AMSTERDAM — When walking the Red Light District in Amsterdam, tourists are not allowed to take pictures of the sex workers posing behind the floor-to-ceiling windows in teasing lingerie. There is one place, however, that encourages photographs.
The Museum of Prostitution invites visitors to find out what hides behind the red curtains of those windows, and reveals the secrets of the everyday life of local prostitutes.
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“I am no prostitute, I am a sex therapist,” a quote printed on a museum’s wall belongs to Inga, a Russian woman who has been a sex worker in Amsterdam for more than 15 years.
Her voice, recorded into an audio tour, guides museum’s visitors from room to room, explaining how women (and sometimes men) work in the oldest district of the city, known among locals as De Wallen.
Legal profession
The history of the district goes back to the 14th century, with sailors flocking here for booze and female company. Since then, prostitution was mostly allowed in the city, and even in the times when it was officially forbidden, the threats to sex workers and their clients existed only on paper.
The district’s only negative effect on the city throughout its existence was the increase of sexually transmitted diseases. Napoleon Bonaparte, whose troops occupied the country in 1795, partially solved the problem. He legalized sex work for those who undertook regular medical check-ups.
By the time the French left the Netherlands in the early 19th century, there were reportedly more than 3,000 women working in De Wallen.
In the late 19th century, the police have forbidden sex workers from approaching people on the streets, so they had to lure their clients from behind a window, a tradition that is preserved even now.
Since 2000, prostitution is an official profession in the Netherlands, with sex workers having to register at the Dutch Chambers of Commerce and pay taxes.
Big money
The Red Light District itself contains about 300 rooms that are rented by sex workers with a daily payment of about 300 euros ($352). The landlords are obliged to check the documents of the sex workers, making sure they follow the regulations, are healthy, and are not victims of sex trafficking.
Even though the overall number of sex workers in Amsterdam isn’t known, the latest research from 2010 shows that it exceeds 6,750 people, with up to 3,380 prostitutes renting a window in the Red Light District, and over 2,600 working without a license.
A sex worker in De Wallen works from four to six days a week, a 10-hour shift each, hosting up to 16 customers per shift. While in brothels customers pay for a one-hour-long session, visitors of the Red Light District rooms pay a fixed price, starting with 50 euros, with a visit lasting from 6 to 15 minutes.
As many as 2,000 men use sex services in De Wallen daily.
Behind curtain
The Museum of Prostitution is located in a building that used to rent out the rooms to sex workers. Anna Zentveld, a Dutch sex worker, was murdered there in 1956 while on the job, and the case hasn’t been solved yet. The museum has a wall memorial dedicated to her, as well as to other sex workers, who were killed in the Red Light District while at work.
“Prostitution is one of the most dangerous professions in the world,” one of the museum’s signs reads, adding that sex workers are killed in the Netherlands almost every year.
The museum tour takes a visitor through several rooms, showing what a usual customer sees when choosing a woman in a window and going behind a red curtain. There is a simple small room, with a bed, a sink, a toilet and a coffee table. A visitor then can go further to a so-called luxury room with a TV screen, a hot tub, candles and a big bed.
The next room of the museum is for SM, or sadomasochistic role playing. It has a cage with torture instruments, a leather swing and a cross, where some clients like to be tied by wrists and ankles.
According to the museum, many sex workers become “SM mistresses” when they get older, and for some it means that they don’t have sex with their clients, satisfying only their need for being erotically teased, or even physically hurt.
The museum also has an exhibition of objects that were left by the customers of the Red Light District: glasses, a wallet, a set of false teeth, and more.
In the end of a tour, visitors can hole up in a confession box, and write up their sexual confessions on small notes, some of which are pinned to one of museum’s walls.
The tour is accompanied by honest stories of Inga, some of which are shocking, while others are profoundly funny. She urges people to behave respectfully towards the women of the Red Light District, and to call the police if they suspect a coercion.
Museum of Prostitution.
Oudezijds Achterburgwal 60, 1012 DP Amsterdam, The Netherlands, open daily 11–12 a. m.
www.redlightsecrets.com
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