Police Repression of Sapphism
« Il est interdit aux dames de maison de recevoir…des femmes étrangères à l'établissement qui viennent…dans l'unique but de satisfaire des goûts anormaux avec le personnel féminin de l'établissement. »[1] (“It is forbidden for brothelkeepers to receive... women from outside of the establishment who come [to the brothel]... solely to satisfy their abnormal tastes with the feminine personnel”).
By the 1880s, the social anxiety over lesbianism had gotten so accute that certain men, like M.L. Fiaux, took it upon themselves to regulate it. Fiaux, a member of the “commission de la Police des moeurs” (the department focusing on public morality, or the "vice squad"), published the above statement condemning lesbian brothels in his 1883 police report. Because homosexuality was heavily repressed by French society at the time, brothels sprang up around Paris that served only lesbian women (and only gay men too). According to the research of Bernard Talmey, in the 1890s a quarter of all of the "fornicatrices on Paris serve[d] as tribadists for the rich women who patronize fornices [brothels].” [2]
The double standard lies in the fact that Fiaux and La Commission had no problem with heterosexual brothels, but rather encouraged them and gave advice regarding their upkeep. When it comes to this house on Rue de Chabanais, however, they cannot possibly tolerate the “abnormal tastes” of the women, and single out this widely known lesbian brothel as the target of their oppression.
Erotic art pieces like those of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Gustave Courbet depict women in love. Sapphism existed secretly outside of brothels. However, the stigma of homosexuality and the necessity for women to marry forced lesbians into relationships with men and led to the formation of these particular brothels to which Fiaux objected so strongly.
(1) Fiaux, M.L. et Conseil Municipal de Paris. “Rapports et documents...” Police Report. Paris: 1883. Accessed Gallica May 1st, 2016.
(2) Talmey, Bernard Simon. Love, a Treatise on the Science of Sex Attraction. New York: Practitioner's Publishing Company, 1919. Internet Archive. Accessed May 1st, 2016. 245