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Men in Amsterdam's windows
31/03/2007 18:03 - (SA)
Amsterdam - Men swapped places with women offering themselves for hire in the shop windows of Amsterdam's infamous red light district on Saturday in an audacious bid to improve the area's seedy image.
"Last year, I noticed that there were a lot of female visitors," Mariska Majoor from the Prostitution Information Centre (PIC), organiser of the second annual open day to stress the area's "positive and festive" side, told AFP.
"So we asked for men prepared to prostitute themselves to be in the windows for one day. It is only the second time in the history of Amsterdam that men are offering themselves to women are in the windows like their female colleagues."
One of them was a 34-year-old called Fabio.
"I want to get into escort services because I have stopped my modelling career, so I said to myself why not advertise yourself!" he said nervously as crowds gathered to catch a glimse of the five male volunteers.
Next to him was 31-year-old Dennis, wearing only a pair of black Lycra shorts.
$45 a go
"I want you ... it's 35 euros (45 dollars) a go!" Dennis called out to a group of giggling young women walking past.
"Thirty euros? That's cheap!" a woman says to her friend.
Suzan, Inge and Wil, three friends in their fifties, took advantage of the open day to have a look around inside.
"We visited a shop window with a bedroom, we even sat down on the stool where they wait for customers," one of them recounted. "It gives you a completely different image to be on the inside."
Other attractions included free peep shows, a course offering "All you need to know about contraceptives in 10 minutes" and a demonstration of pole-dancing - but with the dancer wearing a pair of shorts for a change.
Later Saturday, a statue paying tribute to "all the prostitutes of the world" - depicting a confident-looking woman with her hands on her hips, leaning against a doorway - was due to be unveiled.
Prostitution was legalised in 2000 in the Netherlands and being a prostitute is thought of as a job like any other when it comes to workers' rights.
"It's not all rosy of course. Forced prostitution exists here too and the PIC is here to help women escape that," Majoor said.
- AFP
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