The Reluctant Whore

While it's all very sex-positive and great and celebratory and charmingly anti-Catholic that Amsterdam is about the erect a statue in a red light district honoring the very sex workers who bring the area it's charm - the claim that the statue is the first of its kind in the world is incorrect.

Stanley Street in Sydney, Australia erected a statue homage to the women who worked in the vicinity in the mid-nineties and it remained there for 18 months until it was eventually removed by the council. Image to the right.

When the statue went up the media covered the story and one man was quoted on television (not in the link) as saying, "I just don't know why we need to be reminded that these people exist..." They gave his name and also offered the information that he was an accountant.

This is funny for two reasons.

One, you just KNOW the accountant was going straight home to dial up a whore so he could pay for the affection he wasn't getting because he's a total asshole but was ashamed because he went to a Catholic school. OR. Actually, it's better if we say AND. Two, I'm sure there are plenty of fascinating prostitutes that have been at parties stuck in conversations with accountants bored out of their brains wishing that they didn't have to be reminded that ACCOUNTANTS actually exist.

Kudos to the Dutch for picking up the slack.