Amsterdam’s red-light district opened its first “prostitution museum” on Thursday, hoping to lure tourists who always wondered what life was like for those on the other side of the infamous glass windows — but were too afraid to ask.
“How do they live? What happens in their world?” said Melcher de Wind, a founder of the Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution which showcases one of the Dutch capital’s most famous attractions.
“I have always wondered what really happens behind those neighborhood windows.”
Photo: EPA
Nestled between two famous brothels overlooking a canal, the new attraction seeks to offer something different to nearby museums on the subject such as the Sex Museum or the Museum of Eroticism.
“The other museums focus on sex and sexual performance. The new museum gives you a glimpse into the world of sex workers — what it feels like to stand behind a window and the looks you get,” explained Yolanda van Doeveren, who deals with prostitution for the Amsterdam municipality.
“Maybe tourists will get a chance to change their behavior and show a little more respect,” she added.
Inside the small museum, a large television screen shows a woman performing a strip-tease. Visitors are then shown a film about the other side of prostitution — women with families living everyday lives.
There are exhibits showing how both fashions and attitudes towards the world’s oldest profession have changed over the centuries.
Visitors are shown a display of the tools of the trade — condoms, lubricants and sex toys — based on the experiences of former prostitute Ilonka Stakelborough who advised the museum.
Prostitution in the Netherlands was legalized in 2000 and there are now around 7,000 people working in the industry in Amsterdam.
Around three-quarters of the women come from low-income countries, mainly from Eastern Europe, according to Amsterdam municipality figures.
They pay the equivalent of US$202 to hire one of Amsterdam’s 409 “frames,” which comes with a chair in front and a bed at the back.
Many women work 11 hours a day, six days a week with a visit to a prostitute lasting around 10 minutes.
The museum depicts BDSM (bondage, domination, sado-masochism) practices, and also features a “luxury” room with mirrored ceilings, a bed lit from below, and a bathtub next to an open bottle of champagne.
By way of contrast, there is a small room with barely space for a single bed that was used by a Polish prostitute when she was not with clients.
“We want to show all aspects of prostitution,” Stakelborough told AFP.
“Yes, there are women who are victims of human trafficking, but prostitution is mostly a career many women volunteer for.”
The arithmetic is straightforward and uncomfortable. By the end of 2025, Taiwan had committed itself to a 50-30-20 electricity mix — half natural gas, 30 per cent coal, 20 per cent renewables. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’s (MOEA) own monthly energy reports tell a different story. Natural gas reached 47.8 per cent of generation last year. Coal stood at 35.4 per cent, comfortably above its target ceiling. Renewables came in at 13.1 per cent, well short of the 20 per cent Taipei had pledged a decade earlier. Installed renewable capacity reached roughly half of the 12 gigawatts (GW) the government
There are shadowy cabals plotting to sell out Taiwan to be annexed by China, by invasion if necessary. Fortunately, they are buffoons. In 2019, former Bamboo Union gangster and founder of the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), Chang An-le (張安樂, colorfully known as “White Wolf”), led a protest at the Legislative Yuan against comments made by then-premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) that in the event of an attack by China, he would never surrender, but would protect the nation by fighting to the end, even if he only had a broom. Chang had party members bring a wooden casket that they
Taiwan’s drone exports are taking off, fuelled by the war in Ukraine, as Taiwanese companies seek a stake in the fast-growing global market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Low-cost drones used for reconnaissance and strikes are in high demand as governments around the world boost defense spending in the face of intensifying conflicts. A relative new player in the increasingly competitive industry, Taiwan’s pitch is to be an “Asian hub” for the production of UAVs and components free of Chinese materials, or “non-red.” That means its UAVs can be up to three times more expensive than their Chinese competitors, like the world’s biggest
June 1 to June 7 "If all Taiwanese were as afraid of dying as you, then what would happen?” Physician Shih Chiang-nan (施江南) reportedly said this to his wife Chen Chiao-tung (陳焦桐) after she urged him to stop intervening on behalf of Taiwanese soldiers stranded overseas after serving in the Japanese Army during World War II. Shih had clashed with high-ranking officials over the issue, engaged in several heated arguments with Taiwan governor-general Chen Yi (陳儀) and allegedly shouted at general Ko Yuan-fen (柯遠芬), chief of staff of the Taiwan Garrison Command, over
RSS