Can one’s sale of their own body ever be consensual? Is sex work inherently an act of violence against the body of which one buys? Feminists have puzzled over the politics of selling sex for as long as sex has been sold. While the selling of sex has been a polarizing feminist concern for decades, how are there so many mixed views that all are considered feminist in perspective? In analyzing the autonomy of sex workers, this paper focuses on the city of Amsterdam and its infamous Red Light District. Of importance in this inquiry is the examination of the history, key actors, and feminist perspectives that have shaped the laws and policies regulating the reality of the Red Light District in Amsterdam.
Included in this paper is qualitative-mixed methods data, participant observations and an interview with a public health nurse hired by the city of Amsterdam to aid sex workers, that is used to expand on Amsterdam as a specific location of analysis. Therefore, this paper argues that the legalization of sex work enables sex workers to be more autonomous in their work and in their everyday lives as opposed to the other legal approaches. While this paper makes the claim that legalization is the best approach for regulating sex work and enabling sex workers to be autonomous, this paper also argues for more sex-worker driven legislation that works to lessen the way the bodies of sex workers are hyper-policed. The Netherlands has made some serious strides in terms of legislating for sex worker’s rights but the country as a whole needs to work more to protect, work alongside, and destigmatize sex workers as a whole.
