Double-Edged Windows: The Male Gaze, Tourism, and Female Agency in De Wallen

Abstract: This discussion paper will explore how the representation of female sex workers in De Wallen influences tourist behaviour, privileges heteronormative ideals, and impacts the agency and experiences of female tourists, residents and sex workers.

Keywords: Heteronormativity, sex tourism, gendered space, De Wallen, female agency

Every year, millions of tourists visit De Wallen in Amsterdam, the city’s iconic red light district, for a tourist spectacle of a voyeuristic nature. The district’s unique architecture consisting of historic buildings lined with neon-lit windows showcases scantily dressed women, transforming the area into a commodified landscape tailored to the heterosexual male gaze (Koski, 2007). This spectacle defines De Wallen’s international appeal and reveals the deeply gendered dynamics at play with sex tourist consumption (Chapuis, 2017).

The concept of the male gaze is central to understanding De Wallen’s appeal and its social consequences. In tourism, the male gaze intersects with the ‘tourist gaze’ framework, both of which are socially constructed and reinforce cultural expectations about gender and sexuality. Promotional language and visual marketing of De Wallen privilege male perspectives, turning the district into a global commodification of heterosexual desire and reinforcing its status as a profoundly heteronormative space (Chapuis, 2017). This gendering is evident in the spatial organisation of De Wallen, where only cis- and transgender women occupy the windows, and male sex workers are mostly absent. The environment perpetuates ‘invited voyeurism’, where women become objects for consumption and men become primary consumers (Koski, 2007). The result is a cyclical process in which the male gaze shapes the district, and the district perpetuates the faze, reinforcing patriarchal norms and expectations of femininity (Mörk & Brandellero, 2024).

However, the impact of this gendered tourism consumption is neither unanimously positive nor negative, highlighting its complexity. The stream of predominantly male tourist groups has led to disruptive behaviours, including vandalism and disrespect towards both residents and sex workers (Mörk & Brandellero, 2024). Many residents feel alienated and describe a sense of “losing the area to tourism”, while sex workers have felt the need to throw buckets of water on tourists in response to inappropriate conduct. For female tourists and passersby, De Wallen can be an uncomfortable and often exclusionary space. Many women avoid the district, fearing unwanted advances or the risk of being mistaken for sex workers due to the heightened overtly sexualised atmosphere. Interviews reveal a strong dichotomy between female tourists and sex workers, with the tourists expressing discomfort and moral conflict, and sometimes even a sense of superiority or disgust toward the sex workers. The intersection of gender, sexuality, and public space thus creates an environment where femininity itself is policed and performed under the scrutiny of the male gaze (Chapuis, 2017).

Still, De Wallen is not solely a space for female objectification. Many sex workers in the district exercise significant agency as they independently select clients, set personal boundaries and often initiate sexual encounters (Koski, 2007). This autonomy challenges the stereotype of females as passive objects, allowing women to combat the power dynamics that the male gaze enforces. In some cases, male tourists report feeling paradoxically vulnerable or uncomfortable in a space designed to cater to their fantasies, which highlights the district’s capability to disrupt masculine hegemony (Chapuis, 2017).

Despite these moments of female empowerment, the future of De Wallen is uncertain as the municipality of Amsterdam has been making an effort to close red light windows and develop a new ‘erotic centre’ on the outskirts of the city. These changes are justified as measures to supposedly combat sex trafficking and disorderly tourism in the city’s historic centre. However, these policies are widely opposed by sex workers themselves, as this displacement increases their vulnerability and undermines their autonomy and safety (Mörk & Brandellero, 2024). Excluding sex work from public spaces does not address the underlying issues of exploitation, as it pushes the industry underground, where its workers are more exposed to harm and illegality.

To conclude, De Wallen is a double-edged environment, acting as a magnet for the male gaze and troublesome tourism that affects women in the area, as well as a rare example of regulated, legal sex work that perpetuates female agency. Simultaneously, the agency exercised by sex workers and the ongoing debate about De Wallen’s future highlights the contested nature of gender, power and public space in contemporary tourism. Ultimately, whether De Wallen is a positive or negative environment heavily depends on the role one occupies within it, which indicates the importance of approaching this environment with nuance.

References:

Chapuis, A. (2017) "Touring the immoral. Affective geographies of visitors to the Amsterdam Red-Light district", Urban Studies, 54(3), 616-632. Available from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/0042098016645261 [accessed 7 May 2025].

Koski, H. (2007) "The Effects of Space on Sex Worker Experience: A Study of Amsterdam’s Red Light District", Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection, 233. Available from
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1233&context=isp_collection [accessed 8 May 2025].

Mörk, A., Brandellero, A. (2023) "Experiencing Amsterdam’s Red Light District as a female resident: normalisation, alliances and diversion", Gender, Place & Culture, 31(5), 673–693. Available from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0966369X.2023.2239520 [accessed 9 May 2025].

This paper has a fresh take on exploring the complexities of De Wallen, Amsterdam’s Red-Light district, by looking at how tourism, gender, and space intersect. What stood out to me was the way the author describes De Wallen as a ‘‘commodified landscape tailored to the heterosexual male gaze’’ (Koski, 2007). This adds a contemporary take of Urry’s (1992) concept of the tourist gaze, where places are staged and consumed through selective, often gendered ways of seeing.

The paper does a really good job of showing how De Wallen is structured to reinforce heteronormative and patriarchal norms. The concept of ‘‘invited voyeurism’’ adds depth to the analysis, emphasising that sex work here isn’t about real interaction but more about performance and surveillance. I also appreciated that the paper doesn’t reduce sex workers to victims, instead the author rebrands sex workers through power and agency, pointing out how they choose clients and set boundaries. This really complicates the usual narratives of victimhood vs empowerment which is refreshing.


The section on the municipality’s efforts to relocate sex workers and ‘sanitize’ De Wallen was really thought provoking. This paper rightly so critiques how these polices, while supposedly designed to protect workers and improve the city’s image, often ignore the voices of the sex workers themselves, making their work more vulnerable (Mark & Brandellero, 2024).


A limitation found was the lack of exploration on the issue of intersectionality. The paper briefly touches on this, but diving deeper into how race, class, or nationality intersect with sex work and tourism would have added a more nuance to the discussion. For instance, how do these different identities impact the experiences of sex workers in such a gendered and touristic location?

Overall, this paper encourages readers to think critically about De Wallen as not just a place of exploitation, but as a space caught in bigger debates about power, the male gaze, and resistance. Therefore it is a valuable contribution to academic research on tourism, gender, and feminist research.


Koski, H. (2007) "The Effects of Space on Sex Worker Experience: A Study of Amsterdam’s Red-Light District", Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection, 233. Available from https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1233&context=isp_collection [accessed 21 May 2025].

Mörk, A., Brandellero, A. (2023) "Experiencing Amsterdam’s Red-Light District as a female resident: normalisation, alliances and diversion", Gender, Place & Culture, 31(5), 673–693. Available from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0966369X.2023.2239520 [accessed 21 May 2025].

Urry, J. (1992) The Tourist Gaze ‘‘revisited’’. American Behavioural Scientist, 36(2), pp 172-186. Available from https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764292036002005 [accessed 21 May 2025].

This discussion paper critically examines the gendered dynamics within Amsterdam's De Wallen district, focusing on the representation of female sex workers and its implications for tourism, gender norms, and women’s agency. Integrating concepts like the male gaze, heteronormativity, and female agency offers an analysis of how spatial and social constructs shape the experiences of sex workers, tourists, and residents alike.
A notable strength is the interdisciplinary approach, drawing from feminist theory, tourism studies, and urban geography to analyse complexities of De Wallen. The application of the male gaze concept highlights how the district's commodification caters predominantly to heterosexual male desires, thereby reinforcing traditional gender roles and expectations. This aligns with the work of scholars like Koski (2007), who discuss the spatial organisation of De Wallen and its implications for both sex workers and tourists.
Furthermore, the paper adeptly addresses the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, and public space. It underscores how female tourists often experience discomfort or exclusion in De Wallen due to its overly sexualised atmosphere, a point supported by Chapuis (2017), who explores the affective geographies of visitors to the district. This analysis contributes to a broader understanding of how public spaces can perpetuate gendered inequalities affecting women's mobility and agency.
While the experiences of residents and sex workers are well-documented, the motivations and perceptions of female tourists remain under explored. Qualitative data could provide a more holistic understanding of the district dynamics.
Additionally, the paper touches upon the concept of 'red light gentrification' but the implications are not examined thoroughly. Research by Pinkster and Boterman (2017) discusses how urban tourism and gentrification are reshaping the Amsterdam canal district, leading to tensions between long-term residents and newcomers. This concept could be further integrated to examine how tourism-driven gentrification impacts the socio-economic fabric of De Wallen.
The issues raised in this paper resonate with broader debates in urban studies and gender theory. The topics seen within this paper are also popular amongst other papers. The concept of 'red light gentrification' introduced by Chapuis, Jacquot, and Gravari-Barbas (2016) highlights how state-led interventions and tourism development can alter the character of red-light districts, often displacing the communities they were meant to support.
In conclusion this paper offers a critical examination of the gendered dynamics within De Wallen, contributing to ongoing discussions. By expanding the scope to include the perspectives of female tourists and further exploring implications of ‘red-light gentrification’, future research could provide a more comprehensive understanding of these complex issues.

Reference:
Chapuis, Amandine, et al. “Tourism/Gentrification : Sex, Gender and Crossed Resistances.” Academia.edu, 6 May 2015, www.academia.edu/12256317/Tourism_Gentrification_sex_gender_and_crossed_resistances? [Accessed 21 May 2025].

Pinkster, Fenne M, and Willem R Boterman. “When the Spell Is Broken: Gentrification, Urban Tourism and Privileged Discontent in the Amsterdam Canal District.” Cultural Geographies, vol. 24, no. 3, 9 May 2017, pp. 457–472, https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474017706176.

Rydzik, Agnieszka, et al. “Visibility, Power and Exclusion: The (Un)Shifting Constructions of Normativity in Wedding Tourism Brochures.” Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 86, Jan. 2021, p. 103090, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.103090.