The Strange Case of the Turkish Drag Queens

Walking around the streets of Istanbul, I kept seeing these strange displays in the windows. Their freakish little faces were smiling, frozen, staring blankly. They proudly wore a hat, usually with a feather, and had all manner of quasi-royal regalia: sceptre, cape, and more glitter than I have seen since Mardi Gras 1994. In these displays, it was always a group of boys that were tarted up like mini drag queens, and the thought occurred to me that there are only a few events in a boy's life that are deserving of such ritualistic attire (baptism, circumcision, coming of age, weddings). Hmmm. The boys are too young here for marriage, too old for baptism.

Could it be?

The question nagged at me. Each corner store had these displays. One of the stalls in the Bazaar had a nice selection of mini DQ's in red regalia. The grocery store had a selection of younger DQ's in blue regalia. What the heck was this? It certainly seemed to be a depiction of some common ceremony.

I never did find out until I was leaving Turkey. In one of those unique alignments of the cosmos, there was an article in the in-flight mag on the plane about the "circumcision ceremony," with an attached picture of smiling little boys marching along in matching DQ outfits. Interesting. But these costumes seem to be for older boys, surely they can't.......

Yes they can. The Turkish circumcision ceremony is done when a boy is between 6 and 9, and is done without anesthetic. The boy is dressed up in his cape and glitter, and then placed between an older man's legs (someone who is designated as his Godfather). A circumciser whacks the ole you-know-what. The boy is then rested on pillows and given gifts (morphine would work, in my opinion), while the family celebrates (I imagine, knowing the dark hearts of most women, that they perhaps celebrate more than the males in the family). This ceremony is done in the spring, so the poor kid has time to recover before school starts. I have no idea how long it takes to recover from the psychic scars.

If you Google turkey circumcision (I am surprised that the filter on my computer lets me, and even more surprised that I did not get diverted to some sort of Thanksgiving sex site), you get alot of anti-abuse sites. Apparently, this practice is fairly bloody and is not always done hygienically in the remote villages of Turkey. And though it is done in the cities by someone who has some medical background, this is not always so in the outlying areas-some men have taken to profiting by charging parents for this, they have no training and they literally use a dirty knife. So there is debate about the whole ritual. However, the Turks consider this to be a coming of age ritual, and the first ceremony in the transition to Muslim manhood. Who knows. Got to respect the culture, though, even though we might question it. However, when you think of it, are our methods any better? We take solace in the fact that we circumcise the newborn, believing that somehow their screams are less traumatic.

All I can say is that I have a new appreciation for Turkish men.