Featured Image Credit: Submarine productions
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Adult Industry, Europe, World News, Parenting, Community
Kit Roberts
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Adult Industry, Europe, World News, Parenting, Community
Twins described as the 'world's oldest' sex workers opened up about how people in their families reacted to their profession.
Louise and Martine Fokkens have been working as window sex workers in Amsterdam for decades, though Louise left the profession due to arthritis, meaning she 'could not do sexual positions'.
The pair are now both 83 years old, and probably don't fit the idea that many people might imagine of what a 'window sex worker' looks like.
Louise and Martine have previously been the subject of a documentary film about their lives, called Meet the Fokkens, which went into detail about what it's like for them to work there.
Advert
Amsterdam legalized sex work in 2000, a move intended to allow for closer regulation of the sex industry and to protect sex workers, though whether it has achieved this continues to be subject to controversy.
The twins revealed how their mom reacted when she discovered how they were making a living.
Louise told The Guardian: "Our mother drove down to the canal where we were working on the street and shouted: 'I see you! Your father is coming'.
"She hit me. I was very embarrassed for my parents."
Unfortunately, this was not the only time that a close family member responded aggressively.
Louise recalled how when she was in her early 20s, her husband had forced her to work as a sex worker for him.
"I was beaten on to the streets by my husband in my early 20s," she said.
"He told me unless I earned money for him he would leave me, and I had children and loved him, so I had to do it."
Louise and Martine work as 'window girls', where a sex worker rents a work space with a window onto the street where potential clients can see them.
While the legalization of sex work in 2000 aimed to create better regulation and conditions, Martine does not believe that this has been the case.
"There is no point working just for tax," she said. "That is why the girls are working from the internet and from home - you are less likely to be spotted by the taxman."
She added: "The whole family used to live off your earnings and now the tax office comes up with crazy amounts you have to pay.
"It is better for the pimps and the foreigners, but not the Dutch girls.
"The vultures came in 2000. Organised criminals. They thought, ahah, it is legalized. Now we are OK."