common in Turkey as they are in the United States. Health stores are popping up all over Turkey, and more and more people are becoming obsessed with their appearance. They have to live up to unrealistic expectations just as much as we do. From what I have seen there is a large partying culture in the bigger cities in Turkey.

The beach at Cesme--no burkas or head scarves here!

Turkey is slowly becoming westernized, but is this one sad aspect of the West that Turkey should adopt as well? To wrap this up, I find it disheartening that Paul wrote to the churches in this area pressing them and praying that they would change their sexual behavior. I believe that maybe the Christians changed, but I wish that it would have soaked into the entire Roman culture of that time. Turkey’s sexual culture has a strange dynamic of emphasizing the modesty of the past while incorporating the sexual mores of the past and of the West. All I can believe is that sex is an inevitable part of every culture. Only individuals can make the decision to stand apart as unique from the sexual culture around them.


by Lindsey Houser