“But, I Thought They’d Be More Attractive”: Demystifying Sex Work and Sex Work Research

Studying Comparative Women’s Studies and conducting research on sex work at Utrecht University has its benefits: amazing faculty, international recognition, classes with titles like “Technobodies,” direct access to major feminist non-profit organizations in Europe, and the beautiful landscape of the Netherlands. However, living in a country with legalized sex work and in close proximity to the Red Light District of Amsterdam has it’s downsides: jokes made about how I am going to school to learn how to become a “hooker,” repeated trips to the Red Light District at the request of friends who come to visit me, and the unsettling feeling I get as I try to explain how prostitution works in the Netherlands to my visitors.

I’ve come to expect two basic and horrific remarks from those who come to visit me in the Netherlands: (1) in regards to my area of research, “You must love your research, it sounds so glamorous!”; and, in regards to the Red Light District,  (2) “Wait, but I thought the sex workers would be hot.”

My usual response tends to be direct and abrasive, “No, researching sex work isn’t glamorous and neither is sex work.”

There is very little glamor to researching sex work in the Red Light District of Amsterdam.  I often have to go window to window to find sex workers who are willing to talk to me (and, many aren’t). Most importantly, I have to gain the trust and respect of the sex workers I wish to interview–which is often a difficult task as they must be careful about exploitation and abuse–and I must be careful when I represent their stores in my work as I do not want to exploit them or their experiences. I also have to be cautious of my own safety in the Red Light District, especially in the evenings and on weekends, when the majority of tourists descend upon the area to gawk at the workers in the windows, their insobriety levels high and their respect for sex workers low.

Moreover, sex work is also not glamorous, regardless of what Showtime and “The Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” want you to think. Not all sex workers live in posh apartments, take clients when it’s convenient, and jet off to tropical islands with attractive and rich men for the weekend. They aren’t always twenty-something women with no stretch marks, legs for miles and sexy lingerie. In fact, go to Amsterdam’s Red Light District at 1 PM on Tuesday and you’ll find middle age women texting on their cellphones, smoking cigarettes, and looking–frankly–bored with their jobs like any other worker who has to do what they do to pay the bills.

Sure, on Friday and Saturday nights some of the windows will be decked out with the bodies of young, tight twenty-somethings in g-strings and corsets, but they pay the price in the high cost of rent for access to the spaces during this popular work time–meaning they have to take more clients and perform more sex acts to make their time spent working in the windows profitable. They also have to screen clients for their level of sobriety, potential for aggressive behavior, and overall respect for sex workers.

While I believe sex work is a legitimate form of work and should be treated as such, it is important for those who talk about sex work and sex workers to remember that the women in the business aren’t merely objects to be gawked at by tourists.