Paris in the 1830s-1840s
Brothel workers encounter a unique set of challenges upon registering at a brothel, as evident in both the registration process and their daily life experiences. In terms of becoming a brothel woman, Céleste Vénard, whose memoirs we mentioned earlier, recollects how she first encounters a resident of a maison de tolérance while running away from home before eventually registering herself after turning sixteen years old.
Céléste describes her registration very briefly. She is measured and given new, elegant clothing and the man registering her asks if her mother consents to her new occupation. However, he makes no attempt to verify Céleste’s information. [1] Literary critic Carol Mossman writes that the extensive recording of measurements and physical features was so that authorities could better track down women who didn't show up for their screenings. [2]
Soon after registering, Céleste contracts smallpox. Neither the madam nor the other women living at the maison de tolérance notice. Other than the two women Céleste recounts by name before registering as a brothel woman, she never directly refers to the women who live at her maison de tolérance and instead distantly calls them “registered women” or, more often, “such women.”
Once registered, Parent Duchâtelet asserts that the women spend their free time idly and lazily, though he also discusses their love of dancing and playing the lottery. [3]
While Céleste registers herself, many women were recruited by madams from prisons and hospitals where they were often at their most vulnerable. Once in the brothel, these women were unpaid and were considered indebted to their madams, as “the best method the [madams] use to govern is the heavy debts they burden these unfortunate victims with.” [4] Similarly, Céleste recounts that after being in the brothel for little over a week, she had “already owed eleven hundred francs.” [5]
Céleste’s case is not unusual, however, as Duchâtelet explains that “when a girl enters the house of a madam, the two never make a written agreement; there are established customs which are passed down from generation to generation…the women receive nothing” which exists in counter to the belief that “[they] received wages from the madams according to what they earn.” [6] [Link to original French]. Despite the fact that they were technically living outside the law, the lives of filles de maison were incredibly restricted by the state, madams, and the general public.
[1] Chabrillan, Celeste Venard de. 2002. Memoirs of a Courtesan in Nineteenth-Century Paris. Trans. Nagem, Monique. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 71.
[2] Mossman, Carol. 2009. Writing With a Vengeance. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 3.
[3] Parent-Duchâtelet, Alexandre Jean-Baptise. 1836. On Prostitution in the City of Paris. London: Chez J.-B. Baillière.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Chabrillan, Celeste Venard de. p. 72.
[6] Parent-Duchâtelet, Trans. Julia Butterfield. p. 455.