Reviewing Ed and Nancy Kienholz’s recreation of Amsterdam’s red-light district, The Hoerengracht “at least two men writing about the piece have felt the need to share personal stories of interactions with the Amsterdam red-light district, or with prostitutes. Richard Dorment opened his Telegraph review with a paragraph on his schoolboy adventures in Amsterdam (supervised by a Jesuit; what a shame I went to a Church of England school). It is ‘not irrelevant to the exhibition’, he adds. Then Tom Lubbock in the Independent tells us ‘I have never paid for sex. But off the top of my head I can think of three male friends who have, and perhaps still do.’ Too much information. WAY too much. What next, a link to their Facebook pages?” (via.)
“When the sex industry gets discussed, it’s usually the sex part that is emphasized. The notion of empowerment that gets kicked around is solely about the sex act, not about the money. Maybe this is part of a cultural seduction that people want to buy into: the idea of the prostitute who is compelled to do her work because she’s brimming over with sexual desire and the money is a nice side benefit. But the reality is that most sex workers, like other members of the work force, do their jobs because they get paid.” – Audacia Ray
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