Owen (2023)
Well, we are here in Amsterdam, and all checked into our hotel. After a delayed flight, a nightmare (2 and a half hours?) to get through passport control and a missed PIC tour later (GUTTED!), we are finally at our hotel. This morning started off like a dream, we met at 8:15am, checked in and got through security checks no problem, I had a lovely breakfast at The Kissing Gate and then after that it started to go downhill. But we’ve got here safe and sound, that’s all that matters. Although we have missed out on a few hours (especially the tour), it’s still time to explore. We’re all going to head into the centre of Amsterdam as a group, our lecturer wants to show us a few things, so we’re going to hop on the metro, which conveniently is across the road.
Amsterdam Red Light District (2020) https://www.amsterdamredlightdistricttour.com/news/amsterdam-sex-worker-interview/
Thankfully we have been able to re-schedule our PIC tour to Thursday, which is great, stress relief! At least now we’ll be able to have an opportunity to see what topics they cover and hopefully ask some questions. We also found that tours around the Red-Light District are now banned and so it will be a talk from PIC. I did some quick research on this and found that the reasoning is to decrease tourism and overcrowding as well as improve working conditions of prostitutes? The article states that ‘gawking’ tourists are bad for business. That, I’m not so sure about as prostitutes need tourism to make money, surely? It’s considered inappropriate to leer into working windows – see the article https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/amsterdam-red-light-district-ban-sex-tourism-netherlands-a8840526.html. There seems to have been quite a few new rules regarding tours, see this article https://www.amsterdamredlightdistricttour.com/news/amsterdam-red-light-district-tour-ban/. It will be interesting to see what PIC thinks of this.
Owen (2023)
One thing our lecturer showed us was the bronze breastplate. A pic I took is above, simply it is a man’s hand cupping a woman’s breast. The location of it was what I found most interesting; the piece of art can be easily missed as it is amongst the cobbled floor sat right outside of the old Oude Kerk church, in the middle of the Red-Light District. After brief information about the sculpture from our lecturer I decided to further research it’s history to which I was surprised that there wasn’t much surrounding it, this is because no-one knows who made or placed it in 1993. A blog I found, as seen, https://artsfeast.wordpress.com/2019/08/31/lets-talk-about-boobs/,
explains it’s history well, the location of the sculpture is to make a point of sex workers being invisible, which makes sense. Verhoeven and Gestel (2017) state how although prostitution might be legal, sex workers are still invisible, women still hide behind anonymity and fake identities due to the on-going stigma associated to sex work. Overtime all sorts of techniques have been made by the government to servile, exclude and control prostitutes (Brants, 1998), which is why this sculpture is placed right outside of a church. Its location is also to highlight how sex workers are part of the city just like the sculpture is part of the cobbled floor:
‘Because whores are necessary in big cities and especially in cities of commerce such as ours – indeed it is far better to have these women than not to have them – and also because the holy church tolerates whores on good grounds’ (Brants, 1998 p.p. 621).
The breast plate shows respect to Amsterdam’s sex workers.
Arthur (2011) See other article re inscription: https://travel.sygic.com/en/poi/belle-poi:12191863
We then were shown another historical statue which you can see above, this is Belle. This historical statue is a busty woman standing in a doorway at the top of a small staircase, wide-legged, gazing confidently into the world. This statue was created in 2007 by the founder of the Prostitute Information Centre who was also a former sex worker. Belle is the first and only statue dedicated to sex workers openly, her aim is to show respect to sex workers all over the world. See both articles https://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/142-amsterdam-prostitute-statue and https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/04/a-statue-dedicated-to-sex-workers-in.html.
RLD Amsterdam Tours (2018) https://rldamsterdamtours-blog.tumblr.com/post/171080018833/trompettersteeg-is-the-narrowest-alley-of
We were taken to the narrowest alley in Amsterdam, Trompettersteeg. This is where my research and observations really began. Our lecturer wanted to take us there to show us the art and also the well windows, however, by our surprise, all the windows were empty and abandoned. She had previously been to the same alley back in 2018/19 and all windows were working windows, which made me question, are they empty because of COVID? They were completely empty, no curtains, no lights, some even looked like building sites inside. I thought I had taken a photo whilst I was there but looking back at my photos from today to upload and show you, I don’t seem to have, I’m gutted as honestly, they were EMPTY. See the video below of Trompettersteeg, you can see all the windows, imagine them all being ABANDONED!!!
Right, I’m going to try and get some sleep. I’ll keep you guys in the loop with what I’m doing as much as I can.
References
Amsterdam Red Light District (2020) New Amsterdam Red Light District Tour Ban Does Not Allow Tours [online] February 14th 2020
Available at: https://www.amsterdamredlightdistricttour.com/news/amsterdam-red-light-district-tour-ban/
[Accessed: 13th March 2023]
Amsterdam Red Light District (2020) Sex Worker Expert Shares Truth About Prostitution [online image]
Available at: https://www.amsterdamredlightdistricttour.com/news/amsterdam-sex-worker-interview/
[Accessed: 13th March 2023]
Arthur (2011) Amsterdam Belle Monument Oudekerksplein [online image]
Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/arthur-a/5539197215
[Accessed: 13th March 2023]
Brants, C. (1998) ‘The Fine Art of Regulated Tolerance: Prostitution in Amsterdam’, Journal of Law and Society. Vol 25 (4) p.p. 621-635
Coffey, H. (2019) Amsterdam to ban all tours of red light district. Independent [online] 26th March 2019
Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/amsterdam-red-light-district-ban-sex-tourism-netherlands-a8840526.html
[Accessed: 13th March 2023]
Dawson, B. (n.d.) Let’s talk about boobs. Arts Feast [blog]
Available at: https://artsfeast.wordpress.com/2019/08/31/lets-talk-about-boobs/
[Accessed: 13th March 2023]
Dutch Amsterdam (2023) Amsterdam statue honors prostitutes [online]
Available at: https://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/142-amsterdam-prostitute-statue
[Accessed: 13th March 2023]
George4WWWbourdelaTV (2010) Trompettersteeg and Bethlemsteeg [online video]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO_NIQJgAuA
[Accessed: 13th March 2023]
Hubbard, P. (2008) ‘Regulating sex work in the EU: prostitute women and the new spaces of exclusion’, Gender, Place & Culture. Vol 15 (2) p.p. 137-152
Owen (2023) Plane Picture [photograph] Liverpool
Owen (2023) Bronze Breastplate [photograph] Amsterdam
Patowary, K (2016) A Statue Dedicated to Sex Workers in Amsterdam. Amusing Planet [online] 27th April 2016
Available at: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/04/a-statue-dedicated-to-sex-workers-in.html
[Accessed: 13th March 2023]
Verhoeven, M. and Gestel, B.V. (2017) ‘Between Visibility and Invisibility: Sex Workers and Informal Services in Amsterdam’, Feminist Economics. Vol 23 (3) p.p. 110-133
Rijerse, E. (2007) Respect sex workers all over the world [online image]
[Accessed: 13th March 2023]
RLD Amsterdam Tours (2018) Discover Amsterdam’s Red Light District with the best local guides and discover the secrets [online image]
Available at: https://rldamsterdamtours-blog.tumblr.com/post/171080018833/trompettersteeg-is-the-narrowest-alley-of
[Accessed: 13th March 2023]
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