Amsterdam has a new Ad campaign telling young Brits looking for a messy night out to stay away

[OldHouseLover]

It's pretty bad when there had to be an actual ad campaign?

Do you think it's fair that only British people are targeted?

It's a strange old argument though isn't it? My understanding is that there's prostitution literally everywhere, its as oldest time & in so many places the women are at huge risk waking thr streets & trading illegally etc
I thought in Amsterdam it was legalised in recognition of the fact that it will happen anyway & this way the women have actual places to work from & access to specific health care etc? Or am I totally wrong?

Walking

🤣

Sigh

OP has taken the ad out of context a bit. This is one of a number of measures the city of Amsterdam is taking to address a series of complex issues within the city.

They’re also looking at restricting access to the ‘coffeeshops’ and move the sex district, as well as a load of outreach projects to help women out of the sex trade. They have pushed many of the city cabbies to drive EVs and they’re looking at restricting Airbnb properties within the city centre.

But yes, British tourists are a significant factor. A lot of it is to do with proximity — Amsterdam is only an hour’s flight from most UK airports so naturally they get a lot of British tourists.

I’ve lived there and it is a beautiful city. However, if you are going to devote an entire district to windowed psrotitition, sell pre prepared assortments of cannabis and magic mushrooms etc in bars … I’ve no idea what types of tourists you’re expecting to attract and it’s hardly a surprise that they’re of the more ‘boisterous’ nature.

People go where their money is taken. If they don’t like a certain kind of tourist they need to stop taking their money. It sounds like they’re making efforts to do that, but if they’re continuing to allow men to pay to rape women then I’m not convinced by it

“We only want the kind of men who pay to rape women quietly”

I think they have heard my son in law is on his way with his mates 😬😂

Pulling women out of prostitution is a very complex issue though. If Amsterdam simply banned it, the ‘market’ wouldn’t go away. Prostitution exists in most places where it is explicitly banned as well.

There are significant outreach programmes in place in the Netherlands which help women (and a handful of men) lift themselves out of prostitution. It’s extremely complex — you’re dealing with traumatised people, self-esteem so low it might as well be non-existent, established criminal networks who have limitless finances and global reach, and active drug and alcohol dependence. Often all in the same person.

Amsterdam is doing a combo of carrot and stick tactics, across a range of issues (prostitution and drug consumption being just two of many). It’s not as simple as ‘people go where their money is taken’ because you’ve usually got vulnerable and disadvantaged people on the ‘taking’ end.

If it continues to be legal for men to pay to rape women then I continue not to be convinced by their efforts

I think we need to be clear that it’s not the Brits, it’s British MEN.

Just looked it up, prevalence of prostitution is not much higher in the Netherlands than in the UK. Just because it's more overt over there, doesn't mean it happens more often. I bet the average sex worker has more protection there, they even have their own union.

The British stag parties are horrendous. I avoid flying on cheap flights between Amsterdam and the UK, especially on a Friday.

Women being subjugated and exploited is also as old as time. In a world where the notion still exists that prostitution is actually liberating it will always be made hard to see what is really going on.

Except it isn’t, not exclusively. Go to the coffeeshops in Amsterdam and you’ll see plenty of women partaking. Many women get on the destructive pub crawls and book the Airbnbs that are driving locals out of the city. And we see a fair number of all-female groups (usually hen parties) around the RLD. Although, yes, it is primarily the men who pay for sex, you’d be very naive if you didn’t think there are also male strippers and sex workers who cater to the female (and gay) market in Amsterdam. The power imbalances are a bit different but it’s still trading sex for money.

On balance it is probably more men but it isn’t just men. And this argument absolves a whole bunch of British women from the responsibility that they bear for their impact on the city.

Wow, blinkers heavily in use.

The thing is, I for instance, would never go there. I would find it so seedy and I don't do drugs. There are so many other places for normal people to go to that they're going to attract those who are looking for sex and drugs.

If they are targeting Brits in their add campaign, then there will be a reason. They feel that this will make the biggest difference, otherwise they wouldn't do it.

You are missing out on a great city. It's confined to a small part of the city centre, it's very easy to have a great time and avoid all that.

It's got a lot to offer, the canals, history, museums are top notch.

A long time ago (when I was in my 20’s) we used to go skiing in Italy - same small village each year. We became friends with one of the local policemen and his family.
One day he asked why we were so nice when he was arresting “Brits” each evening for rowdy behaviour.

We asked if they were really Brits, so he decided to ask them for their passports. It turned out that the so-called Brits were actually German and Danish - they spoke such good English that it was hard to tell the difference😂

I have been to Amsterdam multiple times (I had a Dutch partner for a few years);and have never set foot in a coffee shop or the red light district.

Please don't let that put you off visiting a great city

Absolutely.

Amusingly the worst behaviour I’ve seen over there was from what I gather to be Spanish and French / Belgian tourists - sure there was a few loud Brits but the others were on another level.

Probably just more anti-Brexit nonsense.

That said, in Spain I’ve seen some absolutely horrific stag and hen do’s - a lad (presumably the groom) chanting about all the ‘birds’ he’s going to pull, and a lady dropping her knickers in the street for a piss.

We’re a classy nation!

“We’d like a better class of sex and drugs tourist please”

Just looked it up, prevalence of prostitution is not much higher in the Netherlands than in the UK. Just because it's more overt over there, doesn't mean it happens more often. I bet the average sex worker has more protection there, they even have their own union

There's a Sex Workers Union in the UK too - doesn't stop them being raped, beaten, degraded.

Plus I don't think traffickers allow their workers to join a union.

I despair how some women try to justify the tolerance of the exploitation of women.

I literally work with an organisation that helps lift women out of prostitution. I see all this with my own eyes, and from speaking to real people who are actually in this world.

If that’s blinkers, then blinkered be I.