DIMMING
THE
LIGHTS
Can Amsterdam’s
mayor remake the
historic red-light district
for the 21st century?
BY CIARA NUGENTWorld
EvEryonE has an opinion about whErE
Felicia Anna works. For the past nine years,
the 33-year-old Romanian sex worker has
attracted clients by standing in the glowing
windows of the world’s most famous red-
light district. The area’s reputation, she says
over a coffee on one of Amsterdam’s cobbled,
canalside streets, means it attracts more con-
troversy than any other form of prostitution.
“We’re always in the public eye, literally,” she
says, laughing. (TIME has used pseudonyms
for sex workers interviewed for this piece.)
Nicknamed “De Wallen” in Dutch for its
position near the old city walls, the red-light
district’s medieval buildings have hosted sex
workers since the 15th century—long before
the Netherlands began regulating and tax-
ing prostitution in October 2000. Today, es-
cort services and sex clubs make up a signif-
icant part of Amsterdam’s sex-work sector.
But De Wallen’s window brothels, popu-
larized in the 1960s, remain iconic: the lit-
eral manifestation of the clear-eyed Dutch
approach to activities that other coun-
tries would rather sweep under the rug.
In recent years, though, a crisis has been
building that leaves the fate of the red-light
district uncertain. Budget tourists have
flooded the streets, snapping unauthorized
photos of sex workers and crowding out res-
idents. The increasing numbers of migrant
workers from Eastern Europe and further
afield since the late 20th century—now mak-
ing up around 80% of window workers—
have fueled concerns among lawmakers over
sex trafficking. On an international level, a
growing crowd of countries now see a 199948 timE November 18, 2019