The Lonely Planet Guide to Amsterdam's Red Light District

The Lonely Planet guide to Amsterdam features this useful bit of information on prostitution, long legal in Holland:

“What happens if a patron gets violent? Prostitutes’ quarters are equipped with a button that, when pressed, activates a light outside. The offender had better hope that the police get there before the Hell’s Angels do.”

I suppose anyone who wants to consort with prostitutes should not be surprised at being treated roughly. But how sanguine would we be about this situation if the sexes were reversed: if men of dubious moral character could get women roughed up on a whim?

The Lonely Planet also notes that three men once installed themselves in Amsterdam’s red light district as prostitutes available to women.

They got no business, but they did elicit the comment from one of the regular female prostitutes that what they proposed was “filthy.”

There is a double standard, for sure, but it is not at all clear to me that women get the worst of it.