La Prostitution Française

Volume 2, Issue 48, December 9-15, 2011

International Tribune

The latest demonstrations outside the French parliament to fight for their industry’s survival are no longer from groups against corporate greed- but from hookers.  Sex trade workers have surrounded the Assemblée Nationale.  They are angry.  They are vigilant. They are in sheer ugly mood. They are fighting not only for their very economic survival but also for the fundamental freedom of choice.  

Sex trade workers protesting outside the French Parliament. Photo by AF. 

Prostitution, as the saying goes, is the oldest profession in the world.  Next to assuming the role of being a king or a queen, studying to be a priest, or training to be a soldier, being a whore in society is a profession of its own.  Depending on what type of prostitute one aspires to be, and how far the person wants to advance in his/her ambition, there is a formal training given for this trade.  There are historical accounts of highly-trained courtesans and famous geishas.  The bible itself has several chapters that depict stories of famous prostitutes starting with the reformed sinner, Mary Magdalene, to the powerful Whore of Babylon.  Brothels and self-prostitution are probably the only professions that we can trace to women since the dawn of civilization.  Whether it is respected or not, this is an industry that has thrived for hundreds of centuries and it is now fighting for its survival in France.  

Thanks to Dominique Strauss Kahn (a.k.a. as DSK), the sex trade sector - at least here in France -has been the latest victim that has been rattled by his personal indiscretions in the past.  An old news resurfaced that the former head of the IMF and once widely regarded as a front- runner to be the next president of France was caught soliciting "ladies of the night" in Bois de Boulogne (a park in Paris famous for the business).  Apparently, he was caught in 2006 by a local cop but no fine or penalty was imposed against him.  If the police could file charges against DSK, certainly it would have never happened because of his power and pedigree. Moreover, another scandal turned up, DSK has been linked to an upper-class prostitution ring at a high-end hotel in Lille.  

The Palais Royal hosted special evenings for prostitutes and their clients during the early 19th century.  The painting is from an unknown artist and it is part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 

 

Prostitution in France is not illegal.  In the land known for its adherence to human rights and égalité, both the prostitute and the client cannot be prosecuted. There are simply no laws against them.  The authority can only arrest and file charges against facilitators of whorehouses and men who engage in sexual relations with a minor in this country and, for that matter, throughout Western Europe.  

Today, sex trade workers are furious for all the double standards, as they allege.  First, parliamentarians (usually of bourgeoisie class) have suddenly and perhaps conveniently found this particular subject matter to be of an immense moral issue for themselves and for their country.  Second, it is the members of the upper class who have become overly sensitive of the news that has been dug up related to the prostitution ring in the Lille hotel.  If it were not for the latest DSK conundrum that has been extricated from the recent past against one of the most hated men in France, no one would probably pay attention to this issue at all.  Not especially during a time when the entire Euro-zone particularly France is in deep economic trouble.  Clearly, the French have bigger and, therefore, more urgent problems to solve.

There is an estimate of 20,000 sex-trade workers in France.  The country's parliament has proposed legislations to fight prostitution by making sex-for-cash a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment.  Under these proposed measures, clients could be jailed for six months or fined nearly $4,000. Guy Geoffroy, an MP from the ruling UMP party who sits on the commission, said “France's political parties had reached a consensus on the issue because it was a matter of ‘republican ethics’.  "From now on prostitution maybe regarded as violence against women and that is unacceptable to everyone," Mr. Geoffroy added.  The commission stated that nine prostitutes out of 10 are victims of human trafficking, but sex workers protesting outside the National Assembly vehemently disagreed.  Some sex workers say the law will penalize them but leave pimps and organized crime networks untouched. "We're not all part of those networks," one sex worker said who wants to remain anonymous.  "Let them tackle the networks efficiently and to the end, but let go of people like me who for years have paid tax, who were recognized as prostitutes and who now have only 417 Euros in pension pay."

Mata Hari.  Photo by Getty Images.

There are many famous prostitutes in history that had certainly advanced themselves in this form of human enterprise.  Let us start with Mata Hari, the pen name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle- a former spy, social climber, or prostitute during World War I.  Some say she is a heroine who spied against France for the Germans.  On the other hand, many claimed that she was simply a whore and rightfully deserved the guillotine (her cause of death).  In the Far East, the Middle Kingdom had Su Xiaoxiao, also known as "Little Su", a famous courtesan and poet from Qiantang city (now Hangzhou) during the Southern Qi Dynasty in 479–502.  She was of rare beauty and talent, there is even a special tomb built for Little Su with her poems.  In the Wild, Wild, West, there was the fearless ‘Calamity Jane’, born as Martha Jane Cannary Burke (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), an American frontierswoman who courageously fought the native Indians alongside with Wild Bill Hickok.  Before that, Calamity Jane worked as a prostitute to fend for herself during her stay at Piedmont, Wyoming.  She had no other choice.  The A-list of ‘who is who’ in the prostitute hall of fame (or shame) goes on and on.  

Not to discount that the sex trade can never be regarded as a true tradecraft, an art form, or maybe even a fun profession.  After all, if one is proud of being a whore, how can one philosophically argue or legislate them out of his/her choice of life style?  We all have the right to choose our career path.  However, I still find it hard for any little girl or boy, for that matter, who will say that one day “when I grow-up, I want to be a whore”.  I just do not see that realistically ever happening.   Do you?