1830s-1840s Paris

Rapport hebdomadaire, Monsieur le Préfet, Enhardi par la permission que vous m<br />
avez donnée de présenter...

Letter from 1824, complaining about the presence of registered women in his neighborhood. Source: Paris Police Archives. Transcription and translation.

 

 

Despite the fact that many citizens saw prostitution as necessary, objections to the visibility of sex work in their daily lives exist in numerous letters to various Prefects of Police in Paris. In these letters, concerned citizens issued formal complaints about seeing legal sex workers in public.

For example, in a letter , the author blames the presence of more than two registered women for causing disturbances in the neighborhood. Many of the author's complaints center around the fact that the filles de maison have gone outside and made themselves visible on a public street. It is impossible to know if the women were actually propositioning men, or the writer of this letter merely assumed that a fille de maison standing outside must be looking for customers because he sees her whole identity as centered on her profession.

In this letter, a complaint is issued as a result of madams driving to required health visits (à la visite) in open carriages, allowing their brothel women to be seen by the passing public.

Another instance of society’s disapproval of any visibility given to brothels and sex work is provided by Parent Duchatelet in his discussion of the burden that the presence of maisons des tolérances impose on their neighborhoods. Commissioners issued demands that the burden of the presence of the maisons des tolérances must be shared equally by Paris, as there cannot be too many maisons de tolérances in one neighborhood since ”prostitution is made more hideous by the accumulation of scandal.” [1] Furthermore, he asserts that families are forced to abandon their homes or face the scandal of maisons des tolérances while also acknowledging the impossibility of relieving one neighborhood of maisons des tolérances without overloading another. He also introduces the idea of the influence of maisons des tolérances on rent prices and businesses in the area through presenting the issue of an individual who renovates his apartment and is still unable to sell or rent is due to its proximity to maisons des tolérances. At the same time, though, Parent Duchatelet accepts that one must support maisons des tolérances as they give the girls involved the droit de domicile (right to residence). [2] Maisons de tolérance and their inhabitants were seen both as a societal necessity and also a societal burden.

[1]  Parent-Duchatelet, Alexandre Jean-Baptise. 1836.  On Prostitution in the City of Paris . London: Chez J.-B. Baillière. Trans. Celia Albers 307

[2] Parent-Duchatelet, Alexandre Jean-Baptise. 1836.  On Prostitution in the City of Paris . London: Chez J.-B. Baillière. 306-314