Abstract
Taking as point of departure the Dutch debate on a proposed increase in the minimum age of prostitution from 18 to 21, this chapter explores how ideas of age inform the regulation and practice of sex work. On the basis of qualitative research in the Netherlands with policy makers, activists, sex worker representatives, and (former) sex workers, the chapter shows the influence of recent neuroscientific research in justifying the policy proposal. Such a rationale not only emphasises age over living conditions, but also fails to acknowledge the corporeality of age that informs sex work as practice albeit in distinctly gendered manners.
This chapter is based on Coumans, S.V. (2014) ‘How Age Matters: Exploring contemporary Dutch debates on age and sex work.’ ISS Working Paper No. 588. The Hague: International Institute of Social Studies.I would like to acknowledge the support and encouragement I have received from Wendy Harcourt and Loes Keysers when doing the research on which this paper is based.
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Coumans, S.V. (2016). Bodies, Brains, and Age: Unpacking the Age Question in the Dutch Sex Work Debate. In: Huijsmans, R. (eds) Generationing Development. Palgrave Studies on Children and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55623-3_3
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