<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by WilliamTheTraveler:
Great report, but I object to your comments on the Red Light District:
"That said, I have wandered through the Red Light district in Amsterdam before, which is a despressing experience--and one at the time I found disturbing because I couldn't stand the objectification women--they sit in these doors with windows wearing g-strings and bras and men walk around staring at them and evaluating the size of the breasts and whether or not they'd like to have sex with that woman."
I've been to Amsterdam many times and I admire the Dutch attitude toward prostitution. The women in the windows are working on their own without pimps, etc. The system empowers the women to work on their own and earn a living without any one else taking advantage of them. They have made a choice to work in the "world's oldest profession".
Your comments are interesting since you left the Red Light District and headed for "Blue Boy" where they object young men to the same "objectification" that you deplored in the Red Light District.
It works both ways!</font>
Hmmm, WilliamTheTraveler –you managed to find the flaw in my editing on the fly—I managed to eliminate the part where I explained that I found the women for sale depressing, but was unsure about how I actually felt because I’d never seen men for sale. The reason for the live sex show was to see how I would respond to men being sold—and I liked objectifying men. This does stand in stark contrast to my opinions about the objectification of women.
I suspect if men stood in doors and we walked down the streets looking at them, I might find it depressing—then again, maybe I wouldn’t. I haven’t seen men being sold that way in Amsterdam, so it’s hard to judge. I do know that my thoughts about prostitution have softened substantially. I don’t object to it any more: but that doesn’t change the fact that I find the way women are sold in Amsterdam to be depressing.