www.the-low-countries.com
High Road to Culture in Flanders and the Netherlands
The sixties and seventies were the years of sexual liberation: everything was possible, everything was allowed and everything happened. Often Flanders and the Netherlands were forerunners. We now take stock: how liberated is our sexuality today?
The glorification of reproductive sexuality, the crusade against abortion, the cult of alpha masculinity: a wind of sexual conservatism, with a hint of the extreme right, is blowing through the Low Countries.
Sexually charged words are so ubiquitous in the Dutch language that we no longer bat an eye. Yet, talking about sex still carries a lingering sense of taboo – one that might be staging a comeback.
The role of many LGBTQ+ festivals goes way beyond simply screening films.
Today, prostitution has been legalised in the Netherlands and decriminalised in Belgium, but the normalisation of ‘sex for money’ is far from a reality.
The Netherlands was long considered more progressive in cinema than Belgium. Surprisingly enough, film censorship was more robust in the Netherlands than in Belgium.
Since 1945 The Netherlands and Belgium have often been frontrunners on the world stage when it comes to sexuality. But a certain sense of unease has always lingered and seems to be growing these days.
