Oct. 19, 2011 - Issue #835: Colleen Brown

Lust For Life

The red light keeps on burning

Amsterdam's de Wallen neighbourhood continues to foster the legal sex trade

On my way back from my trip to Europe, I was able to spend another day in Amsterdam so I headed back to the Red Light District and joined a tour by Berna from the Prostitution Information Centre. She has lived and worked in de Wallen for eight years and has studied the history of prostitution.
During the tour she told the group that it was actually only in 2000 that brothels (including the buildings which house the famous red-lit windows) became legal and they are legal only in designated areas. Previous to that, they had existed in a grey area of tolerance. Now, the buildings are licensed specifically for sex work. The workers are independent and they pay rent to the building owners. They call each day they would like to work and book a shift. The building owners are not allowed to change the rent based on the day, the shift or changes in popularity of certain locations. Neither landlords nor workers are allowed to book windows for extended periods of time. In this way, the sex trade is kept as fair and voluntary as possible. No one is obliged to continue to work to fulfill a contract or lease and no one is indebted to anyone for better spots, conditions or protection. Each window room is equipped with a panic button that links directly to the police.  Sex trade workers make police complaints because they are not in fear of being busted if they report an assault or theft.

It sounds like the perfect solution to the question of how to deal with the world’s oldest profession, but even Berna, who is an avid supporter of the system, had to admit there are concerns. "Yes, what happens right here is voluntary," she said, "But we have no way of knowing if the woman who booked that window this morning was brought into the country against her will and forced to work here. We only know that she booked it herself and that there is no one in the building forcing her to work."
Berna explained that because this is one of the few places where sex work is completely legal, and any adult who wants to work in the windows at de Wallen can, there are a lot of women coming in from other countries.  Since the formation of the European Union and the opening of the borders, many women from the poorer eastern countries of the EU have come to work there.
I asked her about the city's attempt to clean up de Wallen.  She scoffed, "Yes, they bought a lot of the window spaces and took away the licenses, but they couldn't sell them to anyone else so they’ve already sold a lot of the licenses back." She doesn't believe that the plan to encourage new "legitimate" business will work: "This is what this area is and always will be."
When I asked her about the early closing of the sex shops, she hadn't heard about it and said she hadn't noticed businesses closing early. "It won't work," she said. "It will be like the smoking ban. They tried to ban smoking in bars they just put jars in the bars for all the smokers to help pay the fines. The people in this area don't like to be told what to do. In 2008 all we heard about was this plan to change things here. But now that things are even worse with the economy, we haven't heard a thing about it in almost a year."
The one thing I've learned is that, as Berna says, Amsterdam and its people love their grey areas. If you ask 10 people what they think of the red light district and its future, you'll get 15 different answers. Only time will tell how this unique approach to the sex trade will survive into the years to come. V

Brenda Kerber is a sexual health educator who has worked with local not-for-profits since 1995. She is the owner of the Edmonton-based, sex-positive adult toy boutique the Traveling Tickle Trunk.

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