By seeking to take advantage of the government's emancipation policy, this coalition succeeded in placing the issue of prostitute rights on the political agenda. The question of why the emancipation policy failed to strengthen the position of prostitutes is addressed. By analyzing factors associated with the initial prosperous development of the prostitute rights movement, the author concludes that everything went smoothly as long as professional prostitutes monopolized image formation. The process failed when policymakers incorporated multiproblematic prostitute categories. Instead of the intended social integration of all categories, the prostitute rights movement strengthened the stigma attached to prostitution. The failure of the prostitute rights movement in the Netherlands indicates that the sex worker categories corresponding to traditional stereotypical views of prostitution do not elevate the status of prostitutes. 36 references