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Monday Mini: Sex Workers Protest in Amsterdam · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told your protection of iHeartRadio, and today I'm
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: going to be running through something that just I was
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: curious about, caught my eye, saw it in headlines. But
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: quick content learning. We are talking about some sex work
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: stuff and some weirdness people have around sex work stuff,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: but nothing too serious at all. The date, because this
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: is a changing situation, is April seventh, twenty twenty three.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: And Samantha, if you don't mind, I'm just gonna run through,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: let's go. I need, I need, I need to be updated. Yes,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: all right, So you might have heard about the sex
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: workers strike in Amsterdam, and we are going to break
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: it down here briefly, but I think we should do
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a whole episode exploring the history of what brought us here,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and definitely if anyone has more information, is there works
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: in the industry, please reach out, because that's one of
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the key things is often missing from these conversations is
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the voice of the sex workers who are actually going
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: to be impacted. So just let us know. But here's
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the basics of what's going on. So, in an effort
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: to rebrand from their go wild reputation, Amsterdam's go wild reputation,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: going as far to tell drunk British tourists to quote,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: stay home. Amsterdam is putting in place new rules around
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: things like travel, like especially like short term travel or
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: cheap travel, lodging, alcohol, cannabis, and sex workers. So here's
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: a quote. According to CNN, new rules for sex workers
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: come into force on April first, according to officials, requiring
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Amsterdam's sex work businesses to close their doors at three
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: am other than six am, to combat what local authorities
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: describe as nuisance behavior by people visiting the red Light district.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: And just because I was like, huh, that's interesting, here's
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: another quote from CNN from that same CNN article about
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: their ad campaigns. The ad campaigns coming out of Amsterdam.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: The City Council has also introduced several campaigns, including the
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Stay Away campaign, which initially targeted young British men by
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: triggering a video advertisement that warns of antisocial behavior if
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: they search for terms such as stag party Amsterdam, cheap
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: hotel Amsterdam, or pub call Amsterdam. A spokesperson for Amsterdam's
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Deputy mayor, Sofion mcbarkie, I'm so sorry if I butchered
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: that and the campaign said the campaign started in the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: UK because quote part of this group is strongly represented
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: in the nightlife in the city center, accompanied with more
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: than average nuisance behavior. So this whole thing is a
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: part of a move to relocate sex workers to a
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: quote erotic center outside of the city. Government officials have
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: said things like the moves are to make the city
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: more quote livable, but sex workers argue that they are
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: being unfairly discriminated against and being used as a scapegoat
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: for the city's issues around mass tourism. A former Amsterdam
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: sex worker and current chairperson of red Light United, which
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: is a union for window workers in the red light district,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: says that the lost hours being proposed here will reduce
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: income for these sex workers, which in turn will make
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: it harder to afford renting window rooms and taxi ride homes,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: which is a question of safety because they brought up
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of points about around, like walking home versus
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: riding home, leaving at three am when it's dark there
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: are people around, versus leaving at six am when there
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: are more people around. The business being largely cash based,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: so many workers are carrying a lot of cash on
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: them and they're kind of a target because of that.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Most window workers don't start working until midnight when the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: bars are shutting down, which gives them only a few
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: hours to work under these new regulations. Another sex worker,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: who is also a coordinator for the Prostitution Information Center,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: says that the move will disproportionately hurt the trans community
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: since many of the clients who come in from three
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: to six am specifically request trans workers. And as always,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: as I mentioned, one of the big issues here, especially
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: when it comes to sex workers, we've had a lot
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: of episodes about this is that these regulations are being
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: made without having serious conversations with the people who will
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: be affected. And yes, on top of this, the city
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: council is making moves to shut down window establishments entirely
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: in the Red Light District and relocate them to what
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: they're calling in an erotic center. At a meeting where
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: they were discussing location options, a group of protesting sex
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: workers interrupted. One of them handed the mayor petition signed
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: by two hundred and sixty six sex workers requesting more
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: security in the Red Light District as opposed to reduced
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: hours work hours for sex workers. The mayor has argued
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: previously that tourist see window workers in the Red Light
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  Speaker 1: District as a tourist attraction only, and that the Erotic
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Center would in fact be a safe space for sex
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: workers to do their work safely and without harassment. But
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: many sex workers disagree. They argue that the Erotic Center
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: will further stigmatize sex work and instead promote quote shadier
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  Speaker 1: behavior including crime, and that moving it to a more
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: closed off area as opposed to the Red Light District
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: where there are people, there are spectators, that the safety
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: of the workers will be impacted. In fact, it was
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: kind of heartwarming to read a lot of the the
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: quotes from sex workers who were like, no people in
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Amsterdam will shut down really toxic behavior. Its kind of
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: makes us feel bit more safe. Here's the quote from
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the previously mentioned chairperson of Red Light United. Wholes agree
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: that the no rule's attitude needs to shift, but they say,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: you can have several campaigns telling people to stay away,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: but people are not going to stay away. You need
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: to teach people how to behave you don't do that
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: is never ever going to change. This is not a
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: zoo come to the Red Light district, but behave right.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's that's fair and common sense. And yeah,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: putting them in isolating them feels like it's definitely somehow
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: almost like caging them. Yeah, it's it's definitely a lot worse.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: And I wonder like police response, emergency response, like is
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: it there? Will they come out? I'm just thinking about
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: how if you have an area and you dedicate that
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: as a specific thing, how easily it can be ignored
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: and or how easily it can be bad, like just
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the situation is turning bad, And like again that ignoring
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: about the idea of like what if police don't want
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: to show up, what if you know you do, only
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: have the bad players come through and because they know
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: there's no one around to really hold them accouble, right exactly.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: It definitely I agree with the whole point of like
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: it feels like it's stigmatizing it more is putting it
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: outside further away, which again impacts like the brides getting there,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: the security getting there, getting home, people who will come,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: like the all of that. And I I think this
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: goes again to so many conversations we have around things
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: like rape culture, where it feels like we're constantly targeting,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: like we're looking at the symptoms and not the problem
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: we're roll These British guys are causing us so much. Mayhem,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: get rid of the sex workers, like right, correct the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: behavior right exactly exactly. Well again, listeners, if you have
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: any experience in this, if you're in this area, anything
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: to add to it, we would love to hear from you,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: because again we're kind of reading from outside perspective right
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: about this. You can email us at stephaniea Mom stuff
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I'm also a podcast or on Instagram and TikTok at
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: stuff One Never Told You. You can also find us
• 8:12
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• 8:14
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• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, Thanks as always to our super
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and our contributor Joey.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Yes, and thanks to you for
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: listening Stuff I Never Told You this production of iHeartRadio.
• 8:32
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