The Ins and Outs of the Red Light District* . . .

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*Not an entry for my youngest cousins, friends’ children or anyone too squeamish about the sex and drug industries 😊

**Note: Due to a “card error” with my camera’s memory stick, I cannot access my photos from my time in Amsterdam, thus the lack of photos here. I am hoping some computer wizard somewhere will be able to save them for me and I will eventually be able to share and enjoy them. Please send positive thoughts and energy to my camera, as I fear that my wariness with digital photos has caught up to me and I have lost all 200+ photos. But onto the blog . . .

After Anne Frank’s house, I rushed back to my hostel where I could now check into my room. My hostel is great! The Bulldog Hotel, owned by the Bulldog chain of coffeehouses, is righ tin the Red Light District, around the corner from Dam Square and only 10 minutes from the Central Station. The staff were great, the room clean, a great lounge and my bed is I think the most comfortable bunk bed I’ve ever had! I’m booked in a room for 8, but apparently I’m the only one in it! Not something you generally get lucky with.

So then I decided to rush off to another tour! The company I’d gone with earlier also offers an evening tour of the Red Light District (though you have to pay for this one). The District is so famous, I wanted to really see it and although it’s quite safe (there are police, security guards, cameras everywhere), I still didn’t feel up to wandering on my own. So this tour was perfect.

Again, I learned things I simply would not find out on my own. Again, great guide (Ruth). The tour was really fun, very interesting and I think we pretty much saw it all! During the day, the Red Light District appears pretty tame. There’s not many ladies in the windows and if you didn’t read the names of the stories, the buildings and neighbourhood appears like most of the rest of the city. At night though, you can’t mistake it for anything but what it is.

We did lots of walking and stopped in front of many buildings/storefronts and were told very entertaining stories. We saw the hotel where jazz musician Chet Bakter died. The first bar in Amsterdam, back when selling hard liquor was illegal. The city’s most revered mushroom shop (where all the employees came out to invite us inside for a tour). The Condomerie, a condom store set up by 2 women to promote safer sex in the District. The gay bars, each with their own “specialty”. A film shop with a category for every fetish imaginable. The city’s first coffeeshop (The Bulldog). The office where women rent windows, complete with a man on duty carefully watching the security feed from around the area. The Prostitute Information Centre, set up by a former prostitute for supporting the women in the area. Blood Street (thus named for the public executions at the top at the Waag - the only inclined street in the city, they say blood used to poor down it, and once the french introduced the guillotine, that heads would roll too). Various famous live sex theatres. And of course, lots of streets lined with women in the windows.


The windows are a tour on their own and our guide explained it all. Red lights mean “regular” women who’ll charge around 50 euros (almost $100 Canadian) for 15 minutes and 2 positions (you pay extra to ask her for anything else). Blue lights are transgendered women - girls on top, boys below. Blue and Red lights are women who specialize in S&M (or they’ll just put a whip in the window). Doors open from the inside only. You negotiate at the door. If you see a bed, it happens there. The tiny rooms with girls on stools have stairs going to a room upstairs. Each woman has an alarm and if they trigger it, security guards, police and usually other women go running.

There’s an area of the District, or city, for every “type” - every size, shape, race, age. And we saw nearly everything. The woman must be at least 18 and the oldest working woman is 75 (we didn’t see her). I’d say most were in their 20s/early 30s. We walked down the city’s narrowest street, barely the width of any typical household hallway, lined with some of the most expensive women - either because they’re the best looking or they’re the best at what they do. And we walked through a building where the women stand in the open doorways to their rooms, inviting the men in.

And it’s all very active. Lots of closed curtains - meaning the woman is at work behind. Interestingly, the curtains were closed at every blue or blue and red window we passed. We passed clumps of men “out on the town”, window shopping with friends. Saw men knock at the doors and women open to start negotiations. Saw men leaving, either acting completely nonchalant & looking down, or walking away with smug self-satisfied grins.

And all the while, we were also shown the “normal” life in the District. It’s an in-demand neighbourhood: historic, central, beautiful buildings. You get every professional person living typical lives in houses, condos and apartments throughout. We stopped at what our guide called “The Most Shocking Site in the Red Light District”. A kindergarten. The school is mostly for children who live in the area, though some working women will bring their children in (most women live outside the area). A news station recently filmed at the school to see how it effects the children and they asked the kids what they thought was happening. A little girl raised her hand and said her teacher had told her. “In the Red Light District ladies sell the men kisses.”

The whole time I was there, I felt completely comfortable. I haven’t found displays of sex or drugs a source of giggles since I was a teenager. Drive through Niagara Falls and there’s strip clubs everywhere. The pack pages of every free weekly newsie if filled with sex ads. Toronto’s Queen Street has a condom shop and hemp store. Just last weekend, Toronto had the Everything To Do With Sex Show - and the top 40 radio station I listen to was giving away passes every day all week long. Working on the ship, you hear of various ports of call with good brothels. I see dance moves between my teens that are more shocking! Ultimately, there’s nothing in the Red Light District that I haven’t already seen. Just not so concentrated!

And so, I found that I appreciated what they have there in Amsterdam. I’m not a client for any of the businesses and what I think/understand of the industry itself and the clients (in any city) is a different issue. But I like that it’s open and honest. It feels less sketchy that way. And much safer!! It’s so normalized, it’s an institution.

And it’s one that’s changing. The government in Holland wants to change the Red Light District. They don’t want Amsterdam to be the world’s destination for drugs and sex. They’ve passed legislation (just need a date) to make mushrooms illegal again. The city’s most exclusive brothel was bought and closed. Some of the big theatre’s we saw are said to be closing soon. In this year alone, 50% of the district’s windows have been closed. The government bought them. Most have been changed into clothing displays (“Red Light Fashion” the stickers in the windows say).

Whether or not the whole district can/will be shut down will be seen. Whether or not it’s a good move is debatable. While incidents with tourists getting stoned and injuring/killing themselves is bad publicity, the partying tourists bring millions of dollars to the city - and not just for the drugs, but the businesses that sell drug t-shirts, rolling papers, burgers at 1am, etc. And while being known for a city to go to have sex may not be desirable, closing the windows have meant women have gone to work on the streets - unprotected.

Regardless of the debate, the Red Light District is changing. That was apparent throughout the tour. For a neighbourhood and industry that is world famous and has existed as long as the city itself, it seems timeless and that it will always be there. But maybe not. And so I am very glad to have seen it now.

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Comments

[ladonna]

madeleine mccann
did you happen to see or get any pictures of the missing madeleine mcann while you were there? Look her name up on the computer to see about her if you have any photos or info pleawse let the parents know at one of the addresses metodo 3 is their private investigator their address is a good one thanks