By TOBY STERLING Associated Press <\/p>\n
AMSTERDAM (AP) - On any given evening, thousands of tourists stroll down the narrow canal-side streets of Amsterdam's famed Red Light District, gawking at ladies in lingerie who work behind windows, making a living selling sex for money. Now a small educational museum is opening Thursday in the heart of the district to show reality from the other side of the glass. <\/p>\n
RED LIGHT SECRETS <\/p>\n
Organizer Melcher de Wind says the Red Light Secrets museum is for those who want to learn more about how the area works without actually visiting a prostitute. It's located in a former brothel, one of the narrow buildings typical of Amsterdam. <\/p>\n
Visitors enter the museum by passing a hologram of a beckoning prostitute. Then the displays attempt to place prostitutes as part of society. There's a short film showing the many people who work with the prostitutes: cleaning or repairing their rooms, doing their laundry, or running over to their windows with coffee or food during shifts. <\/p>\n
Prostitutes rent windows on a half-day basis and can work shifts that are 11 hours long, six days a week. They spend a lot of time waiting for customers. In their free time, they visit local hairdressers, nail salons and clothing shops. <\/p>\n
There's also a nursery school in the heart of the Red Light District, right next to the windows. In one scene in the film, a middle-aged prostitute in red leather receives an afternoon visit from her grade-school daughter. <\/p>\n
A LONG HISTORY IN AMSTERDAM <\/p>\n
The museum makes only a passing attempt to document the history of prostitution tolerance in Amsterdam - starting from the 16th century, when it was a port city flush with wealth from the spice trade and authorities turned a blind eye when sailors went ashore looking for women. Or during the Napoleonic Wars, when prostitutes first began to have mandatory medical checkups to combat venereal disease among soldiers. <\/p>\n
The museum focuses on the era since 2000, when prostitution became legal in the Netherlands. Since then the city has been struggling - it says with some success - to eradicate pimps and human trafficking. <\/p>\n
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Originally posted here:<\/p>\n
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