For an aging prostitute, arthritis can be a real game
changer.
So say Amsterdam's oldest 'window girls', Louise and Martine
Fokkens - the identical twins who have worked the Dutch capital's
infamous Red Light District for almost half a
century.
And at 70, the pair are celebrating being
the city's most experienced prostitutes with a tell-all film that
lays bare two lifetimes in the vice trade.
Louise, however, was finally forced to hang up her fishnets
two years ago after arthritis ravaged her joints making it
increasingly difficult to 'do the sexual positions'. Martine is
still going strong.
She relies on a flow of loyal regulars to keep her income
steady.
'My regulars want to know they will get a good
service,'.
Meet The Fokkens is a documentary
by Gabrielle Provaas and Rob Shröder
that charts the extraordinary lives of the
sisters.
They began their careers in prostitution in their early 20s
and have worked the city's canal walks ever since.
'We hardly ever really f****d
unless they paid us well.'
Comparing the early days of
the prostitution world with the present day, she recalls: 'In the
old days, the local copper would tap on the window if a girl was
showing too much ankle, now the girls deal coke from their
cubicles.'
Louise explains how arthritis
forced her to retire two years ago, because she 'couldn’t get one
leg over the other' - though her sister continues to
work.
The sisters tell in the film
how they freed themselves from the control of their pimps, ran
their own brothel, and set up the first informal trade union for
prostitutes
But behind their jolly smiles
and amusing anecdotes lies a lifetime of abuse, violence and
exploitation.
Louise was first to walk the
streets after her violent husband sent her out to bring in extra
money for him and their three children.
'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.'
She found work at a window
brothel in the heart of Amsterdam's red light district.
Martine, who had recently
given birth to her fourth child, later came to work at the vice den
as a cleaner
But when men began asking her
for business, she joined her sister, realising they could make far
more money 'doing threesomes'.
One of their main bugbears is
how Amsterdam's vice trade has changed over the years.
They say the legalisation of
brothels in 2000, rather than create a safe-haven for prostitutes
to ply their trade without fear, it opened the flood gates to
organised criminal gangs.
It also vastly reduced their
daily income, the sisters claim.
'There is no point working
just for tax. That is why the girls are working from the internet
and from home – you are less likely to be spotted by the
taxman.'
Both tell of the heartache of
seeing most of their children bounce in and out of care as well as
the shame she brought on her family when caught by her mother
soliciting on the streets.
'I have €5 in my purse,' is
Louise's answer when asked if she has any
savings. 'Whores are expected to do things for
nothing.'
But despite their tumultuous
and chaotic lives, the pair say they 'kept each other company'
throughout, admitting they as inseparable now as they were 50 years
ago and still 'do everything together'.