Ice cream should not be licked, Turkish municipality advises women in etiquette course
ISTANBUL
This file photo shows a model eating an ice cream. Adrian Dewey / Alamy
A Turkish municipality has stirred a debate on social media after advising the women in a course that they should not lick ice cream if they really want to be a classy lady in Istanbul.
Several young women were enrolled to the Bağcılar Municipality’s “being a lady” course two months ago.
The course, which was given as two-hour lectures once a week, shares several tips on etiquette, including dressing, walking and speaking.
“How to be an Istanbul lady” lesson included many suggestions but only the one about eating ice creams raised some eyebrows on social media when local newspapers reported about it on Jan. 18.
Some social media users criticized what they saw as a threat to a woman’s freedom, while others defended the tip, suggesting that no one should lick an ice cream anywhere in the world if he or she wants to be perceived as elegant.
“Just take it in your mouth and wait as it melts,” a Twitter user, @magosattress, said.
After it was asked then how a banana should be eaten, another user, @glahzeus, responded sarcastically: “With a fork and a knife, of course.”
The course’s lecturer has shrugged off the criticism, though.
“I don’t want to create an image as if our course is a lady school. We aim much higher than that,” etiquette lecturer Arzu Arda, who is actually a mathematics engineer, said.
“Lectures are fun. Actually I know most of the things that our lecturer tells us, but I only recently started to practice them,” 19-year-old student Ayşenur Parmak added.
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