When I started on Twitter, speaking out for prostitutes, immediately there where people claiming that I was fake and a liar. But after one of them identified me at work (article can be read here and also on hookers.nl), by one of the most suspicious people about the truth of prostitution, that storm quickly went down. It's hard to continue saying someone is lying and a fake, when one has been identified already.
But lying and fake people do appear in the conversation about prostitution. So how do you know, which stories are true, and which stories are not, when constantly the debate about forced prostitution is being invaded by fake people telling lies?
What's interesting to read, is that the people who are fake and are lying about prostitution, are always self-claimed prostitutes who tell juicy stories about forced prostitution and how big the problem is. Examples of people like this are Maria Mosterd, writer of the book Echte mannen eten geen kaas' (Real men don't eat cheese), about where she tells how she was forced into prostitution by a loverboy at the age of 12. There was a lot of attention from the Dutch media about this book, and Maria Mosterd was invited into several TV shows to talk about her story. About a year later several people, among which Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries (famous for winning an Emmy for his documentary about the Nathalee Holloway case), came up with some evidence that proved that the story of Maria Mosterd was a hoax. Also the fact that Maria Mosterd claimed she had missed classes because of her loverboy, where proven to be false, since the school itself, and a number of her girl friends, had testified that in the first year she had never missed a class, and also in other school years, she was not missing as many classes as she claimed. But the biggest prove was perhaps, the fact that Maria Mosterd herself, who had claimed she had been forced into prostitution, never went to the police with the story, and never pressed charges against her loverboy. By that time, the book had already become a bestseller, and the mood had been set already.
Another example of someone like this is Patricia Perquin. I've written before a little bit about her in other blogs, since she was the main adviser on the project that is currently closing down prostitution windows in the Red Light District in Amsterdam. Patricia Perquin, claimed to have been a prostitute in the Amsterdam Red Light District, and claimed the Red Light District was a world of sex, violence, humiliation and exploitation. Her stories where first posted into two newspapers Het Parool and the Algemeen Dagblad, and afterwards where published in book form under the name ' Achter het raam op de Wallen' (Behind a window in the Red Light District).
Patricia Perquin soon after became the adviser to alderman Lodewijk Asscher, and advised him to strongly reduce the number of prostitution windows in Amsterdam, to prevent prostitutes from human trafficking and being forced. Also mayor Eberhard van der Laan was very impressed with her book, and claimed afterwards that this was the reason they needed to continue the project 1012, of closing down the windows in the Red Light District in Amsterdam.
It wasn't until the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant revealed her identity to be Valerie Lempereur and not Patricia Perquin, that people started to wake up. Lempereur had tried to stop the Volkskrant from revealing her identity, but had failed (which begs the question why), and the article proved that the story was a hoax. Lempereur had worked before as a journalist for several gossip tabloids (Story, Nieuwe Revu), worked for a while for crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who had fired her for fraud and deceit on multiple occasions, and even ran a publishing company at the time she claimed to had been working as a prostitute (also Maggie McNeill has written about it on her blog here).
The big question of course now is, where did Patricia Perquin go? How come we never heard from her after she got her identity revealed? Her book got published, she made money with that, and now all of the sudden she disappeared? Why? Doesn't she care anymore about all those forced prostitutes she was mentioning in her book anymore? Apparently money and power interested her more. She was fighting so much for it, so where is she now?
There are more cases like this, in where people pretending to be prostitutes tell horrible stories about forced prostitution, exploitation and incredible violence, and later turn out to be fake. Still people keep believing these stories, like Shari van den Hout (politician for the ChristenUnie) today proved on Twitter here, while in this blog here it was already proven that also the person writing this was a lying.
What's funny is that there has never been a person claiming to be a prostitute with a positive story about prostitution. All the people that always been revealed as liars, frauds and fakers, have all told stories about how bad the situation in prostitution is. And that begs the question why. How come all the liars and fake people always tell bad stories about prostitution, and there never are any liars or fakers telling good stories about prostitution? Well, the answer is simple, these people are either interested in money (by selling books), or are against prostitution on itself, and use a fake story to motivate it.
In the end it very simple comes down to this. It have always been the people with bad stories about prostitution, that have been revealed as fake and liars, and never any with positive stories. That's because those stories don't sell books, and because nobody wants to hear good stories about prostitution. Also a lot of people are trying very hard to make prostitution look bad, by telling stories about forced prostitution, exploitation and violence, and don't care if these stories are real or not. They only care about destroying prostitution, for whatever cost.
It's interesting that people always claim prostitutes with positive stories about prostitution are fake and liars, since history has proven that it have always been the people telling bad stories about prostitution that have been fakers and liars. So next time, when you think someone is telling a lie about prostitution, think about it if it's a good or a bad story about prostitution. Because since only people telling bad stories thus far have been identified as liars, while people telling positive stories about prostitution, like me, have always been proven to be real. Don't believe the people telling lies that the prostitution industry is bad, they're just trying to get you convinced to ban it, and that doesn't help anyone, not the prostitutes, not the victims, and certainly not the truth. All these people are doing, is trying to influence the debate about prostitution with bad stories, in hopes people will think prostitution is bad or filled with crime and getting your support for it.
In a lot of ways, the discussion about prostitution is a lot like the discussion about homosexuality. Also in that discussion people are constantly trying to get people convinced that homosexuality is wrong, even using lies that get those people convinced about it. We see this happening in countries like Russia, the U.S., but also France, in where Christian organisations try to influence people with scary stories about STD's, AIDS, HIV, the danger of loosing marriage as a meaning of love for men and women, etc. These stories are bullshit! People telling these stories are often the same people that are against prostitution, and also use lies to influence the debate in their. Don't let prostitution in Holland become the homosexuality of Russia.
Dutch version
But lying and fake people do appear in the conversation about prostitution. So how do you know, which stories are true, and which stories are not, when constantly the debate about forced prostitution is being invaded by fake people telling lies?
What's interesting to read, is that the people who are fake and are lying about prostitution, are always self-claimed prostitutes who tell juicy stories about forced prostitution and how big the problem is. Examples of people like this are Maria Mosterd, writer of the book Echte mannen eten geen kaas' (Real men don't eat cheese), about where she tells how she was forced into prostitution by a loverboy at the age of 12. There was a lot of attention from the Dutch media about this book, and Maria Mosterd was invited into several TV shows to talk about her story. About a year later several people, among which Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries (famous for winning an Emmy for his documentary about the Nathalee Holloway case), came up with some evidence that proved that the story of Maria Mosterd was a hoax. Also the fact that Maria Mosterd claimed she had missed classes because of her loverboy, where proven to be false, since the school itself, and a number of her girl friends, had testified that in the first year she had never missed a class, and also in other school years, she was not missing as many classes as she claimed. But the biggest prove was perhaps, the fact that Maria Mosterd herself, who had claimed she had been forced into prostitution, never went to the police with the story, and never pressed charges against her loverboy. By that time, the book had already become a bestseller, and the mood had been set already.
Patricia Perquin soon after became the adviser to alderman Lodewijk Asscher, and advised him to strongly reduce the number of prostitution windows in Amsterdam, to prevent prostitutes from human trafficking and being forced. Also mayor Eberhard van der Laan was very impressed with her book, and claimed afterwards that this was the reason they needed to continue the project 1012, of closing down the windows in the Red Light District in Amsterdam.
It wasn't until the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant revealed her identity to be Valerie Lempereur and not Patricia Perquin, that people started to wake up. Lempereur had tried to stop the Volkskrant from revealing her identity, but had failed (which begs the question why), and the article proved that the story was a hoax. Lempereur had worked before as a journalist for several gossip tabloids (Story, Nieuwe Revu), worked for a while for crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who had fired her for fraud and deceit on multiple occasions, and even ran a publishing company at the time she claimed to had been working as a prostitute (also Maggie McNeill has written about it on her blog here).
The big question of course now is, where did Patricia Perquin go? How come we never heard from her after she got her identity revealed? Her book got published, she made money with that, and now all of the sudden she disappeared? Why? Doesn't she care anymore about all those forced prostitutes she was mentioning in her book anymore? Apparently money and power interested her more. She was fighting so much for it, so where is she now?
There are more cases like this, in where people pretending to be prostitutes tell horrible stories about forced prostitution, exploitation and incredible violence, and later turn out to be fake. Still people keep believing these stories, like Shari van den Hout (politician for the ChristenUnie) today proved on Twitter here, while in this blog here it was already proven that also the person writing this was a lying.
What's funny is that there has never been a person claiming to be a prostitute with a positive story about prostitution. All the people that always been revealed as liars, frauds and fakers, have all told stories about how bad the situation in prostitution is. And that begs the question why. How come all the liars and fake people always tell bad stories about prostitution, and there never are any liars or fakers telling good stories about prostitution? Well, the answer is simple, these people are either interested in money (by selling books), or are against prostitution on itself, and use a fake story to motivate it.
In the end it very simple comes down to this. It have always been the people with bad stories about prostitution, that have been revealed as fake and liars, and never any with positive stories. That's because those stories don't sell books, and because nobody wants to hear good stories about prostitution. Also a lot of people are trying very hard to make prostitution look bad, by telling stories about forced prostitution, exploitation and violence, and don't care if these stories are real or not. They only care about destroying prostitution, for whatever cost.
It's interesting that people always claim prostitutes with positive stories about prostitution are fake and liars, since history has proven that it have always been the people telling bad stories about prostitution that have been fakers and liars. So next time, when you think someone is telling a lie about prostitution, think about it if it's a good or a bad story about prostitution. Because since only people telling bad stories thus far have been identified as liars, while people telling positive stories about prostitution, like me, have always been proven to be real. Don't believe the people telling lies that the prostitution industry is bad, they're just trying to get you convinced to ban it, and that doesn't help anyone, not the prostitutes, not the victims, and certainly not the truth. All these people are doing, is trying to influence the debate about prostitution with bad stories, in hopes people will think prostitution is bad or filled with crime and getting your support for it.
In a lot of ways, the discussion about prostitution is a lot like the discussion about homosexuality. Also in that discussion people are constantly trying to get people convinced that homosexuality is wrong, even using lies that get those people convinced about it. We see this happening in countries like Russia, the U.S., but also France, in where Christian organisations try to influence people with scary stories about STD's, AIDS, HIV, the danger of loosing marriage as a meaning of love for men and women, etc. These stories are bullshit! People telling these stories are often the same people that are against prostitution, and also use lies to influence the debate in their. Don't let prostitution in Holland become the homosexuality of Russia.
Dutch version
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Wow! You do know how to tell it! I just love this. And You are sooooooo right. Those who want to show prostitution in a bad light invariably make false claims, distort statistics and (sorry, Alicia) just fucking lie! You really do need to find ways to get your message out beyond this blog. And if you can bring a few more 'window girls' with you so much the better. Maybe do some interviews.
And me? Oh, yeh, I'm tainted. I visit De Wallen prostitutes (regularly). They will never be my friends. But they are like friends - nice people. You obviously can't believe a word that I say (either).
There was a Dutch guy in the 60's who was a civil rights activist and he made the point that the problem (e.g., homosexuals/sex) was always with the people on the outside, not with the people on the inside. And that's where we are. People with ABSOLUTELY NO EXPERIENCE OF PROSTITUTION have an opinion which they parade as fact. Look, they are entitled to their opinions. But they are not entitled to their own facts!
Reaction to the volunteerly working prostitutes who claimes they see no forced prostitution: There is NO person who can see the force at the job. The girls who are forced most of the time are so defeated that they think life as a prostitute will be the only thing left for the rest of their lifes. After trying fledding, saying no to pimp and only getting violence as an answer, they have allready give up the thought and dream of a future after prostitution. So they smile at their jobs. They live at their jobs. Most of the time it's for them better to be at their workingplace them just sit at home with the violence and abuse coming with that.. As an outstander even as a volunteerly working prostitute, you simply don't see what is happening at home in their private spheres. Therefor there is NO volunteerly working prostitute that can claim that there is no forced prostitution and or that the people who are talking about forced prostitutes would be liers. Simply because forced prostitution is NOT visible as long as you don't want to see or don't know what to look for!
Friendly Greetings from a ex-prostitute who can claim a working experience in prostitution in the Netherlands for over 14 years. Seen multiple cases of forced prostitution. And ofcourse also multiple cases of what is called volunteerly working prostitutes...
@Anonymous May 4, 2014 at 2:41 AM
First of all, I would like to say that I never said that there are no forced prostitutes. If you would have read my blog carefully, you would have seen that I do acknowledge that there are forced prostitutes, but that the number of forced prostitutes must be lower than at least 8-10% in the Red Light District in Amsterdam.
Secondly, you are talking about The Netherlands, while I am simply talking about the Red Light District in Amsterdam. My question therefore is also: Where did you work? Did you ever work in the Red Light District in Amsterdam?
And another interesting question, since you have 14 years of experience, and prostitution was regulated from 2000, when did you work? From what period to when?
You know what's always so interesting to me. In the time that I was still talking and believing what the police said, they pointed out to me the girls that they thought where forced. But interestingly, those girls, along with basically all the girls I know, are girls who go home early (1 or 2 'o clock in the night) if the work is not good, or they don't like to work anymore.
They take free in the weekends, when you can make the most money. They sit the whole night on the chair, refusing customers, doing nothing and playing with their phone, they sometimes don't even care how much they make.
And how about many girls that go to their colleagues to talk with them?
Are these the ' so called' forced prostitutes that you are talking about? Because it seems to me, that if these girls are really as forced as you say they are (with you 14 years of experience), than why do they go home early? Aren't they scarred their pimp will beat them up because they could make much more money if they stay longer?
Shouldn't their pimp force them to work in the weekends, when they can make the most money? Shouldn't they girls be scarred like shit to work as hard as they can, in stead of sitting bored on their chair, refusing clients and playing with their phone?
And shouldn't the girls be working, in stead of talking with their colleagues?
Anybody can claim they worked as a prostitute, especially someone anonymous. But like I already pointed out in this blogpost here, it's always been the people that have claimed there where many forced girls out there, that turned out to be liars and fakes. While on the other hand, prostitutes that claimed that there was not as much forcing as others claimed, have always been proven to be true, like me for instance.
I'm not saying you are a fake or a liar, all I'm saying is that it's very easy to make claims. People have already problems to accept prostitution as a normal job, because they cannot imagine themselves, or someone else doing this job out of their own free will. People who come in and make claims that most prostitutes are forced, are therefore easily accepted as the truth, even though this doesn't always have to be the case.
I know my own experience of 4 years in the Red Light District in Amsterdam. And what's interesting, that people with more than 25 years of experience in prostitution, who where verified, such as Mariska Majoor from the PIC, completely agree with me. And for instance someone like Metje Blaak, another ex-prostitute with 23 years of experience, also tells the same story. Both of which, by the way, have worked in the Red Light District in Amsterdam.
That's together more than 50(!) years of experience, from different periods in the Red Light District.
Mariska Majoor has personally confided to me once (in 2005) that she believed 20% of the prostitutes on de Wallen were forced.
Metje Blaak has said in MUG-magazine in 2002 to Tanya Wijngaarde: "En tegenwoordig worden acht van de tien meisjes gedwongen. Dat ’s een ellende, daar heb je geen idee van. Die mannen eromheen worden pooiers genoemd, maar dat zijn gewoon vette criminelen. De pooiers van vroeger waren een lachertje vergeleken met wat er nu gebeurt. Je stopte ze wat toe als ze wat voor je deden, en dan dachten ze dat ze pooier waren. In feite had je ze gewoon in de hand. Maar nu worden die meisjes bedreigd met hun leven, dat is een heel ander verhaal geworden."
@Donkey
Even if Mariska Majoor said it was 20% in 2005, that's still a big difference between the 50% or even more that other people claim.
But let's be honest here, both these statements where made more than almost 10 years ago. A lot can change in 10 years. The government have changed already 5 times, the city of Amsterdam has radically changed their mind from being proud of the Amsterdam Red Light District, to criminalizing it (as you can read here).. And above all, Metje her statement was made in a period before any research was done on forced prostitution.
It's funny that you should mention Mariska Majoor as a source here, since I've met with her a couple of times now, last time was two days ago, and she seemed to completely agree with me, as you can also see from her comment on my first blogpost.
But don't worry, I'll ask Mariska soon how she thinks about it now.
They really said it. Do you understand my confusion now? If even Mariska and Metje say that a considerable percentage of prostitutes are forced, then it must be almost true.
Mariska knows me by the name of Kris by the way, which not my real name. So if you start to talk about Donkey, she may not know who you are talking about.
@Donkey
Like I said, what Metje and Mariska said was about 10 years ago, a lot can change in 10 years. Most of the girls who worked here 10 years ago, don't work here anymore.
Plus, let's not forget that these statements where made before any research was done on prostitution and how many where forced, so these are guesses. It is good to see that both Metje and Mariska where very careful not to estimate the number of forced prostitutes too low, since that could have damaged their credibility.
But as we now know, from several researches, even their estimations at the time where too high, and they've also adjusted their estimations based upon this.
Let's not forget that the research from 2010, the Prostitutie Monitor Amsterdam, was performed by Amsterdam Sociaal, now a political party, of which Metje Blaak herself is member of. Metje also repeated these numbers in various interviews for the last elections.