The Prostitution Information Center

"At one point, [Majoor] needed money to buy a dog and 

thought sex work was an excellent way of doing that."

Short Founder Bio on Mariska Majoor

Another experience of our time in the Netherlands which cannot go unmentioned was our trip to the infamous Wallen Red Light District (RLD). Though we were restricted from spending much time physically walking through the RLD due to the rain, our day was highlighted with a great presentation by the Prostitution Information Center (PIC).

Founded in 1994 by former sex worker Mariska Majoor, the PIC exists as a space in which stigmas about sex work are confronted. Majoor has converted her shop into a mini-museum of sex work, takes groups on tours of the RLD, and even offers window workshops for people who want to more fully understand the aspects of window work. These workshops, for those who are intrigued, offers the ability for individuals to placed behind window and taught how window workers perform, but men do not enter the window.

Mariska Majoor, founder of the PIC

Aside from these different ways of introducing sex work to the general public, the PIC has been extremely successful and progressive in other realms. Majoor has published books as well as magazines. She also serves on multiple consultative legislative bodies such as the Platform for Improving the Position of Immigrant Prostitutes. She also successfully brought an experiment to the RLD in which only men were allowed in the windows. And, most impressive to me, she offers self-defense training through street theatre and is responsible for the placement of the world famous statue "Belle."

"Belle"

As a person whose understanding of sex work is limited to the movie "Taken" and one seminar once by Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP), this entire day was an overwhelming amount of new information. I saw models of the windows' beds and sinks and heard descriptions from sex workers themselves. Most shocking to me was my learning of clinics described by Ronald Weitzer in his book Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit Vice to Lawful Business (yes, amidst all this traveling, we still do work). In his chapter specifically about Amsterdam, he references clinics in which services of medical care, language classes, computers classes, and group discussions are offered to female sex workers... all free of charge. My obsessive dream about creating a progressive clinic for women was sitting here, right in the middle of the Red Light District.

Although the day was undoubtedly an unforgettable experience, I am still not sure where exactly I identify on the controversy of sex work. I am sure, based on the conversations that followed our trip, the I will have plenty of chances to further discuss where views of sex work exist inside our group.