After three days of paying rent while feeling too nervous to see any clients, she drew the line. Now she says the usual ruckus has given way to strange quiet; with social distancing in place, no one gets close enough to strangers for a handshake, let alone fondling. Amsterdam sex workers, like many people around the world, are unemployed. There are good reasons to press pause on the industry.
In a recent piece by Lazaro Gamio for The New York Times , an infographic showed the relative coronavirus risks of a long list of professions.
The upper right-hand cornerβthe scariest, most dangerous part of the graph to find your job-title listedβincluded dentists and paramedics. Instead, she says, some sex workers she knows are meeting customers at home or in hotels, risking both coronavirus and violence.
In Germany, brothels closed due to coronavirus have left many foreign-national sex workers homeless and stranded. In an April 8 statement about the impact of COVID on sex workers, the organization noted that the pandemic is exposing existing vulnerabilities, including the precarious nature of sex work. A recent scene in South Los Angeles illustrated the dangers. Laura Newberry reported for the Los Angeles Times that despite stay-at-home orders, street prostitution was bustling in mid-April.
Customers arrived in cars wearing masks and gloves, but workers were unprotected. Legality is a chasm between Amsterdam sex work and the L. Among the oldest parts of the city, the area has been a hub for sex work since at least the 15th century. But not everyone in Amsterdam likes the idea that prostitution is a tourist draw.
