Prostitution in the USA and the Netherlands

[Joe McCarthy]

It shows how little you know. Amsterdam is not the Netherlands. The people don't speak Dutch their anymore and those that living there aren't Dutch anymore and outside Amsterdam starts a more conservative Netherlands. There are areas in my capital were either English of any sort or Dunglish is the main language of communication.

People don't speak Dutch in Amsterdam? Wtf?

And who is saying Amsterdam is the Netherlands? The point though is that the Netherlands is much more liberal than America. It's not just Amsterdam where prostitution is legal and in the 'conservative' areas one can open a brothel too. It just happens to be concentrated in Amsterdam's Red Light District - which is certainly a heaven sent fact.

[The Lawspeaker]

Indeed they don't. I can walk into a great number of shops in the middle and have a hard time ordering anything. As a matter of fact it happened to me on Damrak (right in the heart of the city) where the men and young woman behind the counter only spoke English and were apparently from all over Europe and beyond and not one of them was Dutch. Nice little lunch that was.

Yes prostitution has indeed been made legal and it has forced back some of the previous problems and made it safer. Trafficking remains a problem though so they are now thinking about registering prostitutes.

They are also now closing the Wallen piece by piece which could cause illegal prostitution to come back but that's what you get with social-democrats in Amsterdam and with Christian idiots in The Hague.

[Joe McCarthy]

Red Light District? Seriously?

Have you Americans forgot about Vegas???

Prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas.

[The Lawspeaker]

It's legal in the state of Nevada. And so is gambling. If there is a place of real social lawlessness and social degredation it is not the Netherlands but in your own country. In the state of Nevada.

[Joe McCarthy]

It's legal in the state of Nevada. And so is gambling.

Prostitution is legal in certain parts of Nevada, not Las Vegas, and it is illegal in every other part of the US, while its legal nationally in the Netherlands.

[The Lawspeaker]

Because our poltical system works differently and what you say is not entirely true btw: in for instance Staphorst and Urk it's illegal.

Swearing is illegal in Staphorst by municipal decree. A Dutchman knows that. Consequently.. it is the Christian area of the country that has the highest incidence of illegal drug use (Urk, Staphorst and Volendam are notorious for the use of cocaine) and you'd be surprised to know which areas have the fewest: the more liberal parts.

The same of course goes with prostitution. This reminds of a Dutch song:

En 's zondags in de kerk
dan zit daar zo'n meneer,
stijf als een houten plank
met spijkers in zijn kop
te kijken in zijn bank
Een zwart lakens pak
om zijn zondige lijf,
bang voor de duivel
en bang voor zijn wijf
En zuinig een cent
in het zakje doen
Zo koopt hij zijn ziel weer terug
en zijn fatsoen


And at sunday's at church
There is such a gentleman
as stiff as a wooden plank
with the nails in his head
sitting in the bench
wearing a black suit
around his sinful body
afraid of the devil
and afraid of his wife
and sparingly he puts a coin
in the sack
that way he buys back his soul
and his decency.

It's called Malle Babbe.. and is a song about prostitution.

The stunt that Britney pulled with getting married and getting divorced again (Nevada) couldn't happen in this country. The intent to get married (ondertrouw) is already a procedural nightmare that can take a couple of months.. let alone divorce. If you are married within the church that you can double the trouble because it will need to come before a Catholic council (local bishop) - I know because my mum went through it.

For short: the more Conservative the worse it gets. Forbidden fruits will always be enjoyed.

Split, please. This is used for American evangelicals. Not the results of their poisonous ideas (and the poisonous ideas of Christianity in general) in my country.

[Grumpy Cat]

Prostitution is illegal everywhere in Canada, and we have no equivalent to "Vegas" (despite Americans claiming we're "immoral" up here HAH!).

Although I hope it will be legalized soon and there is a bill on the table to do so. It will be safer for the prostitutes (less of a liklihood of abuse) and also, safer for the clientele as there would be regulations for STD/AIDS checks. Wins all around. People are going to seek out hookers, legal or not, might as well make it safer for both parties.

[The Lawspeaker]

But to take down Joe even more: what Britney did in Vegas can't happen here. You can't get married and divorced with less then a day here. Ondertrouw (intend to get married) alone takes months and both marriage and divorce are procedural nightmares.

Ooh.. we don't have bigamy here either (at least not under Dutch... hey American Mormones !) and divorce can be trouble when you're in a church as my mother noticed when she sought a divorce: the Church got involved, even the bishop himself and it took them quite some time to get the permission.

And when there are possessions.. or worse: children involved divorce cases can drag on for months and sometimes even more then a year.

[The Lawspeaker]

It will be safer for the prostitutes (less of a liklihood of abuse) and also, safer for the clientele as there would be regulations for STD/AIDS checks. Wins all around. People are going to seek out hookers, legal or not, might as well make it safer for both parties.

Yap same here. For what I know the use of condoms is mandatory and so are medical checks of professional sex workers.

I have read that they were already checking prostitutes here (using the methods of the day so not everything could be recognised) as early as the early 1800s by order of the French occupation force (before a reinforced Christianity later that century drove it underground)

[Eldritch]

Prostitution is illegal everywhere in Canada, and we have no equivalent to "Vegas" (despite Americans claiming we're "immoral" up here HAH!).

Although I hope it will be legalized soon and there is a bill on the table to do so. It will be safer for the prostitutes (less of a liklihood of abuse) and also, safer for the clientele as there would be regulations for STD/AIDS checks. Wins all around. People are going to seek out hookers, legal or not, might as well make it safer for both parties.

These are all valid arguments for decriminalising prostitution, but you missed perhaps the most persuasive one of them all: reduction, or hopefully elimination, of human trafficking.