What Legalized Prostitution Looks Like in the Red Light

What would it be like if prostitution were legal? If you’re from the United States or any other part of the world where sex work is (largely) prohibited by law, this might be a very difficult thing to imagine. However, if you look to countries where sex work is legal today, you can see that there are actually several different forms it can take. For example, in Switzerland, they’ve opened up drive-in sex garages, which you can learn more about here. And in the Netherlands (where I’m teaching a study abroad course on sex and culture at the moment), they have walk-up sex windows in the Red Light District.

To learn more about how sex work “works” in the Netherlands, my students and I are sitting down today with a Dutch sex worker at the Prostitution Information Center (PIC) for a seminar and Q&A (side note: the PIC is an organization dedicated to educating the public about the realities of prostitution–in other words, they’re ambassadors for sex work). Following that, we’re going to take a guided tour of the Red Light District.

While vacationing in Amsterdam last summer, I participated in the same discussion and tour, which I ended up writing an article about over at Playboy. I documented some of the most interesting things I learned from this fascinating experience, including how the industry itself is regulated, what it’s like to work behind the glass, and what the going rate for sex currently is.

Check out the full article here for the details. Follow the blog to keep up on what we’re learning on this trip, or learn more about our other adventures by following me on Twitter @JustinLehmiller

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Image Source: 123RF/Josep Curto

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