Ode to Metje Blaak | Dear Metje Blaak

This text was translated using AI and may contain errors. If you have suggestions or comments, please contact us at info.ode@amsterdammuseum.nl.

For me, Metje is the one who calms the day during nightfall. The sleeping sheep and starlight are softly turned on, my little son pressing his little body into mine with the book Pieter Potlood in his little hand.

Pieter Potlood is a sprightly, quirky piece of wood who struggles to break free from imposed constraints. I think Metje is a woman ahead of her time. Feminine but with balls. A feminist, although this kind of theme probably doesn't interest her that much. Metje occupies herself with being Metje. An artist of life. 
 

That's why I invite her into my bed, for the podcast Between the Sheets. As she lies under my blankets, I see the resemblance to Pieter Pencil. “Hello Pieter” I say to her and grab a red pencil. She has a tasty laugh at that herself, “yes I don't take life so seriously” she says.
What touches me about Metje is that without any support from her surroundings, she took the helm in her own hands with her, in her own words, “little puddle or ‘little stub’. She fearlessly and genuinely curious entered the world of sex workers at a time when sex work had many gray and even black areas.
 

Comments from the street, from the local pub or from her “idiotic Christian family” do not faze Metje. Although it really does bother her, Metje simply knows better and exactly what she wants: to be free and independent.
After her career as a sex worker, Metje has only really let her creative mind take control. Metje's creativity and imagination cannot be described in words. The tricky thing is the limitation of frames, some will not understand her products if the word “sex” is not in the title. And then you've been a sex worker? And then? What does that say about a person? Live your own life. Why must everything be pigeonholed? Pieter Pencil would shout.
 

Metje has a hidden talent in addition to all her known talents. She can tell from a dressed man what kind of penis he possesses. And no, it's not hands or feet, nose, or well yes the size of a car. No, she observes his behavior. And also his skin. Very useful for her friends or for Metje herself of course. Metje does not care about others' opinions, but still stands up for others. Metje is an example for men and women in many more areas than the media makes it seem. 
 

A free, independent, Pieter Potlood.

God be Metje.

Daphne Gakes