You know the feeling when city living just gets too much? Well, it was one of those days: poring rain, bumper-to-bumper traffic, the works. Realizing that I could just as easily walk to my destination, I took a short cut through Antwerp’s legalized prostitution district.
Passing Villa Tinto, which is no more than an upscale high-tech assembly line for legal sex where prostitutes pay taxes and have an in-house police station, I really couldn’t care less about its workers or clients: I was getting soaking wet.
From within their 51 suites for window prostitution, featuring ensuite bathrooms, incorporating biometric technology and a general hyper sanitized look, the predominantly African “sex-workers” at Villa Tinto looked blasé at their passing potential customers. In this town, there’s nothing dishonorable or sleazy about prostitution anymore - locals even take their children along when they pass through the area.
The biggest surprise? The steady increase in empty windows, as legal prostitution cannot compete with the flood of moonlighting “home workers”, advertising their services in almost every local paper. My photo: an empty window prostitution booth with a rather unexpected decoration: a SPA bottle (Belgian bottled spring water) along with an American flag, apparently being used as a bath towel.
I wonder, would you feel safe with a high-tech, super-sanitized window prostitution area near your home?
This blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by the city of Antwerp, Belgium.