News Germany Gets it Right
posted by March 30 at 17:58 PM
onUS News and World Report has a feature this week on things other countries do better than the United States. Along with the usual suspects—bike paths in Berlin and Amsterdam, healthy eating habits in Japan, universal health care in the United Kingdom—is this entry about Germany:
Life is hard for German hookers these days. Sex work was legalized in 2002, and the red-light districts have become increasingly competitive since. Even in the best of times, prostitution is a career seriously lacking in long-term potential.So when the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia announced a pilot employment program for women of the night, there was a lot of interest. “We wanted to help them find a market where there’s a future,” says Rita Kuehn, director of the program known as ProFridA.
Specifically, the 50-some participants are being retrained as elder-care workers. It makes perfect sense, says Kuehn, without irony. “Prostitutes have already learned to get along with people, and they’re usually very good listeners,” she says. “Plus, they have no reservations about touching people’s bodies.”
Just another reason to be a Deutschophile . Now can someone explain to me why German prostitutes all wear fanny packs?
Comments
I vaguely remember reading in "Backwoods Country Home Magazine" awhile back that a fanny pack might be useful for carrying a small (and hopefully well-holstered), weapon to dispatch marauding coyotes and such while hiking.
Fanny packs are so fashionable. I own two (I'm not kidding).
I didn't realize sex work was just legalized in Germany in '02... it was definitely tacitly legal in 2000, and Hamburg's red-light district has been hoppin' since way before then.
Re: fanny packs... Well (1) German girls have flat butts, so a fanny pack can give those booties a little *umph*. And (2) sexy skin-tight outfits never have pockets, and purses are so inconvenient... you need to have your hands and arms free. So, not having a date to carry your cash, ID, and prostitution license for you, you carry a fanny pack instead.
Makes sense to me, anyway.
Seems like a natural transition. I've always considered sex workers to be in the therapy business.
I'm also surprised that prostitution was only just legalized in Germany. I lived there for 3 months in the 80's, and for all intents and purposes it seemed legal back then.
Just remember that in O Britannia, "fanny" doesn't mean what you're used to.
hahaha: "things other countries do better than the United States" ... nothing to see here...
Also though I thought the UK's health system was pretty much the worst in the first world. One really ought to copy Canada's rather than theirs methinks (or any of the OTHER countries in the first world, all of whom give it away except the US of A).
Sean: Prostitution wasn't exactly illegal back then but it was called "sittenwidrig" which means that even though they couldn't be arrested for doing it, they couldn't sue customers over payments, they couldn't get health care, they couldn't get disability pensions, etc - things that are all possible today.
re: the fannypacks: I sure don't know, but it seems to be part of the uniform. In Hamburg at least, where I used to live, all the prostitues on the street (and those were crowded red-light district streets) wore the same kind of puffy jackets, tight pants and fanny packs. I suppose it made them a lot easier to find/avoid. You definitely knew who you were dealing with then.
Okay, that settles it. I'm retiring in Germany.
In typical German fashion; the fannypacks are for making change. How else will you be able to get the correct amount of change?
Ordnung muss sein!
-- i think fanny packs are ONLY ok when worn over one shoulder, across the chest (not 'round the waist) and under a coat/hoodie.
ex: merch people on tour, working for bands, often have lots of cash on them... the "shoulder pack" works well for this.
: )
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