Romance, Love, and Sex Matters in Turkey
The Turkish 'Kinsey Report'
-- Part 5 of a Series --

Turkish Sexuality Survey Question -- 'Among Turkish couples, who initiates making whoopee -- male or female?' The Hürriyet Sexuality Survey of 2005 Does she or does he? Click for enlargement! Her ilişkimde ben başlatırım... "I always initiate whoopie," say: 2.9% of Turkish women 21.9% of Turkish men Çoğunda ben başlatırım... "I usually initiate whoopie," say: 10.9% of Turkish women 61.8% of Turkish men Nadiren ben başlatırım... "I rarely initiate whoopie," say: 45.3% of the women 8.3% of the men Ben hiç cinsel ilişkiyi başlatan taraf olmam... "I never initiate whoopie," say: 31.7% of the women 2.3% of the men Cevap yok/Cevap vermek istemedi... No answer given/Didn't want to answer: 9.1% of the women 5.7% of the men Controversial writer Elif Şafak... ...on the cause of such anomalies There are a number of anomalies arising from these questions/answers... For example, the seemingly tiny 2.9 percentage of Turkish women who 'always' initiated whoopie grew substantially (to 10.9%) when the question was broadened to 'most of the time'. In a follow-up question, "Are you pleased with your physical relations?" Turkish men and women appeared to be on an equal (uninspiring) par, relatively speaking -- 53.8% of men and 43.8% of women gave a "yes" answer to the question. But, in a follow-up to the follow-up...a full one third of those same women said they never or almost never experienced la petite mort. And, suprisingly (astonishingly?) nearly 10% of their men gave the same answer --- that they never or almost never experienced it either! Further, 18.9% of women indicated that they never felt physical desire. On a barely brighter note, about half the women in the survey (47.8%) said they were 'somewhat' aware of their own physical desires. On the question of physical confidence, men polled higher by far than the women -- 81.5% of men were confident of their performance in whoopie, only about 50% of the women held a similar belief of their own performance abilities. En Inanan, Az Inanan Most and least confident From the standpoint of geographical location, Turks of the Istanbul and Marmara regions topped the list of those claiming to be most physically confident, with 68.5 per cent. Also, high percentages of well-to-do Turks (71.3%) and 'Liberal' Turks (74.4%) made similar claims. By comparison only 53.6% of Turkish 'Moderates' and 55.4% of Turkish 'Conservatives' felt confident of their whoopie performance. En Doyumlu, Az Doyumlu Most and Least Satisfied -- Two surprises Click large! The high-percentage 'performance claims' in the previous paragraph may need to be taken with a grain of salt... Because the survey surprisingly revealed that women of the troubled Southeast of Turkey (Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, etc.) had the highest reported incidence of la petite mort -- 63.7%. (Could the high anxiety of daily life heighten the intensity of their passion?) By comparison, the reported incidence of la petite mort in city-dwelling western women was just 41.2%. The survey revealed another, related surprise -- that the geographical location of the lowest incidence of female la petite mort was the Ege region (encompassing Izmir), where one of Turkey's most 'progressive' and 'modern' populations lives. A full 18% of Egeli women said they 'never have la petite mort' -- and another 33% said they only occasionally did. In Part 6: More headlines from the Turkish Kinsey Report -- and more surprising revelations from the Sexuality Survey concerned with 'pre-whoopie', afternoon delight, and what turns Turks on. Back to Part 4: The First Time... How old were you? Back to Part 3: The First Time... How was it?