Ode to Sekswerker | Cowgirl

Climbing a ladder with a cowboy hat to stick paper strips with the text 'I have to work harder' on the campaign board of I amsterdam. That's what the students of the UvA did on the Europaboulevard at the Zuidas on January 23. The police found it a bit suspicious, so they came to take a look as well. It's nice that they are already keeping such a close watch on this place.

Interventie

But why this location? The location was not chosen at random; it is the place where the future Erotic Center will be established. Due to the crowds in the Red Light District, where sex work mainly takes place, many residents advocate for closing the windows. In 2020, the municipality began developing a new plan: an Erotic Center outside the city center. The Zuidas was seen as a suitable location, a place where mainly men are employed. Especially in top positions, it is primarily men who do the work, more than seventy percent!

This is due to the fact that women have to perform significantly more labor to get into higher positions than men. But with the arrival of the Erotic Center, there is a shift in gender relations in the Zuidas as more women come to work. However, the profession of sex workers is not taken as seriously as jobs in high offices. So women have to work harder to gain prestige. Why not as a sex worker? These “cowgirls” might as well get to the top. This is also how this is highlighted in Aukje Dekker's artwork Woman on Top. This is a collage filled with strips of paper with the text “I have to work harder. These are pasted over portraits of male Amsterdam mayors from the past so that they are no longer visible. The artwork is an ode to Amsterdam's first female mayor, Femke Halsema. By placing the strips of Woman on Top at the future location of the Erotic Center, the students criticized the power differences between men and women at this location. One by one, the students climbed den loader to stick a strip on the billboard with I Amsterdam. Climbing the ladder also figuratively referred to the difficult path to a higher position for women. The title of the intervention - Cowgirls - can also be seen as a nod to the sex position where the woman is in control, this is popularly known as “cowgirl. 

explanation

Everyone has probably heard the saying 'sex work is the oldest profession in the world', but this is a myth. It was concluded by the church, with the finding of clay tablets dating back to around 2400 BC, that women working in taverns must have been prostitutes. Researchers have been able to demonstrate that it is likely that these were only single women, and that sex work only emerged later.

Prostitution has also been occurring in Amsterdam since the Middle Ages. In 1578, prostitution was declared illegal, forcing sex workers to work underground. In the seventeenth century, prostitution was mainly found in music houses and brothels; these music houses were eventually banned as well. It was not until 1811 that prostitution was legalized, but this was revoked again in 1911. It was only in 2000 that it was legalized again to better regulate sex work.. 

Prostitution is a widely discussed topic within feminism. Opinions vary greatly. Sex-positive feminists believe that through selling sex, women gain more freedom and power, while anti-sex feminists argue that selling sex is always oppressive and detrimental to women. Many feminists agree that the choice to sell one's body should remain in the hands of the woman herself. What is striking is that all these feminists within these movements are not themselves engaged in prostitution and that the voices of sex workers remain largely unheard. This is a significant area for improvement within the entire feminist movement that all different factions of feminism should work on. Because ultimately it is about the opinions and the improvement of the rights of sex workers. It is then particularly remarkable that in a profession where consent is one of the most important factors, this is completely ignored by the municipality itself when building this erotic center, which the sex workers themselves are primarily against.