Prostitution in France
Encyclopedia
Prostitution
in France
(the exchange of sexual services for money) is not illegal, but several surrounding activities are. These include soliciting, procuring, operating a brothel (maisons closes, lupanar or bordel in French), living off the avails, and paying for sex with someone under the age of 18.
During the Napoleonic era France became the model for the regulatory approach to prostitution. In the twentieth century a policy shift became apparent. Brothels became illegal in 1946 and France
signed the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others in 1960. With these moves France became a major supporter of the international abolitionist movement, advocating the eradication of prostitution. (See Abolitionism in France)
The history of prostitution in France is similar to that in other European countries, with alternating periods of tolerance and repression (Tolérance générale, répression occasionnelle), but is marked by the length of time during which the maisons (brothels) were tolerated. Prostitutes were not marginalized, but integrated into society where they had a role to play. In stories (which were often ribald), prostitutes would be complicit with other women in avenging men. The great Cathedral of Chartres
had a window endowed by prostitutes (The Prodigal Son) in the same way as other windows were endowed by various other trade guilds (The Trade Windows).
, the Visigoth
monarch Alaric II
(485–507 A.D.) seems to be the first French ruler to prosecute prostitution.
the various authorities, civil or noble oversaw prostitution as an institution. Regulation was largely at the municipal level, restricting activity on certain streets, travel, liaisons, required distinctive dress (gold belts, or ceinture dorée)
and opening hours of the maisons (10-6, or 8 in Paris).
Charlemagne
(768–814 A.D.) was amongst those rulers who attempted to suppress prostitution, declaring flogging (300 lashes) as a punishment in his capitularies. This was primarily aimed at the common man, since harems and concubines were common amongst the ruling classes. Some idea of the seriousness with which the state regarded the offense is provided by the fact that 300 lashes was the severest sentence prescribed by the Code Alaric
. Offenders also had their hair cut off, and in the case of recidivism
, could be sold as slaves. There is no evidence that any of this was effective.
Under Philip II
(1180–1223) an irregular militia, the Ribaud were created in 1189 to police prostitution and gambling, headed by a Roi des Ribauds, but abolished by Philip IV
(1285–1314) due to their licentiousness.
(1226–1270) attempted to ban prostitution in December 1254, with disastrous social consequences and widespread protests. The decree ordered the expulsion of all 'women of evil life' from the kingdom and confiscation of their belongings, but simply drove the trade underground. Eventually he was forced to revoke this by 1256. Although still railing against women who were 'free with their bodies and other common harlots' he acknowledged the pragmatic desirability of housing them away from respectable streets and religious establishments, and so obliged them to reside outside of the borders (bordes) of the city walls, hence brothels came to be known as bordels (or bordes or bordeau) and the inhabitants filles bordelières. His resolve to do away with prostitution was affirmed in a letter of 1269 to the regents, as he set out on the Eighth Crusade
, in which he refers to the need to extirpate the evil, root and branch. The punishment for infraction was an 8 sous fine and risking imprisonment in the Châtelet
(see below). He designated nine streets in which prostitution would be allowed in Paris, three of them being in the sarcastically named Beaubourg quartier
(Beautiful Neighbourhood)
(Rue de la Huchette, Rue Froimon, Rue du Renard-Saint-Merri, Rue Taille pain, Rue Brisemiches, Rue Champ-Fleury, Rue Trace-putain,
Rue Gratte-cul, and the Rue Tire-Putain) (see below)
Today this area corresponds to the 1st–4th arondissements clustered on the Rive Droite
(right bank) of the Seine
(see map). These streets, associated with prostitution, had very evocative if indelicate names including the Rue du Poil-au-con (or hair of the con, from the Latin
cunnus meaning female genitalia, hence Street of the Pubic Hair, or Poil du pubis), later altered to the Rue du Pélican, in the 1st arrondissement, near the first Porte Saint-Honoré,
and the Rue Tire-Vit (Pull-Cock, i.e. penis
, later the Rue Tire-Boudin, Pull-Sausage) now Rue Marie-Stuart, in the 2nd arrondissement, near the first Porte Saint-Denis
. It is said that Tire-Boudin was a euphemism invented for Mary Queen of Scots when she asked after its name, and the street is now named after her.
The nearby Rue Gratte-Cul (Scratch-bottom) is now the Rue Dussoubs, and the Rue Pute-y-Muse (Whore that wanders) the Rue du Petit-Musc by corruption. The Rue Trace-Putain later became rue Trousse-Nonnain (fuck-nun), Tasse-Nonnain, Transnonain and since 1851 part of Rue Beaubourg in the 3rd arondissement from Porte Hydron to the Abbaye Saint Martin-des-Champs.
The Rue Baille-Hoë (Give Joy) is now Rue Taillepain in the 4th arondissement near the Porte Saint-Merri.
In 1358 the Grand Conseil of John II
(1350–64) echoing the "necessary evil" doctrine of Saints Augustine (354–430 A.D.) and Thomas Aquinas
(1225–74) declared that "les pécheresses sont absolument nécessaires à la Terra" (Sinners are an absolute necessity for the country).
Prostitution remained confined to designated areas, as indicated in this decree in the reign of Charles V
(1364–80), by Hugh Aubriot, Provost of Paris in 1367, outlining the areas outside of which prostitutes would be punished 'according to the ordinance of Saint Louis';
Contemporary accounts suggest that this decree was rarely enforced.
The appearance of syphilis
, which appeared at the end of the 15th century, had stigmatized these houses by the end of the 16th century, but their continued existence was confirmed by King Henry IV
(1589–1610).
ordered the registration and bi-weekly health inspection of all prostitutes. State controlled legal brothels (then known as "maisons de tolérance" or "maisons closes") started to appear in Paris
and in other cities and became highly popular throughout the century. By law, they had to be run by a woman (typically a former prostitute) and their external appearance had to be discreet. By 1810, Paris alone had 180 officially approved brothels. Prostitutes working in the maisons, or any woman arrested twice for soliciting had to be registered as such. Registration involved having your name on a national register, and agreeing to abide by the regulations and twice weekly medical examinations.
In addition women endured long hours, poor working conditions and police harassment.
This pattern of regulation rapidly spread throughout Europe, partly aided by the Napoleonic occupations.
Among the most expensive and best known maisons de tolérance in Paris were:
More sordid brothels, offering quick and dirty services, the maisons d’abattage, were popular amongst the lower-class. The 19th century was also the time of several fabulously rich courtesan
s in Paris, with La Païva
being the most famous one.
, in Paris alone US Army officials estimated that there were 40 major brothels, 5,000 professionally licensed streetwalkers, and another 70,000 unlicensed prostitutes. By 1917 there were at least 137 such establishments across 35 towns on or close to the Western front
.
As was the practise of the British Army
, they adopted the local codes of ethics when fighting in another country, and so allowed troops on rest periods and days off to visit what became termed Maisons Tolérée. Such activity was not just tolerated but encouraged for both the young, as well as the married men who were missing their wives. As the war advanced, so did the need and rank of the prostitutes entertained. While British troops paid just six pence per day were often found in the lowest priced institutes, dominion soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and Canada received six shillings and could afford higher class services. British officers prefered to "always indulge with armour (condoms)" and took to indulging former German Army officers prostitutes when the lines of conflict were advancing towards the end of the war, with the advantage that they sometimes gained tactical and strategic information as well.
It is unknown how many or what percentage of men visited the institutions, but the French army recorded over a million cases of gonorrhea and syphilis during the warsince the start of the war. In 1915 in Le Havre
, a survey undertaken by the Royal Army Medical Corps
counted 171,000 uniformed British Army visitors to the brothels in just one street. As a result, rates of venereal disease began to climb, with 23,000 British Army men at any time on average during the second half of the campaign hospitalised for treatment, with over 150,000 British soldiers having been infected by the end of the war. The disease at the time had a high social stigma, but a particularly bad infection could get a soldier medically discharged from frontline duty, even on a temporary basis. Syphilis
was treated with injections of mercury, administered at a hospital over a 30 day period, there by guaranteeing escape from the frontline. The result was that some prostitues with particularly bad VD infections could charge more. Every British army unit had a sexually transmitted disease clinic, where soldiers could gain an ointment consisting of mercury and chlorine to prevent VD infection, or receive a urethral irrigation with potassium permanganate after STI exposure.
The US Army attitude was different, driven by a reformist attitude at home. In October 1917, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker
said:
Aided by the American Social Hygiene Organization, he closed so called segregated zones close to Army training camps, which included closing the notorious Storyville
district in New Orleans. When the two million soldier of the American Expeditionary Force
had been deployed to France, they were guided by a bulletin from AEF commander Gen. John Pershing to just say no:
This was backed-up by additional posters and phamplets that read “You wouldn’t use another fellow’s tooth-brush, so why use his whore?” and “A Soldier Who Gets a Dose Is a Traitor!” The US Army had clear instructions on those who did not follow the no indulgence rule. US Army regulations required soldiers who admitted to having sex while on leave to submit to chemical prophylaxis, that included irrigating the penis. Soldiers who did not report for prophylaxis and later contracted VD were subject to court-martial
and possibly a hard-labor sentence, while those who contracted disease after treatment only lost pay during treatment. Implemeted from the first day of training, the initiative was so successful that US Army doctors reported that 96% of the cases they treated had been contracted while the soldier was still a civilian.
However, on debarkation at the designated port of St. Nazaire, a dispute with French authorities broke out, after the AEF placed the Maisons Tolérée off limits. With the dispute escalating, President Georges Clemenceau
sent a memo to Gen. Pershing offering a compromise: American medical authorities would control designated brothels operated solely for American soldiers. Pershing passed the proposal to Raymond Fosdick, who on giving it to Secretary Baker responded: “For God’s sake, Raymond, don’t show this to the president or he’ll stop the war.” The French later proposed a deal that targetted the Black American troops, most of whom were assigned to unloading freight in segregated stevedore battalions, again flatly turned down by US authorities. But this merely highlighted US differential racial policy, as all black troops were required by US Army regulations to undertake prophylaxis when returning from leave, whether or not they acknowledged sexual contact.
The policy adopted by the US Army worked, with far lower rates of VD across their troops compared to French or British and Dominion combatants. However, after the signing of the Armistice, when the US Army could no longer plead military necessity as grounds for curtailing leave, VD rates among US Army troops shot up.
, Dr Edith Sumerskill raised the issue of Maisons Tolérée in Parliament to Secretary of State for War
Anthony Eden
after the intervention of the British Expeditionary Force
. Further questions were raised in Parliament after the D-Day
invasion, to ensure such local practises and medical precautions were continued.
During the German occupation of France, twenty top Paris maisons, including le Chabanais, le Sphinx and le One Two Two, were reserved by the Wehrmacht
for German officers and collaborating Frenchmen.
The brothels flourished during this time, and Hermann Goering visited Le Chabanais, as is related in the 2009 two-volume book 1940–1945 Années Erotiques by Patrick Buisson.
, a town councillor in Paris and former street prostitute, successfully campaigned for the closure of all maisons. On 13 April 1946, the "loi de Marthe Richard" was passed with votes of the Christian-Democrat MRP
and the Communist PCF
. The latter considered brothels (bordels) to be "bourgeoise". This ended a system in existence since 1804, which effectively made prostitutes less visible without suppressing the trade, and thus preservied 'public morality'.
As a result the legal brothels were closed. Prostitute registries were supposed to be destroyed, but police kept files till 1960. Roughly 20,000 women were affected by this law and approximately 1,400 houses closed. Many former brothel owners soon opened "hôtels de passe" instead where prostitutes could keep on working but the visibility of their activities remained somewhat hidden. Prostitution thus became a legal activity with only organization, 'exploitation' (pimping) and its visual manifestations forbidden. Critics of French prostitution policy such as Mouvement du Nid question how effective this was, its implementation and whether it really closed the maisons. For instance they point to the presence of military brothels in Algeria till 1960.
In 1958 the Office central pour la répression de la traite des êtres humains (OCRTEH) was created as a branch of the police, to combat pimping and cooperate with Interpol. It is under the direction of the Minister of the Interior.
However implementation varied considerably locally, although prostitution was rarely on the political agenda over the next 30 years. Exceptions were the demonstrations of prostitutes rights movements against police harassment in 1975, and periodic calls by individual politicians for re-opening the maisons (see Maisons closes below).
These included that of Michèle Barzach (RPR
), a former Minister of health
(1986–8) in 1990, as a public health measure, given the concerns about HIV/AIDS.
State policy has been built on two principles, criminalisation and support. Criminalisation of the exploitation (Brothels, Procuring, Pimping) or manifestation (Soliciting) of prostitution, and support and reintegration for those exiting. However the latter attracted few funds and was largely left to charitable NGOs. Only a single position within the Department of Social Services had responsibility for this part of policy and funding.
The original intention was that the Departments would set up their own Prevention and Rehabilitation Services, but of 100, only 12 were created following the 1960 ordinance and by 1999 there were only 5, run by NGOs.
Other state responsibilities have fallen to the Women's Rights administration,
and also to health, finance, interior, foreign, and education ministries from time to time.
In 1998 sex tourism was added if offences against minors were committed by French residents outside France.
.
France also opposed the distinction between 'free' and 'forced' prostitution in international discussions. Hubert Védrine
the foreign minister asserted France's position at various international venues, such as the protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale and prostitution of children and child pornography (2000) and the Convention on organised crime with the protocol on trafficking
(Palermo
2000). French policy emphasised, along with the International Convention, that the real evil was prostitution, not trafficking, defined as an 'accompanying evil'. At the same time Nicole Péry
, minister for women's rights (Secrétaire d'État aux droits des femmes; 1998–2002) included prostitution in her department's campaign on violence against women, calling it a form of violence at Beijing+5, (New York
2000).
Péry said "C’est une violence que je souhaite évoquer avec force parce qu’elle se nourrit des situations de misère et d’exclusion. L’être humain n’est pas une marchandise et ne peut donc faire l’objet d’échanges et de commerce."
Furthermore she reaffirmed her county's commitment to the Convention in that speech, and thus France made its abolitionist policies a question of national identity. Other ministers putting this position included Hubert Védrine
, Jospin's Foreign Minister, during negotiations on trafficking, child prostitution and pornography.
in his Domestic Security Bill (loi pour la sécurité intérieure 2003, or LSI also known as Loi Sarkozy II) and had the effect of reducing the visibility of sex work on the streets.
Prostitutes' organizations decried the measure, which came into force in March 2003, calling it punitive and prone to increase the power of pimps.
(see below)
Racolage (soliciting), including racolage passif (passive soliciting) is prohibited. This is defined as standing in a public place known for prostitution, dressed in revealing attire, and is punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of €3750.
Owning or operating a brothel is illegal.
All forms of proxénétisme (procuring
) are illegal.
Proxénétisme is defined as:
The issue has been prominent on the French political agenda since the late 1990s, responding to international pressures on child prostitution and pornography
and trafficking
, international distinctions between forced and voluntary entry into sex work (rejected by the dominant "abolitionist" discourse) and increasing migration. This has been accompanied by increasing discourse on la sécurité internally, which has gradually become dominant, affecting the framework in which prostitution is debated. This was heightened in 2002 when Jean-Pierre Raffarin
's right wing government (2002–2005) succeeded the Gauche Plurielle (plural left) coalition of Lionel Jospin
(1997–2002). The Jospin construction was that sex workers were victims and needed to be saved and reintegrated. This was a view shared by state feminists, ministers, delegates and the powerful abolitionist lobby and is reflected in the Derycke report as well as the National Commission on Violence Against Women,
as well as the debates on modern slavery (esclavage moderne).
These consultations in turn enabled agents of the civil society access to the policy process. Very few of these constructed sex workers as legitimate workers, prevented from pursuing their right to make a living.
At the municipal level there was evidence of sex workers being constructed as public nuisances that needed to be confined, and many mayors of both political groups responded to citizen groups to introduce by-laws restricting sex workers' activities in early 2002. This was fuelled by an apparent increased visibility. For instance Françoise de Panafieu
(UMP delegate 17th arondissement) campaigned against street prostitution in the summer of 2002. The commitment to abolitionism prevented specific laws aimed at prostitution (which would have been seen as regulation) initially, so they often used traffic and parking by-laws to drive out workers, which ultimately mean that they were moved from well-lit busy areas to much more unsafe areas. As the discourse shifted from abolitionism to security, so did more explicit laws and regulations. This disquiet enabled Nicolas Sarkozy to later mobilise public anxiety about security evident in the elections that year
in his Domestic Security bill.
The cultural context is the concept of gender equality as stated in the preamble to the 1946 and 1958 constitution and which had seen an increasing momentum of political gains for women, including the establishment of a women's policy agency in 1974 and a ministry of women's rights in 1981. However a significant gap still exists in terms of economic and employment opportunities. Meanwhile immigration policies have become increasingly restrictive, and soliciting can result in the removal of a migrant's work permit.
The 2007 Socialist Party
Manifesto calls for holding clients "responsible". The vague language is due to the fact that such measures remain controversial in the Socialist Party.
The Manifesto also calls for repealing the ban on "passive solicitation".
In 2010 Chantal Brunel
, an MP in Sarkozy's ruling right-wing UMP
party, and newly appointed head of the equality office,
called for legalizing and regulating maisons closes (brothels), (see Maisons closes, below) akin to the situation in several surrounding countries, claiming that this would make the sex trade safer and transparent. She outlined the strategy in her 2010 book "Pour en finir avec les violences faites aux femmes" (An end to violence against women). This caused considerable discussion. French prostitutes are opposed to this plan to legalize and regulate maisons, arguing that it would limit their options to make their own decisions—dozens of French prostitutes have marched to protest the proposal to legalize brothels. Instead, they demand the repeal of the 2003 law outlawing solication,
a demand that Chantal Brunel also supports.
dominated the discourse in the left-wing Jospin years, pursuing an anti-male-violence campaign. As Women's Minister, Nicole Péry, confirmed in her New York speech (see above), prostitution, as a form of male violence, was very much part of that State strategy.
This influence has waned under the security agenda of the succeeding right wing governments, but is still evident in the new political thinking as stated in Marie-Jo Zimmermann
's (UMP
) 2002 report to the Delegation on Women's Rights on prostitution
in which she echoes the left wing sentiment that the purchase of sex constitutes violence. The pervasiveness of this thinking is even found in the budget.
.
From the abolition of Réglementation and the maisons closes (1946) to the late 1990s there was a broad abolitionist consensus. This resulted from a close fit between the government position and the dominant sociopolitical discourse, making it acceptable to a broad coalition that included abolitionists, secular and religious NGOs, politicians from both ends of the political spectrum and most French feminists. This was so dominant under the Jospin years as to appear normative and non-ideological
and above any philosophical debate.
This provide abolitionists access to both the policy process and to resources, such as the 2000 UNESCO conference (see below), which had high profile support including important left wing figures such as Jean-Pierre Chevènement
and Sylviane Agacinski
, who was also married to Lionel Jospin.
In the 1990s a number of changes shifted the focus of debates. These included an increasing globalisation of movements on both parts of the debate, Sweden
and the Netherlands
were moving to change their legislation in two distinct and different directions, there was political instability in Eastern Europe and there was also increasing concern about AIDS
, while state feminists were also playing an increasing part in policy debates. There were however occasional dissenting voices such as the debate in Le Nouvel Observateur in 1999, sparked by the Dutch legislation.
, called "Le corps n'est pas une marchandise" ("the body is not a commodity"). This was signed by 35 prominent citizens and demanded that France and Europe affirm their commitment to the abolition of prostitution, resulting in a debate covering many aspects of the subject, such as choice, autonomy, voice and agency. Signatories included Francois Hollande
, Robert Hue
, Dominique Voynet
, Isabelle Alonso, Boris Cyrulnik
, Françoise Héritier
and Antoinette Fouque
.
That same week the Minister of Labour
, Martine Aubry
, proclaimed in the Assemblée nationale, that France would continue to defend it's abolitionist position to prostitution, which was not acceptable and a violation of human rights.
UNESCO
held a conference in Paris on May 16 of that year (Peuple de l'Abîme. La Prostitution aujourd'hui)
organised by La Fondation Scelles,
an abolitionist NGO, which also published Le livre noir de la prostitution, a strongly worded attack on the subject of prostitution.
In 1999 189 cases of pimping were tried, and 137 sentenced to prison. Generally the judiciary were satisfied with the existing legislation,
although 2000 also saw the creation of a new unit of the Judicial Police using information technology to combat pimping and trafficking. Transnational operators proved a problem to the police.
's new Délégation Aux Droits Des Femmes (Delegation for Women's Rights)
initiating an inquiry in 1999. The 2001 report of the Delegation (named after its author, Senator Dinah Derycke
(1997–2001)
was critical of what it saw as the lack of commitment in the fight against prostitution, mainly the difference between France's official abolitionist position and what was occurring in practice. Although the report received a favourable reception in parliament initially, its political impact was limited. Senator Derycke retired due to ill health and died soon after, while other pressures diverted the debate into other related measures, such as organised crime and trafficking and 'modern slavery'. Outside parliament there was a new activism and demand for action, led by Bus des femmes
.
But the focus of the outcry was trafficking, with an emphasis on Eastern Europe. However the new right wing government elected in 2002 (Jean-Pierre Raffarin
) was to completely change the way prostitution was perceived (see below).
AIDS
group and some feminists who complained that sex workers were being treated paternalistically and denied voice and moral agency. They demanded eradication of stigma and restoration of rights, access to health and social services and better working conditions. Organisations such as Cabiria, ACT-UP Paris,
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(the exchange of sexual services for money) is not illegal, but several surrounding activities are. These include soliciting, procuring, operating a brothel (maisons closes, lupanar or bordel in French), living off the avails, and paying for sex with someone under the age of 18.
During the Napoleonic era France became the model for the regulatory approach to prostitution. In the twentieth century a policy shift became apparent. Brothels became illegal in 1946 and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
signed the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others in 1960. With these moves France became a major supporter of the international abolitionist movement, advocating the eradication of prostitution. (See Abolitionism in France)
History
Cathedral of Chartres
The French medieval Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres is a Latin Rite Catholic cathedral located in Chartres, about southwest of Paris, is considered one of the finest examples of the French High Gothic style...
had a window endowed by prostitutes (The Prodigal Son) in the same way as other windows were endowed by various other trade guilds (The Trade Windows).
Early period
After the period of Roman ruleRoman Gaul
Roman Gaul consisted of an area of provincial rule in the Roman Empire, in modern day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and western Germany. Roman control of the area lasted for less than 500 years....
, the Visigoth
Visigoth
The Visigoths were one of two main branches of the Goths, the Ostrogoths being the other. These tribes were among the Germans who spread through the late Roman Empire during the Migration Period...
monarch Alaric II
Alaric II
Alaric II, also known as Alarik, Alarich, and Alarico in Spanish and Portuguese or Alaricus in Latin succeeded his father Euric on December 28, 484, in Toulouse. He established his capital at Aire-sur-l'Adour in Aquitaine...
(485–507 A.D.) seems to be the first French ruler to prosecute prostitution.
Middle ages
During the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
the various authorities, civil or noble oversaw prostitution as an institution. Regulation was largely at the municipal level, restricting activity on certain streets, travel, liaisons, required distinctive dress (gold belts, or ceinture dorée)
and opening hours of the maisons (10-6, or 8 in Paris).
Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
(768–814 A.D.) was amongst those rulers who attempted to suppress prostitution, declaring flogging (300 lashes) as a punishment in his capitularies. This was primarily aimed at the common man, since harems and concubines were common amongst the ruling classes. Some idea of the seriousness with which the state regarded the offense is provided by the fact that 300 lashes was the severest sentence prescribed by the Code Alaric
Breviary of Alaric
The Breviary of Alaric is a collection of Roman law, compiled by order of Alaric II, King of the Visigoths, with the advice of his bishops and nobles. It was promulgated on February 2, year 506, the twenty-second year of his reign...
. Offenders also had their hair cut off, and in the case of recidivism
Recidivism
Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior...
, could be sold as slaves. There is no evidence that any of this was effective.
Under Philip II
Philip II of France
Philip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...
(1180–1223) an irregular militia, the Ribaud were created in 1189 to police prostitution and gambling, headed by a Roi des Ribauds, but abolished by Philip IV
Philip IV of France
Philip the Fair was, as Philip IV, King of France from 1285 until his death. He was the husband of Joan I of Navarre, by virtue of which he was, as Philip I, King of Navarre and Count of Champagne from 1284 to 1305.-Youth:A member of the House of Capet, Philip was born at the Palace of...
(1285–1314) due to their licentiousness.
Saint Louis IX (1226–70)
In the interim Louis IXLouis IX of France
Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...
(1226–1270) attempted to ban prostitution in December 1254, with disastrous social consequences and widespread protests. The decree ordered the expulsion of all 'women of evil life' from the kingdom and confiscation of their belongings, but simply drove the trade underground. Eventually he was forced to revoke this by 1256. Although still railing against women who were 'free with their bodies and other common harlots' he acknowledged the pragmatic desirability of housing them away from respectable streets and religious establishments, and so obliged them to reside outside of the borders (bordes) of the city walls, hence brothels came to be known as bordels (or bordes or bordeau) and the inhabitants filles bordelières. His resolve to do away with prostitution was affirmed in a letter of 1269 to the regents, as he set out on the Eighth Crusade
Eighth Crusade
The Eighth Crusade was a crusade launched by Louis IX, King of France, in 1270. The Eighth Crusade is sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth and Sixth Crusades of Frederick II are counted as a single crusade...
, in which he refers to the need to extirpate the evil, root and branch. The punishment for infraction was an 8 sous fine and risking imprisonment in the Châtelet
Grand Châtelet
The Grand Châtelet was a stronghold in Ancien Régime Paris, on the right bank of the Seine, on the site of what is now the Place du Châtelet; it contained a court and police headquarters and a number of prisons....
(see below). He designated nine streets in which prostitution would be allowed in Paris, three of them being in the sarcastically named Beaubourg quartier
Paris districts
Most of the Paris we see today is a result of a nineteenth-century renovation, but its boulevards and arrondissements were but a new grid bisecting quarters built by centuries of Parisian habit; as a result of this, Paris has many quarters that are not necessarily mentioned on any administrative...
(Beautiful Neighbourhood)
(Rue de la Huchette, Rue Froimon, Rue du Renard-Saint-Merri, Rue Taille pain, Rue Brisemiches, Rue Champ-Fleury, Rue Trace-putain,
Rue Gratte-cul, and the Rue Tire-Putain) (see below)
Today this area corresponds to the 1st–4th arondissements clustered on the Rive Droite
Rive Droite
La Rive Droite is most associated with the river Seine in central Paris. Here the river flows roughly westwards, cutting the city into two: looking downstream, the northern bank is to the right, and the southern bank is to the left....
(right bank) of the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
(see map). These streets, associated with prostitution, had very evocative if indelicate names including the Rue du Poil-au-con (or hair of the con, from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
cunnus meaning female genitalia, hence Street of the Pubic Hair, or Poil du pubis), later altered to the Rue du Pélican, in the 1st arrondissement, near the first Porte Saint-Honoré,
and the Rue Tire-Vit (Pull-Cock, i.e. penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
, later the Rue Tire-Boudin, Pull-Sausage) now Rue Marie-Stuart, in the 2nd arrondissement, near the first Porte Saint-Denis
Porte Saint-Denis
The Porte Saint-Denis is a Parisian monument located in the 10th arrondissement, at the site of one of the gates of the Wall of Charles V, one of the now-destroyed fortifications of Paris...
. It is said that Tire-Boudin was a euphemism invented for Mary Queen of Scots when she asked after its name, and the street is now named after her.
The nearby Rue Gratte-Cul (Scratch-bottom) is now the Rue Dussoubs, and the Rue Pute-y-Muse (Whore that wanders) the Rue du Petit-Musc by corruption. The Rue Trace-Putain later became rue Trousse-Nonnain (fuck-nun), Tasse-Nonnain, Transnonain and since 1851 part of Rue Beaubourg in the 3rd arondissement from Porte Hydron to the Abbaye Saint Martin-des-Champs.
The Rue Baille-Hoë (Give Joy) is now Rue Taillepain in the 4th arondissement near the Porte Saint-Merri.
In 1358 the Grand Conseil of John II
John II of France
John II , called John the Good , was the King of France from 1350 until his death. He was the second sovereign of the House of Valois and is perhaps best remembered as the king who was vanquished at the Battle of Poitiers and taken as a captive to England.The son of Philip VI and Joan the Lame,...
(1350–64) echoing the "necessary evil" doctrine of Saints Augustine (354–430 A.D.) and Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
(1225–74) declared that "les pécheresses sont absolument nécessaires à la Terra" (Sinners are an absolute necessity for the country).
Prostitution remained confined to designated areas, as indicated in this decree in the reign of Charles V
Charles V of France
Charles V , called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380 and a member of the House of Valois...
(1364–80), by Hugh Aubriot, Provost of Paris in 1367, outlining the areas outside of which prostitutes would be punished 'according to the ordinance of Saint Louis';
Que toutes les femmes prostituées, tenant bordel en la ville de Paris, allassent demeurer et tenir leurs bordels en places et lieux publics à ce ordonnés et accoutumés, selon l’ordonnance de Saint Louis. C’est à savoir : à L’Abreuvoir de Mascon (à l’angle du pont Saint-Michel et de la rue de la Huchette), en La Boucherie (voisine de la rue de la Huchette), rue Froidmentel, près du clos Brunel (à l’est du Collège de France aboutissant au carrefour du Puits-Certain), en Glatigny (rue nommée Val d’Amour dans la Cité), en la Court-Robert de Pris (rue du Renard-Saint-Merri), en Baille-Hoë (près de l’église Saint-Merri et communiquant avec la rue Taille-Pain et à la rue Brise-Miche), en Tyron (rue entre la rue Saint-Antoine et du roi de Sicile), en la rue Chapon (aboutissant rue du Temple) et en Champ-Flory (rue Champ-Fleury, près du Louvre). Si les femmes publiques, d’écris ensuite cette ordonnance, se permettent d’habiter des rues ou quartiers autres que ceux ci-dessus désignés, elles seront emprisonnées au Châtelet puis bannies de Paris. Et les sergents, pour salaire, prendront sur leurs biens huit sous parisis…
Contemporary accounts suggest that this decree was rarely enforced.
The appearance of syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
, which appeared at the end of the 15th century, had stigmatized these houses by the end of the 16th century, but their continued existence was confirmed by King Henry IV
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
(1589–1610).
Réglementation (Regulation)
In 1804 NapoleonNapoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
ordered the registration and bi-weekly health inspection of all prostitutes. State controlled legal brothels (then known as "maisons de tolérance" or "maisons closes") started to appear in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and in other cities and became highly popular throughout the century. By law, they had to be run by a woman (typically a former prostitute) and their external appearance had to be discreet. By 1810, Paris alone had 180 officially approved brothels. Prostitutes working in the maisons, or any woman arrested twice for soliciting had to be registered as such. Registration involved having your name on a national register, and agreeing to abide by the regulations and twice weekly medical examinations.
In addition women endured long hours, poor working conditions and police harassment.
This pattern of regulation rapidly spread throughout Europe, partly aided by the Napoleonic occupations.
Among the most expensive and best known maisons de tolérance in Paris were:
- le ChabanaisLe ChabanaisLe Chabanais was one of the best known and most luxurious brothels in Paris, operating near the Louvre at 12 rue Chabanais from 1878 until 1946, when brothels were outlawed in France....
(opened 1878 and favored by Prince EdwardEdward VII of the United KingdomEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, who had himself made a special "love seat" there), - le SphinxLe SphinxLe Sphinx was a brothel, which was opened in 1931 in Paris. In 1946, France outlawed all brothels.Le Sphinx was among the most expensive and best known maisons de tolérance in the Paris of the 1930's...
, - le Montyon,
- la Rue des Moulins,
- le One Two Two (opened in the mid-1920s and soon became the top address)
- Hotel Marigny was the best known brothel for male homosexual clients; it opened in 1917 near OperaPalais GarnierThe Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
in the second arrondissement
More sordid brothels, offering quick and dirty services, the maisons d’abattage, were popular amongst the lower-class. The 19th century was also the time of several fabulously rich courtesan
Courtesan
A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
s in Paris, with La Païva
La Païva
Esther Lachmann, later Pauline Thérèse Lachmann, later Mme Villoing, later Mme la Marquise de Païva, later Countess Henckel von Donnersmarck, and generally known as la Païva was the most successful of 19th century French courtesans...
being the most famous one.
World War I
During World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, in Paris alone US Army officials estimated that there were 40 major brothels, 5,000 professionally licensed streetwalkers, and another 70,000 unlicensed prostitutes. By 1917 there were at least 137 such establishments across 35 towns on or close to the Western front
Western Front
Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the contested armed frontier between lands controlled by Germany to the east and the Allies to the west...
.
As was the practise of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, they adopted the local codes of ethics when fighting in another country, and so allowed troops on rest periods and days off to visit what became termed Maisons Tolérée. Such activity was not just tolerated but encouraged for both the young, as well as the married men who were missing their wives. As the war advanced, so did the need and rank of the prostitutes entertained. While British troops paid just six pence per day were often found in the lowest priced institutes, dominion soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and Canada received six shillings and could afford higher class services. British officers prefered to "always indulge with armour (condoms)" and took to indulging former German Army officers prostitutes when the lines of conflict were advancing towards the end of the war, with the advantage that they sometimes gained tactical and strategic information as well.
It is unknown how many or what percentage of men visited the institutions, but the French army recorded over a million cases of gonorrhea and syphilis during the warsince the start of the war. In 1915 in Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
, a survey undertaken by the Royal Army Medical Corps
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
counted 171,000 uniformed British Army visitors to the brothels in just one street. As a result, rates of venereal disease began to climb, with 23,000 British Army men at any time on average during the second half of the campaign hospitalised for treatment, with over 150,000 British soldiers having been infected by the end of the war. The disease at the time had a high social stigma, but a particularly bad infection could get a soldier medically discharged from frontline duty, even on a temporary basis. Syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
was treated with injections of mercury, administered at a hospital over a 30 day period, there by guaranteeing escape from the frontline. The result was that some prostitues with particularly bad VD infections could charge more. Every British army unit had a sexually transmitted disease clinic, where soldiers could gain an ointment consisting of mercury and chlorine to prevent VD infection, or receive a urethral irrigation with potassium permanganate after STI exposure.
The US Army attitude was different, driven by a reformist attitude at home. In October 1917, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker
Newton D. Baker
Newton Diehl Baker, Jr. was an American politician who belonged to the Democratic Party. He served as the 37th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio from 1912 to 1915 and as U.S. Secretary of War from 1916 to 1921.-Early years:...
said:
Aided by the American Social Hygiene Organization, he closed so called segregated zones close to Army training camps, which included closing the notorious Storyville
Storyville
Storyville was the red-light district of New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1897 through 1917. Locals usually simply referred to the area as The District.-History:...
district in New Orleans. When the two million soldier of the American Expeditionary Force
American Expeditionary Force
The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces...
had been deployed to France, they were guided by a bulletin from AEF commander Gen. John Pershing to just say no:
This was backed-up by additional posters and phamplets that read “You wouldn’t use another fellow’s tooth-brush, so why use his whore?” and “A Soldier Who Gets a Dose Is a Traitor!” The US Army had clear instructions on those who did not follow the no indulgence rule. US Army regulations required soldiers who admitted to having sex while on leave to submit to chemical prophylaxis, that included irrigating the penis. Soldiers who did not report for prophylaxis and later contracted VD were subject to court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
and possibly a hard-labor sentence, while those who contracted disease after treatment only lost pay during treatment. Implemeted from the first day of training, the initiative was so successful that US Army doctors reported that 96% of the cases they treated had been contracted while the soldier was still a civilian.
However, on debarkation at the designated port of St. Nazaire, a dispute with French authorities broke out, after the AEF placed the Maisons Tolérée off limits. With the dispute escalating, President Georges Clemenceau
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman, physician and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. For nearly the final year of World War I he led France, and was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles at the...
sent a memo to Gen. Pershing offering a compromise: American medical authorities would control designated brothels operated solely for American soldiers. Pershing passed the proposal to Raymond Fosdick, who on giving it to Secretary Baker responded: “For God’s sake, Raymond, don’t show this to the president or he’ll stop the war.” The French later proposed a deal that targetted the Black American troops, most of whom were assigned to unloading freight in segregated stevedore battalions, again flatly turned down by US authorities. But this merely highlighted US differential racial policy, as all black troops were required by US Army regulations to undertake prophylaxis when returning from leave, whether or not they acknowledged sexual contact.
The policy adopted by the US Army worked, with far lower rates of VD across their troops compared to French or British and Dominion combatants. However, after the signing of the Armistice, when the US Army could no longer plead military necessity as grounds for curtailing leave, VD rates among US Army troops shot up.
World War II
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Dr Edith Sumerskill raised the issue of Maisons Tolérée in Parliament to Secretary of State for War
Secretary of State for War
The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas . In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The position was re-instated in 1854...
Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
after the intervention of the British Expeditionary Force
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
The British Expeditionary Force was the British force in Europe from 1939–1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force....
. Further questions were raised in Parliament after the D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
invasion, to ensure such local practises and medical precautions were continued.
During the German occupation of France, twenty top Paris maisons, including le Chabanais, le Sphinx and le One Two Two, were reserved by the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
for German officers and collaborating Frenchmen.
The brothels flourished during this time, and Hermann Goering visited Le Chabanais, as is related in the 2009 two-volume book 1940–1945 Années Erotiques by Patrick Buisson.
Loi de Marthe Richard (1946)
After the war, Marthe RichardMarthe Richard
Marthe Richard, née Betenfeld was a prostitute and spy. She later became a politician and worked towards the closing of brothels in France in 1946.-Early life:...
, a town councillor in Paris and former street prostitute, successfully campaigned for the closure of all maisons. On 13 April 1946, the "loi de Marthe Richard" was passed with votes of the Christian-Democrat MRP
Popular Republican Movement
The Popular Republican Movement was a French Christian democratic party of the Fourth Republic...
and the Communist PCF
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
. The latter considered brothels (bordels) to be "bourgeoise". This ended a system in existence since 1804, which effectively made prostitutes less visible without suppressing the trade, and thus preservied 'public morality'.
As a result the legal brothels were closed. Prostitute registries were supposed to be destroyed, but police kept files till 1960. Roughly 20,000 women were affected by this law and approximately 1,400 houses closed. Many former brothel owners soon opened "hôtels de passe" instead where prostitutes could keep on working but the visibility of their activities remained somewhat hidden. Prostitution thus became a legal activity with only organization, 'exploitation' (pimping) and its visual manifestations forbidden. Critics of French prostitution policy such as Mouvement du Nid question how effective this was, its implementation and whether it really closed the maisons. For instance they point to the presence of military brothels in Algeria till 1960.
In 1958 the Office central pour la répression de la traite des êtres humains (OCRTEH) was created as a branch of the police, to combat pimping and cooperate with Interpol. It is under the direction of the Minister of the Interior.
1960: Ratification of 1949 UN Convention
France became officially 'abolitionist' in 1960 when it ratified the 1949 UN Convention on the Suppression of Trafficking and the Exploitation of Prostitution.State policy from 1960
In the debates over prostitution in France, "abolition" was used to refer to both the abolition of laws and regulations that make any distinction between someone involved in prostitution and the general population, and aso the abolition of prostitution itself. At that time police files on prostitutes were finally destroyed.However implementation varied considerably locally, although prostitution was rarely on the political agenda over the next 30 years. Exceptions were the demonstrations of prostitutes rights movements against police harassment in 1975, and periodic calls by individual politicians for re-opening the maisons (see Maisons closes below).
These included that of Michèle Barzach (RPR
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
), a former Minister of health
Minister of Health (France)
Minister of Health and Solidarity is currently a cabinet position in the Government of France. The health portfolio oversees the healthcare public services and the health insurance part of the French Social Security...
(1986–8) in 1990, as a public health measure, given the concerns about HIV/AIDS.
State policy has been built on two principles, criminalisation and support. Criminalisation of the exploitation (Brothels, Procuring, Pimping) or manifestation (Soliciting) of prostitution, and support and reintegration for those exiting. However the latter attracted few funds and was largely left to charitable NGOs. Only a single position within the Department of Social Services had responsibility for this part of policy and funding.
The original intention was that the Departments would set up their own Prevention and Rehabilitation Services, but of 100, only 12 were created following the 1960 ordinance and by 1999 there were only 5, run by NGOs.
Other state responsibilities have fallen to the Women's Rights administration,
and also to health, finance, interior, foreign, and education ministries from time to time.
Penal Code 1994
In the new Penal Code, pimping became a serious offence if associated with organised crime or barbarity, and overall was defined at three levels of severity with increasing fines, and prison sentences from five years up to life imprisonment. Clients were only criminalised if purchasing from minors under 15 years of age.In 1998 sex tourism was added if offences against minors were committed by French residents outside France.
International policy
In the 1990s France became increasingly assertive internationally as a champion of abolitionism, opposing moves towards liberalisation and regulation by the Netherlands and the International Labour OrganizationInternational Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...
.
France also opposed the distinction between 'free' and 'forced' prostitution in international discussions. Hubert Védrine
Hubert Védrine
Hubert Védrine is a French Socialist politician.Diplomatic adviser of President Mitterrand, he served as secretary-general of the presidency from 1991 to 1995, then as Foreign Minister in the government of Lionel Jospin from 1997 to 2002.After the reelection of Jacques Chirac in May 2002, Védrine...
the foreign minister asserted France's position at various international venues, such as the protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale and prostitution of children and child pornography (2000) and the Convention on organised crime with the protocol on trafficking
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children is a protocol to the Convention against Transnational Organised Crime...
(Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
2000). French policy emphasised, along with the International Convention, that the real evil was prostitution, not trafficking, defined as an 'accompanying evil'. At the same time Nicole Péry
Nicole Péry
Nicole Péry, b. 15 May 1943, in Bayonne , is a French socialist politician. Her background is as a professor of literature.- Appointments :*1973, 1978, 1981, 1988: Parliamentary candidate*1977 to 1983: Deputy Mayor of Ciboure...
, minister for women's rights (Secrétaire d'État aux droits des femmes; 1998–2002) included prostitution in her department's campaign on violence against women, calling it a form of violence at Beijing+5, (New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
2000).
"Madame Nicole Péry, a affirmé avec force que la prostitution et la traite aux fins d’exploitation sexuelle constituaient une violence à l’encontre des femmes."
Péry said "C’est une violence que je souhaite évoquer avec force parce qu’elle se nourrit des situations de misère et d’exclusion. L’être humain n’est pas une marchandise et ne peut donc faire l’objet d’échanges et de commerce."
Furthermore she reaffirmed her county's commitment to the Convention in that speech, and thus France made its abolitionist policies a question of national identity. Other ministers putting this position included Hubert Védrine
Hubert Védrine
Hubert Védrine is a French Socialist politician.Diplomatic adviser of President Mitterrand, he served as secretary-general of the presidency from 1991 to 1995, then as Foreign Minister in the government of Lionel Jospin from 1997 to 2002.After the reelection of Jacques Chirac in May 2002, Védrine...
, Jospin's Foreign Minister, during negotiations on trafficking, child prostitution and pornography.
Loi Sarkozy (Loi pour la sécurité intérieure) 2003
Active solicitation was also outlawed in the late 1940s. Passive solicitation was outlawed in 2003 as part of a package of law-and-order measures by then interior minister, Nicolas SarkozyNicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
in his Domestic Security Bill (loi pour la sécurité intérieure 2003, or LSI also known as Loi Sarkozy II) and had the effect of reducing the visibility of sex work on the streets.
Prostitutes' organizations decried the measure, which came into force in March 2003, calling it punitive and prone to increase the power of pimps.
(see below)
Legal status
A man or woman may seek or offer compensation for sexual services (except for paying for those under 18) but may not advertise this fact.Racolage (soliciting), including racolage passif (passive soliciting) is prohibited. This is defined as standing in a public place known for prostitution, dressed in revealing attire, and is punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of €3750.
Owning or operating a brothel is illegal.
All forms of proxénétisme (procuring
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
) are illegal.
Proxénétisme is defined as:
- helping or protecting someone to prostitute themselves
- profiting from the prostitution of another or receiving funds from someone who prostitutes themselves habitually (living off the avails)
- hiring or training someone to prostitute themselves or pressuring someone to prostitute themselves.
Politics
France is an "abolitionist" country—its public policy is the prohibition and eradication of prostitution, however at the same time, it considers that making it illegal to offer sexual services in return for goods or services in the context of one's private life is a violation of individual liberty.The issue has been prominent on the French political agenda since the late 1990s, responding to international pressures on child prostitution and pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
and trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
, international distinctions between forced and voluntary entry into sex work (rejected by the dominant "abolitionist" discourse) and increasing migration. This has been accompanied by increasing discourse on la sécurité internally, which has gradually become dominant, affecting the framework in which prostitution is debated. This was heightened in 2002 when Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin is a French conservative politician and senator for Vienne.Jean-Pierre Raffarin served as the Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005, resigning after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. However, after Raffarin...
's right wing government (2002–2005) succeeded the Gauche Plurielle (plural left) coalition of Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002. He was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995...
(1997–2002). The Jospin construction was that sex workers were victims and needed to be saved and reintegrated. This was a view shared by state feminists, ministers, delegates and the powerful abolitionist lobby and is reflected in the Derycke report as well as the National Commission on Violence Against Women,
as well as the debates on modern slavery (esclavage moderne).
These consultations in turn enabled agents of the civil society access to the policy process. Very few of these constructed sex workers as legitimate workers, prevented from pursuing their right to make a living.
At the municipal level there was evidence of sex workers being constructed as public nuisances that needed to be confined, and many mayors of both political groups responded to citizen groups to introduce by-laws restricting sex workers' activities in early 2002. This was fuelled by an apparent increased visibility. For instance Françoise de Panafieu
Françoise de Panafieu
Françoise de Panafieu is a French politician, member of the Union for a Popular Movement party and mayor of the XVIIe arrondissement of Paris. She was a member of the French Cabinet as tourism minister in 1995 and she has been an MP for Paris since 2002...
(UMP delegate 17th arondissement) campaigned against street prostitution in the summer of 2002. The commitment to abolitionism prevented specific laws aimed at prostitution (which would have been seen as regulation) initially, so they often used traffic and parking by-laws to drive out workers, which ultimately mean that they were moved from well-lit busy areas to much more unsafe areas. As the discourse shifted from abolitionism to security, so did more explicit laws and regulations. This disquiet enabled Nicolas Sarkozy to later mobilise public anxiety about security evident in the elections that year
French presidential election, 2002
The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of international attention because of Le Pen's unexpected appearance in...
in his Domestic Security bill.
The cultural context is the concept of gender equality as stated in the preamble to the 1946 and 1958 constitution and which had seen an increasing momentum of political gains for women, including the establishment of a women's policy agency in 1974 and a ministry of women's rights in 1981. However a significant gap still exists in terms of economic and employment opportunities. Meanwhile immigration policies have become increasingly restrictive, and soliciting can result in the removal of a migrant's work permit.
The 2007 Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
Manifesto calls for holding clients "responsible". The vague language is due to the fact that such measures remain controversial in the Socialist Party.
The Manifesto also calls for repealing the ban on "passive solicitation".
In 2010 Chantal Brunel
Chantal Brunel
Chantal Brunel is a member of the National Assembly of France. She represents the Seine-et-Marne department, and is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement. Appointed head of the equality office she is a staunch supporter of liberalisation of laws against sex work in France.. She is of...
, an MP in Sarkozy's ruling right-wing UMP
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
party, and newly appointed head of the equality office,
called for legalizing and regulating maisons closes (brothels), (see Maisons closes, below) akin to the situation in several surrounding countries, claiming that this would make the sex trade safer and transparent. She outlined the strategy in her 2010 book "Pour en finir avec les violences faites aux femmes" (An end to violence against women). This caused considerable discussion. French prostitutes are opposed to this plan to legalize and regulate maisons, arguing that it would limit their options to make their own decisions—dozens of French prostitutes have marched to protest the proposal to legalize brothels. Instead, they demand the repeal of the 2003 law outlawing solication,
a demand that Chantal Brunel also supports.
State feminism
State feministsState feminism
State feminism is feminism created or approved by the government of a state or nation. It usually specifies a particular program. The government may, at the same time, prohibit non-governmental organizations from advocating for any other feminist program....
dominated the discourse in the left-wing Jospin years, pursuing an anti-male-violence campaign. As Women's Minister, Nicole Péry, confirmed in her New York speech (see above), prostitution, as a form of male violence, was very much part of that State strategy.
This influence has waned under the security agenda of the succeeding right wing governments, but is still evident in the new political thinking as stated in Marie-Jo Zimmermann
Marie-Jo Zimmermann
Marie-Jo Zimmermann is a French Member of Parliament, for the Union for a Popular Movement party.She was born in the town of Creutzwald, in Moselle....
's (UMP
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
) 2002 report to the Delegation on Women's Rights on prostitution
in which she echoes the left wing sentiment that the purchase of sex constitutes violence. The pervasiveness of this thinking is even found in the budget.
Political and social debates
As in many other countries, debates on the nature and regulation of transactional sex are highly polarised. These positions are the familiar ones that define sex work as violence against women on the one hand, and those who see the problem as stigmatisation and poor working conditions on the other. These result in proposals for either the eradication of prostitution, or social reforms. The dominant abolitionist faction consists of Catholics, family values advocates and sections within feminism and the left. As elsewhere the term abolitionism has seen a shift from the abolition of Réglementation to include abolition of sexual slaverySexual slavery
Sexual slavery is when unwilling people are coerced into slavery for sexual exploitation. The incidence of sexual slavery by country has been studied and tabulated by UNESCO, with the cooperation of various international agencies...
.
From the abolition of Réglementation and the maisons closes (1946) to the late 1990s there was a broad abolitionist consensus. This resulted from a close fit between the government position and the dominant sociopolitical discourse, making it acceptable to a broad coalition that included abolitionists, secular and religious NGOs, politicians from both ends of the political spectrum and most French feminists. This was so dominant under the Jospin years as to appear normative and non-ideological
and above any philosophical debate.
This provide abolitionists access to both the policy process and to resources, such as the 2000 UNESCO conference (see below), which had high profile support including important left wing figures such as Jean-Pierre Chevènement
Jean-Pierre Chevènement
Jean-Pierre Chevènement is a French politician. He was Minister of Defense from 1988 to 1991 and Minister of the Interior from 1997 to 2000. He was a presidential candidate in 2002 and since 2008 has been a member of the Senate....
and Sylviane Agacinski
Sylviane Agacinski
Sylviane Agacinski-Jospin is a French philosopher, author, professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales , and wife of Lionel Jospin, former Prime Minister of France.- Family life :...
, who was also married to Lionel Jospin.
In the 1990s a number of changes shifted the focus of debates. These included an increasing globalisation of movements on both parts of the debate, Sweden
Prostitution in Sweden
The laws on prostitution in Sweden make it illegal to buy sexual services, but not to sell them. Pimping, procuring and operating a brothel are also illegal...
and the Netherlands
Prostitution in the Netherlands
Prostitution in the Netherlands is legal and regulated. Operating a brothel is also legal. In the last few years, a significant number of brothels and "windows" have been closed because of suspected criminal activity...
were moving to change their legislation in two distinct and different directions, there was political instability in Eastern Europe and there was also increasing concern about AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
, while state feminists were also playing an increasing part in policy debates. There were however occasional dissenting voices such as the debate in Le Nouvel Observateur in 1999, sparked by the Dutch legislation.
The 2000 manifestations
A manifestation of abolitionism was the declaration of May 18, 2000, published in the centre-left Le Nouvel ObservateurLe Nouvel Observateur
Le Nouvel Observateur is a weekly French newsmagazine. Based in Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation ....
, called "Le corps n'est pas une marchandise" ("the body is not a commodity"). This was signed by 35 prominent citizens and demanded that France and Europe affirm their commitment to the abolition of prostitution, resulting in a debate covering many aspects of the subject, such as choice, autonomy, voice and agency. Signatories included Francois Hollande
François Hollande
François Gérard Georges Hollande is a French politician. From 1997 to 2008, he was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party. He has also served as a Deputy of the National Assembly of France, representing the first constituency of Corrèze, since 1997. He previously represented that seat...
, Robert Hue
Robert Hue
Robert Hue, in full Robert Georges Auguste Hue , is a French politician who was National Secretary of the French Communist Party from 1994 to 2001 and President of the PCF from 2001 to 2002...
, Dominique Voynet
Dominique Voynet
Dominique Voynet was a French senator for the département of Seine-Saint-Denis, the mayor of Montreuil and a member of The Greens.-Life:...
, Isabelle Alonso, Boris Cyrulnik
Boris Cyrulnik
Boris Cyrulnik is a French doctor, ethologist, neurologist, and psychiatrist.Being of Jewish origin, he was entrusted to protection from a foster family. In 194x he was taken with adults in a nazi-led capture in Bordeaux...
, Françoise Héritier
Françoise Héritier
Françoise Héritier is a French anthropologist and successor to Claude Lévi-Strauss at the Collège de France . Her work deals mainly with the theory of alliances and on the prohibition of incest...
and Antoinette Fouque
Antoinette Fouque
Antoinette Fouque , is a psychoanalyst and one of the leading figures of the French women's liberation movement....
.
That same week the Minister of Labour
Minister of Social Affairs (France)
The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment (French: Ministre des Affaires sociales et de l'emploi is a cabinet member in the Government of France. The position was originally known as Minister of Labor...
, Martine Aubry
Martine Aubry
Martine Aubry is a French politician. She has been the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party since November 2008 and Mayor of Lille since March 2001...
, proclaimed in the Assemblée nationale, that France would continue to defend it's abolitionist position to prostitution, which was not acceptable and a violation of human rights.
UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
held a conference in Paris on May 16 of that year (Peuple de l'Abîme. La Prostitution aujourd'hui)
organised by La Fondation Scelles,
an abolitionist NGO, which also published Le livre noir de la prostitution, a strongly worded attack on the subject of prostitution.
In 1999 189 cases of pimping were tried, and 137 sentenced to prison. Generally the judiciary were satisfied with the existing legislation,
although 2000 also saw the creation of a new unit of the Judicial Police using information technology to combat pimping and trafficking. Transnational operators proved a problem to the police.
The Senate inquiry (1999–2001)
State feminism culminated in the SenateFrench Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of France, presided over by a president.The Senate enjoys less prominence than the lower house, the directly elected National Assembly; debates in the Senate tend to be less tense and generally enjoy less media coverage.-History:France's first...
's new Délégation Aux Droits Des Femmes (Delegation for Women's Rights)
initiating an inquiry in 1999. The 2001 report of the Delegation (named after its author, Senator Dinah Derycke
Dinah Derycke
Dinah Derycke , was a French politician in the Socialist Party.- Biography :Dinah Derycke first became an activist at the age of eighteen at the Northern Federation of the Socialist Party....
(1997–2001)
was critical of what it saw as the lack of commitment in the fight against prostitution, mainly the difference between France's official abolitionist position and what was occurring in practice. Although the report received a favourable reception in parliament initially, its political impact was limited. Senator Derycke retired due to ill health and died soon after, while other pressures diverted the debate into other related measures, such as organised crime and trafficking and 'modern slavery'. Outside parliament there was a new activism and demand for action, led by Bus des femmes
Les amis du bus des femmes
Les amis du bus des femmes is a french association established in 1990 by former sex workers as a support group for sex workers.The original initiative stemmed from a need to educate sex workers on AIDS. It quickly became established as a bridging organisation between sex workers on the street and...
.
But the focus of the outcry was trafficking, with an emphasis on Eastern Europe. However the new right wing government elected in 2002 (Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin is a French conservative politician and senator for Vienne.Jean-Pierre Raffarin served as the Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005, resigning after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. However, after Raffarin...
) was to completely change the way prostitution was perceived (see below).
Opposition
Criticism of the dominant discourse came from rights advocates, health associations such as Cabiria (Lyons),AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
group and some feminists who complained that sex workers were being treated paternalistically and denied voice and moral agency. They demanded eradication of stigma and restoration of rights, access to health and social services and better working conditions. Organisations such as Cabiria, ACT-UP Paris,