{"id":21100,"date":"2026-05-28T15:22:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=21100"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:47:16","slug":"fakey-fake-hanse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/21100\/fakey-fake-hanse\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking the \u201coldest profession in the world\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Often called the \u201eoldest profession in the world\u201d, sex work as an organized occupation has a long history. But is this description of the term even true? Dr Elwin Hofman, historian and lecturer at the University of Utrecht, explains \u201cthis myth of the\u00a0oldest profession is really just that \u2013 a myth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"timeline<\/div>\n

Paid sex as work first started getting recognition all the way back in the Middle Ages through the first brothels being built and the first regulations being made. \u00a0Since then, the attitude towards sex work has been going back and forth \u201cbetween toleration and regulation on the one hand and stigmatization and prohibition on the other, like a pendulum\u201d, says Hofman. In 1911 the Netherlands eventually decided to fully ban brothels and pimping. \u201cSo, sex work was pushed underground for most of the twentieth century. By the late 1900s, the Netherlands once again turned towards regulation, and in 2000 the brothel ban was lifted, creating the new regulatory system that is still in place today,\u201d Hofman explains.<\/p>\n\n\t\t