THE NETHERLANDS – A campaign was launched in Amsterdam aimed at drawing attention to the recognition of sex work. The message of the campaign is “sex work = work”. Sex workers want people to understand that they are doing normal and legitimate work, NOS reports.
The two week long camping consists of electronic posters at bus- and tram stops. The posters will be shown for ten seconds every minute in different places in the city center. In both English and Dutch, the posters read: “My body. My job. My choice.”
Foxxy, a sex worker and board member of interest group PROUD, called this a necessary campaign. “Certain media still create a certain image that is absolutely not true.” Part of that image is that sex workers often feel vulnerable.
“Due to stigmas, people sometimes do not approach us a people”, sex worker Yvette Luhrs said to NOS. To address problems in the industry, people must accept that sex work is normal work, she said. “And you don’t have to think it’s great, or normal. But if you’re against abuses in the sex industry, you have to understand that we are people with labor rights and human rights. We should all stand up for that.”
The Amsterdam city council is currently planning an overhaul of the Red Light District, aimed at tackling abuses in prostitution and nuisance in the area. According to the initiators, this campaign is separate from that discussion, but the discussion made it a good time to call attention to their work.
