Next we’ll be surprised that rain is wet

Okay, so there’s a new statue in Kemer (my old stomping ground, about 40km from here), and it’s got some people’s panties in a knot. Here are a couple of different views of the statue, have a look:

business as usual

The mayor of Kemer has formed an alliance with some local women’s rights groups, and together they’re complaining loudly that the statue is pornographic, that it’s degrading to women, and that it will tarnish the reputation of Kemer as a respectable town.

This made me laugh so hard I nearly passed out. If the mayor is really that deluded that he thinks the statue is what’s tarnishing Kemer’s reputation, then I have to wonder which rock he just crawled out from under. Speaking as a former Kemer resident, anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes in Kemer can tell you that the sculptor has captured the mood and spirit of Kemer perfectly. Kemer is little more than one continuous porn and prostitution pit from April to November— it’s a hotspot for certain nearby nations who send their young girls down by the truckload and pimp them out on the beach, in the nightclubs, and throughout the local hotels and restaurants. You literally cannot spend one afternoon on the beach without seeing money (and not large amounts, I can assure you) openly exchanged for sex acts performed right there on the beach, only hidden from view by the cover of a blanket. On any day of the week you can walk into any nightclub or bar in Kemer and find girls from certain countries wearing almost nothing (some even strip down right there in the club in order to show what’s on offer), hooking up with older men and doing their business either in the nightclub toilets, or back at the man’s hotel. When you walk down the streets of Kemer at night you can actually hear the sounds of sex coming from hotel windows.

And the mayor is worried about a statue ruining Kemer’s reputation? He seriously needs to pull his head out of his ass if he thinks it’s the sculpture that’s degrading to women. The women were doing a fine job of degrading themselves long before the statue ever appeared on the scene.

Me personally, I think the sculptor did a great job— the only thing that would make the statue more accurate would be a five-dollar bill tucked between the girl’s breasts. That’s the true spirit of Kemer right there.

One question, though— if the leader of the town government is so opposed to the sculpture, how did the sculptor manage to get construction approval from the council in the first place? Certainly he would have gone through an application process, no? So I’m not really buying all the shock and horror melodrama from the mayor’s office. Aside from the fact that anyone living anywhere near Kemer would have long ago become immune to the surprise of seeing people having sex in public, I refuse to believe that this statue got built in its entirety without anyone noticing what was going on. Unless of course everyone is so desensitised that at first they just thought the statue was two Kemer inhabitants going about their normal business, and paid it no special attention. Now that I might believe. But the “oh my, I can’t believe the people in the statue are doing something sexual” sentiment is just laughable. Please, like you don’t see that sort of thing ten times a day in Kemer anyway. Sheesh, that’s what Kemer’s all about! Love it or leave it.

17 Comments

  1. 9 September 2007
    Reply

    Er. So, why did you move away, exactly?

  2. 9 September 2007
    Reply

    Er. So, why did you move away, exactly?

  3. 9 September 2007
    Reply

    @melissah: *laugh* Kemer is really a beautiful place (little town perfectly situated between mountains and sea), and I kind of convinced myself when I first moved there that the sex thing was probably only noticable from a tourist’s point of view, and that if you actually lived there you’d get into a different life that was separate from the porn pit. But after a year I finally admitted that no, the porn pit is inescapable, and though I have nothing against sex, it does get old after a while when you can’t walk down the street even to the corner market without some old guy asking if you’d like a quickie with him. And then when you get inside the market the girl in front of you at the till gets half her stuff for free because she let the manager feel her tits, and then he lets you know that the same offer is available to you as well.

    So I was tired of all that, and then when I got into a relationship the whole thing seemed really inappropriate, and since Emirhan needed to be in Antalya anyway because of university, I just moved to Antalya with him. Now we live in a neighbourhood with no foreign tourists, and it’s wonderful.

  4. 9 September 2007
    Reply

    @melissah: *laugh* Kemer is really a beautiful place (little town perfectly situated between mountains and sea), and I kind of convinced myself when I first moved there that the sex thing was probably only noticable from a tourist’s point of view, and that if you actually lived there you’d get into a different life that was separate from the porn pit. But after a year I finally admitted that no, the porn pit is inescapable, and though I have nothing against sex, it does get old after a while when you can’t walk down the street even to the corner market without some old guy asking if you’d like a quickie with him. And then when you get inside the market the girl in front of you at the till gets half her stuff for free because she let the manager feel her tits, and then he lets you know that the same offer is available to you as well.

    So I was tired of all that, and then when I got into a relationship the whole thing seemed really inappropriate, and since Emirhan needed to be in Antalya anyway because of university, I just moved to Antalya with him. Now we live in a neighbourhood with no foreign tourists, and it’s wonderful.

  5. rosi
    9 September 2007
    Reply

    —” the only thing that would make the statue more accurate would be a five-dollar bill tucked between the girl’s breasts.” :D:D

    GREAT POST! MELISSA

  6. rosi
    9 September 2007
    Reply

    —” the only thing that would make the statue more accurate would be a five-dollar bill tucked between the girl’s breasts.” :D:D

    GREAT POST! MELISSA

  7. 9 September 2007
    Reply

    @rosi: thank you rosi, I know you know exactly what I’m talking about!

  8. 9 September 2007
    Reply

    @rosi: thank you rosi, I know you know exactly what I’m talking about!

  9. 12 September 2007
    Reply

    “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”

  10. 12 September 2007
    Reply

    “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”

  11. dave
    4 October 2007
    Reply

    Russias not that close is it?

  12. dave
    4 October 2007
    Reply

    Russias not that close is it?

  13. 5 October 2007
    Reply

    @dave: yeah, it’s just across the Black Sea, or if we’re talking Soviets in general, we actually share a border with Georgia.

    but it’s not just Russian, it’s Balkan girls, also.

  14. 5 October 2007
    Reply

    @dave: yeah, it’s just across the Black Sea, or if we’re talking Soviets in general, we actually share a border with Georgia.

    but it’s not just Russian, it’s Balkan girls, also.

  15. 13 October 2007
    Reply

    Hmm…let’s see..

    $5 for entertainment,
    $1200 for flight,
    $30/night for the hotel…

    Darn…guess it’s more than $5 for me…
    Kinda sounds like a place I’ll have to put on my “BEFORE I DIE” list… 🙂

  16. 13 October 2007
    Reply

    Hmm…let’s see..

    $5 for entertainment,
    $1200 for flight,
    $30/night for the hotel…

    Darn…guess it’s more than $5 for me…
    Kinda sounds like a place I’ll have to put on my “BEFORE I DIE” list… 🙂

  17. […] three years ago, a sculpture was erected in my old home of Kemer, and, long story short, some people found it unacceptable. In fact, they managed to get it removed— much to the dismay of the artist, the people of […]

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