The Male Gaze in Istanbul
The constant hustling teaches male tourists what it's like to be a woman on the street back home
Many years ago, I took a boat from Haifa, Israel, to Athens to save money on air fare. And the first thing I noticed getting off the ferry, as I walked by street vendors in Pireaus, was the silence.
The Greek vendors just looked blankly at me, bored, not saying a word.
In the Middle East, they would be all over you, hawking their wares, asking you your name, where you from, not stopping for a single second.
You want buy? I give you good price! Where you from? Where you from?
Arab, Israeli, Druze, Persian: it didn’t make any difference.
It was one of the biggest signs I had left the Middle East and was now back in Europe: the end of the constant, never-ending hustling.
At the time, I breathed a big mental sigh of relief. Ah, I remember thinking, I never realized how relaxing Europe is!
I’m reminding of all that now that I’m spending a week in Istanbul on a quick trip.
The Turks, while pretending to be part of Europe, are really Middle Easterners… which has both positive and negative aspects.
They are a genuinely friendly and kind people, so it’s difficult to distinguish between being hustled and being welcomed because both happen at the same time.
You know the marketing expression, Always be selling?
The Turks invented it.
They are always selling: selling and upselling, cross-selling and down-selling.
They offer you terms, take away all risk, offer guarantees, provide loads and loads of social proof. “You see this Google rating,” one rug dealer yelled at me breathlessly. “Americans love me!”"
American marketing executives would be wise to send their copywriters and team members to Istanbul to take a quick seminar on selling from rug dealers on the streets.
The average Turkish street vendor has forgotten more about selling than Wharton marketing professors ever learned in their entire careers.
Yet as I was being reintroduced to the world of Middle Eastern huckstering, I have to admit, what it really made me think about was… what it’s like to be a woman in a male world.
Strange, I know.
Maybe it’s having two beautiful daughters.
You know how women talk about the Male Gaze and how tiring it is to be always hit on in the street, always being commented upon, hearing the constant cat calls?
Well, try being a western tourist in Istanbul (or really anywhere in the Middle East).
Walking down any street in tourist areas in Istanbul, a European male tourist will be accosted every ten feet by a Turkish man volunteering to help him find what he’s looking for — or offering a special price to get into a museum or mosque.
Every single person you pass on certain streets says hello, almost without exception, calling out, Hi, sir! Where you from, you American or Deutsch?
You just have to affect this friendly, smiling demeanor that expresses a combination of indifference and incomprehension, as if you’re actually Russian and don’t speak any English.
That’s my favorite tactic when pressed: I reply Guten Tag or Dobroye utro (good morning in Russian). (The problem is, many Turks know a little German so lately I’m learning a few Russian phrases.)
Of course, all this ends once you leave the tourist areas for “normal” neighborhoods in Istanbul, such as Beyoğlu or Kadıköy.
There, street vendors are more relaxed, less aggressive, and generally silent. It feels more like walking down a quiet street in Budapest or Prague.
Still, I think men, or at least some men, might benefit from this temporary transformation from being a predator to the prey.
It’s unsettling being stared at as an obvious target as you walk down a street, minding your own business, having everyone you pass say, Hello, sir! HELLO! Where you from?
I can imagine what women must feel like under similar circumstances.
It’s not flattering; it’s unnerving.
And as the father of daughters, it’s a little bracing to go through this again – and to see big Texan male tourists walking in Sultanahmet getting harassed and cat called as though they were a hot chick on a Friday night.
It gives you a change of perspective.
Robert J. Hutchinson is a frequent traveler and the author of numerous books of popular history, including Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth (Thomas Nelson), The Dawn of Christianity (Thomas Nelson), The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible (Regnery) and When in Rome: A Journal of Life in Vatican City (Doubleday). Email him at: roberthutchinson@substack.com