Sex & Drugs & Culture

Today's the first day that I actually miss Detroit. I never thought I'd say that, but I really do miss the diversity that I grew up with at home. Amsterdam is well full of ... well, White Europeans. Am I surprised? Not really, but any kind of diversity beyond that is quite absent and it bothers me. I'm now part of the majority (due to my heritage) with the exception of baring an American Accent (and being Jewish).

You'd think that for all the radical policies that Amsterdam is known for--specifically its open and relaxed approach to drugs & sexuality & gay culture-- that it would be a very liberated and free city. But it's not. At least not in the way that I was expecting. Take the gay community, for example. Amsterdam was one of the first places to legalize gay marriage, and thus I was expecting a very much visible gay community. Nope, not here. Sure there are rainbow flags, bookstores, and sex shops that caters towards that specifically community, but you don't see people walking down the streets holding hands or other public acknowledgments. It might be that people feel like they're "accepted" and don't need to show it, but I don't think that's quite right. I think they're merely "tolerated" and this lose any sense of agency or voice when they try and be heard. Lets face it: nobody wants to be tolerated; we all want to be accepted for who we are and how we identify. It's become an industry and commercialized. Just like the drug industry.

As a point of clarification: marijuana isn't legal here. It's just condoned instead of criminalized. If you want to use soft drugs (hard drugs are illegal) you've got safe access to them. But it's really about making money. Locals don't really frequent coffee-shops here and it's mostly international visitors that do. If you haven't heard, there's a new law that's taking effect on January 1, 2013 that will only allow residents of the Netherlands to legally use weed. I can't see how this is helpful: it's only going to create a black market for drugs--people will start selling them on the streets or underground--making access unreliable and unsafe. There are other ways for Amsterdam to clean up its image if that's what it's going for here.

Like regulation. Sex workers are part of a union here and they have rights. (News flash: there are Red Light districts in the USA. Not only that but most of them aren't regulated.) But again, the Red Light District is a huge tourist draw. There's a separate area that locals tend to go instead. It's highly commercialized and profitable. If only we could somehow de-stigmatize female sexuality around the world then prostitution and other kinds of sex work wouldn't be so taboo.

Don't get me wrong, Amsterdam is still a fantastic city. It has a lot of deep and rich culture that I love and wouldn't be able to find anywhere else. It has great museums, parks, and public transportation to just begin the list. But the longer I live here, the more I understand how easy it is to romanticize a city like Amsterdam. To paraphrase John Green: a lot of people think of Amsterdam as a city of sin. It's actually a city of freedom, but in freedom a lot of people find sin.