18 Jun 2012
Posted by Liz 
What do you think of when you hear the word Amsterdam? Sex, drugs, maybe canals or art, right? But did you ever wonder what it was like to actually work in the Red Light District windows most tourists just wander nervously past?
To find out, a group of us went on an organised tour of De Wallen (the Dutch name for the area) guided by a former prostitute. She said she had worked a year in clubs before leaving the trade. I’m not using her name because she wishes to remain anonymous. This is part of her story.
“I came from a good family, no abuse or anything like that, but I was a punk and rebellious. I left home at 18 and started to work as a prostitute. I worked in clubs rather than renting a window, because I thought that was safer.
The Red Light district has been the centre of prostitution for hundreds of years. The Catholic church had a more relaxed attitude to it than the Protestants did. They still wanted it to be in an area they controlled; if a prostitute left the area to try to work elsewhere, she was marched back in very publicly.
To rent a window costs between 80 and 180 euros per eight hour shift, depending on the location. Most windows are locally owned—rumours that the Russian mafia controls the Red Light district are very much exaggerated.
Women have to be over 18 years old and legal residents of the EU to work in one of the brothels. The brothel owners are licensed as well. If underage or trafficked girls are found working, there are big penalties for the brothel owner and the girls. Trafficking is an issue, but primarily in unregulated sex work, like Chinese massage parlours.
Normal starting rates for a fuck are 50 euros for 10 minutes. That may not sound like very long, but the average length of time a man spends having sex with a girl is about 6 minutes. I don’t like it when girls from the Dominican Republic or Africa charge less, because that devalues black Dutch girls. There are fewer Dutch girls working now than there used to be. Many girls come from Eastern Europe as well.
Health checks are not mandatory, because it’s against the law to force people to have any kind of medical treatment. There is a free clinic prostitutes can use.
You learn to separate sex for money from sex for love pretty quickly. This job is about money and how to part customers from it. Men who date prostitutes tend to get uncomfortable with it and ask them to quit, or sometimes become pimps.
The busiest times are when there’s an agricultural conference or a big football match on. Farmers and football fans are the biggest groups of customers.
I think it’s important to tell people about what it’s like to work here. I wish I’d stayed it in long enough to save up some money, maybe start my own business, or not done it at all. My family doesn’t know what I did and would be ashamed if they found out. So I tell my story, but only to foreigners.”
It was fascinating to hear her story and anyone who wants to know what working in the Red Light District is really like should take one of the tours organized by the Prostitution Information Center. More information available here.
About the Author
Rachel is a thirtysomething expat who blogs about travel, food and culture at The Northernist. She quit her job last year to spend several months travelling down under and is now living in northern England. Loves: a good flat white. Hates: twitter memes.
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11 Comments
Great story. I was just there last week and found that to be an interesting and yet not really talked about topic. That is to say the real perspective of one the prostitutes. To be able to cover 180 euros in 8 hours at 50 euros per guy is a lot of work every time you step into the office. I wonder how much facebook cuts down on their productivity….
Turner
Didn’t even realise this tour existed. Very cool!
Very sad, and even worse is when people think girls do it because they like the job. I liked this video I saw not long ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfFzCDIQ_a8
Interesting… but severely incomplete… all it does is explain the logistics of prostitution in Amsterdam. I was hoping for an in-depth opinionated article on prostitution.
I don’t think there’s anything sad about it either. It’s an industry likes many others – there are problems with it, but there’s nothing inherently wrong about cash for sex.
Read 11 minutes by Paulo Cohelo. Pretty sure that it’s based on the story of a prostitute. That’s a fascinating book and look into sex.
Thanks for your comment John and for the the book recommendation, I’ll add that to my ‘to-read’ list.
Based on previous TSL articles and comments, there’s no shortage of opinions on prostitution around here. What I felt hadn’t been seen here was an insight into prostitution from an actual sex worker, and the editors were happy to go with it. It’s one woman’s story, and by its nature is only one view on the experience of sex work in that environment. You could take the tour repeatedly and hear a different perspective each time.
Hey Rachel!
I totally understand.
But the title suggests an opinion, where as the post describes the facts surrounding prostitution in Amsterdam. There’s nothing wrong with that, without an opinion, there’s nothing that interesting about the post. One reason why some of the other articles have gained so much traction was that they voiced a strong opinion.
For example, it would have been fascinating to hear what your prostitute guide thought of prostitution… good? bad? both? Are people mistreated? If you were able to tell a story about how your prostitute/guide thought prostitution was wrong, immoral, unethical, whatever… that kinda thing. It’s one thing to talk about the facts and logistics. But it’s quite another thing to talk about what those facts mean.
The facts are interesting, but what you or your friend thought about the facts would have taken this article up a few notches
Not trying to be some annoying troll. Try it next time. Add an opinion, because opinions polarize people and get discussion going. Practically all popular blog posts on the web are popular because they have an opinion, even if it pisses people off.
Thanks for keeping it civil John and offering constructive criticism, these are things I’ll bear in mind. I wish all commenters were this polite! I’m sorry if you felt the title was misleading; I had given the piece a different title more specific to Amsterdam when I submitted it, but I respect the editors’ choice to change it to what it is.
Great post, and interesting to hear the perspective of a sex worker there. I’m surprised farmers are among the biggest customers though! I wonder why?!
Farmers and football fans is an odd demographic – I agree with you Tom! I guess Holland is more rural than some places. Or maybe it’s a lonely job where they don’t meet a lot of ladies?
i enjoyed reading this. I also didn’t know these tours existed. my own experience of the amsterdam red light district was quite memorable as a tranny grabbed my arm and scratched me with her long fingernails trying to beckon me in.. or something. thanks for the post!
[...] Prostitution and stripping go hand in hand with Travel and Tourism, there’s no denying that. They are industries that mutually benefit each other. To suggest that being motivated to become involved in prostitution because of economic hardship is SAD, is naive because quite clearly, the motive to become involved in that business or any other is always MONEY, and the NEED for at least enough to get by in life. [...]