Sex and Deviance, page 25
Prostitution and Polytheistic Cults
In Egyptian or Greco-Roman antiquity, female prostitution was authorised and did not pose a problem, because sexuality was something quite separate from marriage. This is still the case in the Buddhist or Hindu pagan civilisations of Asia. With the arrival of Christianity en masse in Europe in the Middle Ages, things greatly changed. Eros, along with the figure of the prostitute, became something diabolical.
Many pagan civilisations have known ‘sacred prostitution’, insofar as sex for pleasure has in turn been considered shameful or sacred, like all that concerns Eros. Assyrian law (table A40) distinguishes profane from sacred prostitutes, the latter perhaps incarnating a kind of fertility cult and being at the same time priestesses of a temple and officiants of an erotic and orgiastic liturgy such as one might finds in Greece in connection with the Eleusinian mysteries. Sexual ceremonies (where one finds both eroticism and mysticism, and where the orgasm is purified by the power given to it to accede to the divine) are normal in European and Asian pagan religions.
It was only with monotheism that Eros was banned from the sacred sphere as a shameful and obscure force — which is paradoxical since the orgasm is, after all, a divine creation.[1] The Bible, moreover, alludes to the practices of religious and sacred prostitution among the peoples who surrounded the Hebrews (characterising them as ‘abominations’). Sacred prostitutes exchanged their bodies for offerings to the divinity whose guardians they were, and whose protection they guaranteed to their ‘customer’. This practice was clearly a normal part of the social order.
In India, the devadasi (servants of the divinity) engaged in erotico-mystical dances and refined sexual relations (that is, different from conjugal relations) to serve the desires of the Brahmans and the faithful. Chastity, in this case, is not considered either a duty or a positive value. But no sexual disorder reigns; it is just as shameful to have sexual relations with women of one’s own caste, one’s wife’s friends, or one’s relatives (for these disturb the social order) as it is normal to have relations with sacred or profane prostitutes in broad daylight. Odon Vallet writes: ‘the ambiguity of our “massage parlours” was once found in our “prayer rooms”’.[2]
In Tantra, the paths of ecstasy pass through sexual consummation, designated by the term ‘seventh heaven’, that is, the capacity (through erotic apprenticeship and initiation) for experiencing very intense orgasms with a slow and gradual rise in intensity supposed to lead the adept to penetrate the spirit of the cosmos.
Explosion and Polymorphism of Prostitution
In Paris, between 20 and 30 percent of prostitutes who make their presence felt in public places (on the street and in various establishments) are male transvestites. Their customers are by no means established homosexuals. Certain homosexuals conclude from this that all men are virtually homosexual, though this is a little hasty. Sociologists have a possibly more pertinent explanation: these chemically feminised men with female breasts and a male penis awaken a sort of androgynous fantasy in their customers. Moreover, a whole branch of the X-rated movie industry is devoted to escapades with androgyns and transsexuals, usually with a female bust and a male penis.
In the hope of getting a job, many women (especially in the audiovisual media, as well as in communication and advertising) are obliged to have sexual relations with their employers. This is, in essence, blackmail. In reality, prostitution features in all societies, whether overtly or covertly. The reason is that the sex drive is, alongside lucre, the principal motor for motivating ordinary people.
Masked prostitution is also very much a reality. A pretty young woman looking for a job will find herself in less favourable a position than an ugly woman looking for the same job, for she will be subject to a classic case of sexual blackmail. If she wants to get the job, she will often be forced to go to bed with the man who is hiring. This sort of practice is becoming increasingly common nowadays. A pretty girl looking for a job will thus frequently be forced to indirectly prostitute herself.
A number of similar forms of ‘sexual exchange’ are passing unnoticed but becoming more common in the shadows of the social fabric: a desirable woman will get free services or discounts if she grants sexual favours to providers or salesmen. Similarly, the prostitution of young men (classic gigolos) paid by older and usually unmarried women has become an expanding market. The new name for them is ‘escort boys’. Customers seek not only sexual excitement but the flattering pleasure of being seen with handsome young men. More power to them.[3]
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It is difficult to find the boundary between prostitution and a woman ‘using her charm’. All sorts of nuanced distinctions exist: sex slavery (not applicable in 99 percent of cases) controlled by criminal networks, professional streetwalkers, the occasional prostitute (who comes from all social backgrounds and is not necessarily needy but seeks to increase her income), the traditional call girl,[4] and finally a whole spectrum of unacknowledged prostitution which greatly steps over the bounds of professional prostitution. The OCRTEH (Office central pour la répression de traite des êtres humain [Central Office for the Abolition of Human Trafficking –Tr.]) estimates that regular adult prostitution in France involves 18,000 persons. But this figure may have to be multiplied by ten or more if one counts part-time prostitution.
The Internet (and the Minitel before it[5]) has, of course, led to an explosion in all forms of prostitution, especially private and occasional prostitution, which is very difficult to estimate. Many women who engage in such behaviour do not admit to themselves that they are prostitutes. They engage in paid encounters and have no feeling that they are prostituting themselves. So what characterises the present situation is the effacement of any clear notion of ‘prostitution’ according to the classic standard.
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Student prostitution is expanding quickly.[6] In 2006, the French student union (SUD) put forward the enormous estimate that 40,000 students (of both sexes) were prostituting themselves in order to pay for their studies and add to their low income. This figure should be handled with care, and the OCRTEH contests it, though it does not contest the explosion in the number of students who prostitute themselves on part-time and private, individual basis. The phenomenon is caused by the increasingly unstable nature of student life (20,000 students were proclaimed to be ‘in a condition of serious and lasting poverty’ in 2006, according to the Observatoire de la vie étudiante[7]), but certainly also by a rapid breakdown of taboos surrounding sex. These numbers may also be somewhat skewed by immigrants who arrive in France under the pretext of enrolling at French universities — and who are thereby listed as students — but who are in fact professional prostitutes.
However that may be, occasional prostitution on the part of students (as among young women who are not students but who are trying to balance their monthly budget) can be expected to have grown greatly since the innovation of email, and, according to Eva Clouet,[8] due to three principal motivating factors: 1) prostitution provides a way out of a precarious financial situation, helps in paying bills and adds to one’s pocket money. The financial gain involved (€200 per hour on average) allows one to rise above the level of a welfare payment of €500 per month to an income of €1,500 if one averages six encounters per month — much more profitable than babysitting. Customers are also more reliable, with a handful of ‘subscribers’ being enough to ensure this level of income. This category includes most occasional student prostitutes. 2) Other students want to throw off fetters. According to a study by Metro (15 January 2008), ‘they come from a traditional social milieu, generally privileged and often Catholic. Their sexuality has been bridled by a restrictive morality. They prostitute themselves not so much for the money as to experience forbidden pleasure.’ 3) There are also persons who have been disappointed in love, disappointed by vapid romantic relationships. They are libertines looking not for love but for adventure and pleasure. These girls know what they are doing, but prefer to be paid than to offer their bodies for free.
This last case may appear surprising, but one must be aware that, psychologically, a young woman looking for passing lovers in order to experience sensations does not want to make love without something in return. Paradoxically, in order not to be considered an ordinary slut by men, they prefer to take payment (that is the ‘return’), because in their eyes, this transforms the sex act from submission into an egalitarian exchange. It does not bother her to be treated as a ‘whore’. Who would dare reproach such a girl?
A good portion of the potential customers of these call girls consist of mature men in easy circumstances without much chance of finding a young mistress, nor do they have the abilities to invest in the type of seduction that they had at age twenty or thirty. Moreover, in most cases a mature man knows that in order to have an intimate relation with an attractive young woman, he must provide material benefits or advantages of some kind in exchange, in one form or another.
It is inevitable that with the large increase in the number of bachelors (five million women were living alone in France in 2007) — a consequence of the shipwrecking of the family unit — the model of the kept woman is becoming increasingly current. These kept young women may have, and most often do have, several ‘protector-lovers’ who do not know of one another’s existence and who are renewed regularly.
Prostitution, whether occasional, part-time, or full-time professional also provides us with information about the sexual deviances of our contemporaries, which can seem rather disquieting and signify a collective sexual disturbance, especially among men. Consider the websites or publications (legal for the moment) devoted to advertising prostitutes.[9] What they reveal is that about 35 percent of offers (for an affluent male clientele) involve relations with transvestites or transsexuals, and encounters of the passive sadomasochistic variety. This is what informs us of the libidinal decrepitude of European men today.[10]
On the Internet, disguised prostitution has entered into the market via various services: meetings, temp jobs, casting, domestic work, and so on. Some may say, of course, that by prostituting themselves, many penniless young women and girls have improved their position. This is true, but, as the above-mentioned Laura D. reveals: ‘when you have prostituted yourself once, you get a financial boost. But this creates an addiction to money, especially when you are making €200 an hour. Having more money changes your life, but it also disrupts my feminine constitution.’ The biggest drawback, she explains, is that many customers behave like pigs and demand a kind of ‘remunerated rape’, leading to feelings of being dominated and humiliated.
Such is the drama of those who work as part-time prostitutes out of necessity, who hate and despise what they have to do while others are entirely satisfied.
Barter Prostitution
We must not draw a veil across our eyes: there also exist disguised and not directly commercial forms of prostitution (both female and male, of course) that might be called barter prostitution. The body is an economic commodity like any other, subject to the rules of the market. Commerce involving the body, involving sex, are a part of what Michel Maffesoli (and many others before him) has called the unspoken in society and human relations, which no State can ever control.
Barter prostitution is characterised by the absence of direct monetary payment. In exchange for sexual favours, one benefits from varying types of services. The advantage of barter prostitution is that the woman (this applies to the man only rarely) who practices it does not have the feeling of prostituting herself, since there is no ‘payment’ explicitly agreed upon in advance.
Apart from the quasi-obligatory sexual relations which are often the price of even a modest career in the audiovisual media world or in show business, this sort of low-key blackmail exists even where one might least expect it. An attractive woman, for example, will be given hints that she may receive free or discounted professional services in exchange for sexual favours. From plumber to dentist, including the doctor, auto mechanic, policeman, and department manager, discreet sexual relations make everything easier. Of course, women know all about these practices, and may either initiate such exchanges themselves or agree to them with extreme reluctance, but always fatalistically or cynically, never with pleasure.
An attractive woman who is not very rich and who is short of funds is especially likely to find herself the victim of this sort of blackmail. It is very difficult for her to resist. In the American style, attempts have been made in businesses and administration to implant rules against ‘sexual harassment’. However, such cases are generally impossible to prove, and punishment would result in lost labour. The politicians who propose such rules often practice sexual blackmail themselves on their own female coworkers. Barter prostitution belongs to the submerged part of the social iceberg.
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‘One must undress for success’ is a well-known refrain which turns out to be largely true. Prostitution for the sake of worldly or professional success is rather widespread (among both sexes, but mainly among women) but, of course, it never speaks its name. It is a hidden but well-known phenomenon that forms part of the muddy middle-ground of what is ‘known but unsaid’. Clumsily designed laws against sexual harassment have never been able to get the slightest grip on it. Moreover, it would be incorrect to think this is something new in history or to believe in the omnipotence of the law,[11] although this form of prostitution is clearly growing.
Professional and worldly prostitution obeys subtle laws; it affects all social classes, and women are, of course, its main victims (or objects, if you prefer), especially women with beauty or natural charm. The general rule goes something like this: ‘if you accept sexual offers from a person who has decision-making power in relation to you, or who is hierarchically superior, you have a good chance of reaching your objective; otherwise, you have no such chance.’ Physically attractive women are, of course, the preferred prey in such blackmail. Paradoxically, unattractive women are lucky enough to escape it. Moreover, during economic crises the pressure upon attractive women becomes even heavier, which puts them at a disadvantage and drives them toward prostitution, though it entices the perpetrators of this sexual blackmail to come out of the woods.
Economic prostitution occurs not only in relation to employment, but also promotion, raises in salary, assignments, protection from dismissal, and so on.[12] A pretty or even moderately desirable woman who wants to find a job has much better chances if she ‘puts out’ than if she doesn’t. Of course, the terms of blackmail are never clearly stated. The man who has the power (or who can persuade her that he has the power) to hire gives his victim to understand, without directly stating, what he expects from her. A dinner invitation, to have a drink at an intimate bar, to spend the weekend together, bouquets, and such things are so many signals to the women to give her to understand what she must do. If she does not understand and does not give way to such discreet advances, the protector becomes more distant. If she persists in refusing the implied offer, he drops her. This form of sexual harassment is obviously invisible and impossible to prove.
Certain men benefit, especially in times of high unemployment, from women’s misunderstanding, leading them to believe they can find a position for them in exchange for sexual favours. Often they lie about their power and sleep with the woman without keeping their promises of employment or promotion.[13] An attractive young woman looking for an administrative position told me that in over half of her applications men had made her such offers, very discreet at first, but gradually more overt. When she made it clear to them that their efforts would lead them nowhere, the men immediately dropped her. This is one reason why, in hiring departments, female candidates for jobs are dealt with by other women, for the problem of professional prostitution is well-known.
The professions most affected by prostitution are those of the audiovisual world, communications, and advertising, though it is prevalent among all professions, and the more financial difficulty a woman is in and the lower she is in the hierarchy, the more she will be solicited. In show business, including film and television, a large fraction of the women who have succeeded have done so because they prostituted themselves. I can say without fear of erring — because I am very familiar with this scene — that of the young women who succeed, 60 percent have had to prostitute themselves; another large proportion owe their careers to nepotism. In television and film, as well as in popular song, successes due only to talent and objective selection are very much in the minority.[14] This is above all the case in the professions of acting and tele-hosting, of course, which require neither specialised attainments nor certificates, and are within the capacity of most people. With the growing power of homosexuality, the same issue relates also to men, which may explain the high proportion of homosexuals in show business and television.
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Worldly prostitution is of another nature. It is not a matter of obtaining employment or a professional advantage, but of opportunism, of trying to accede to a certain position in the world, of entering the jet set. To become the mistress of a VIP, even the occasional mistress, whether it is a famous actor, a CEO, or a politician, makes a fine passport of access to the high life. Such prostitution is as old as the world. An ordinary practice at the courts of the Roman Emperors all the way down to those of the Kings of France — indeed, quasi-institutionalised under Louis XIV and XV, without Bossuet’s sermons having any effect, and often with the complicity of the cuckolded husbands — it has never ceased to exist. To rise in the world, to ‘make it’, attractive women of undistinguished birth, without connections, are presented with this fait accompli: they must sleep with a powerful man. Today’s politicians will not be the last to practice this sort of blackmail.
