Scandalous

by Laura D

  In these more conservative families, young people approach their sexuality under the watchful eye and supervision of their relations (perhaps even their older siblings). The parents set the rules according to which their children – particularly daughters – have access to activities that are a statutory part of growing up.29 In this sort of environment, the parents often closely monitor who their children are seeing and how and when they see them, chiefly during their teenage years. By the same token, the whole question of sexuality remains taboo and is rarely tackled in family conversations.

  For students growing up in families like this, prostitution is seen as a way of emancipating themselves from the family values and norms. By prostituting themselves, these students differentiate themselves from the parental model, thereby affirming their desire for autonomy. Given their circumstances, they want to establish their part in their own lives – their sex lives, at least – and to be involved in building their personal identities.

  (c) Discrepancies About Love and Man/Woman Relationships – Disappointed and Disillusioned Students

  For some student escorts, prostitution is a way of compensating for an absence of affection or sexual activity. These young women have often been disappointed in previous relationships and 'freely given' sexual unions in which they feel they were not properly valued. They effectively 'gave themselves for free' to men who were unable to meet their expectations of commitment and mutual recognition. They feel they were 'betrayed' and 'abused' in these relationships because they were never given the respect and consideration they deserved.

  Even so, these students want to remain sexually active and to improve their sexuality by learning from new experiences and different sexual practices. Seen in this light, their activities as prostitutes make sense. The money exchanged for sexual favours ensures the situation is clear. These student escorts know that a meeting set up in the context of prostitution will not go beyond the terms of the 'contract', and there is no point in hoping that 'something more' might evolve after the paid appointment. They are, therefore, free to experience the rendezvous in all its intensity and focus on their own sexual pleasure without worrying about what might happen afterwards.

  4. WHAT TO THINK?

  Whatever reasons and motives drive students to prostitute themselves, the practice cannot be viewed as insignificant. Laura's own misadventures clearly illustrate this fact. Still, if it is a personal choice it belongs – like all choices – in a particular context. No one prostitutes themselves by chance. A need for money, a desire to escape or disillusionment about loving relationships are not in themselves enough to explain the fact that some students turn to prostitution.

  According to a study on 'the risk of prostitution among young women',30 there is a 'seed bed' stage during which a number of dysfunctions – connected to an individual's personal and family background – can 'germinate', and this can lead some young women to prostitution. This study shows that there are a variety of 'dysfunctions' and that they can interact and affect each other. It is frequently a question of 'biographical accidents' (acts of physical, moral or sexual violence), problems of identity and of identifying with parental models, a degree of social isolation, a fragile psychological state, social disqualification of the family, distorted images or perceptions of success, or simply the fact that the individual has acquaintances in the world of prostitution.

  Choosing prostitution is, therefore, not the result of one single element, but rather a combination of diverse personal and social discrepancies that affect the individual to a greater or lesser extent. Paradoxically, for some prostitution becomes an alternative that gives meaning to their practices and life choices. The moment when a student contemplating prostitution 'actually does it' has its own particular context, it happens at a particular stage in their lives. This activity may help them get out of a 'tricky' situation but it has its own consequences. To date, no study has followed the trajectory of these individuals and established the repercussions – both to the individual and to society – that this practice may have in the long term.

  5. ANY SOLUTIONS?

  Resorting to prostitution – whatever form it may take – reveals a degree of malaise in society. We have seen that this practice is embedded deep in a system of social relationships typified by male and financial domination. Confronted with this state of affairs, we can but hope attitudes will change to hold current inequalities in check. We know that education is a key in altering attitudes and yet the measures set up by the authorities to bring about any change in behaviour in this area remain inadequate (not to say non-existent).

  The subject of sexuality is still broadly speaking a taboo in our society, and has not shaken off age-old beliefs and sexual stereotypes which imprison men and women alike in specific hierarchical sexual roles. Modesty, the possibility of sexual continence, moderation and an absence of desire are still perceived as 'natural' qualities for a woman. Conversely, desire, aggressiveness and proactivity are defined as the preserve of the male.31 If more institutions – and individuals – took into account the aspect of social relationships between men and women in their assessments and actions, then it might be possible for sexuality to be seen in a more egalitarian and libertarian light.

  For almost ten years now a succession of governments in power have wanted to 'transform' universities, citing as their official reason the fact that they want to improve students' precarious financial situations. Nevertheless, the various suggested reforms (such as the réforme LMD, the 'equal opportunities' law and its much-vaunted Contrat Première Embauche, the more recent law giving universities autonomy etc.) in fact only reinforce existing divisions between students from working-class backgrounds and those brought up in more favourable circumstances. If the government's plans were genuinely aiming for a level playing field for all students, a number of concrete measures would be instituted: aid schemes based on social criteria would be re-evaluated (students such as Laura would then be entitled to grants), the number of places in university halls of residences would be significantly increased, 'student jobs' would be fairly paid and better adapted to the needs and abilities of the individual etc.

  But, on the question of both sexual and financial equality, those in power still seem just as unwilling to put a toe in the water . . .

  Footnotes

  1 Eva Clouet, 23, is in the second year of a master's degree in sociology – 'Gender and Social Politics'.

  2 We have used the term 'prostitute' to mean men, women and transsexuals who offer sexual services for payment.

  3 In February 2006 138 second-year students of psychology and medicine at Nantes University completed questionnaires about non-student and student prostitution. The results of the study show that, according to this sample, the 'typical profile' of a prostitute in France is 'a young (84.4 per cent of those questioned), foreign (82.6 per cent) woman (97.8 per cent) who solicits on the streets (71.3 per cent)'. This 'profile' mirrors the one portrayed fairly regularly in the media – particularly when referring to prostitution rings – while putting the emphasis on the most visible form of prostitution (where the soliciting takes place in public). In fact, according to the work of (the Nantes branch of) the 'Prostitution Mission' of Médecins du Monde, street prostitution only involves 40 per cent of overall prostitution in France.

  4 Recognisable groups such as students, young middle-class etc.

  5 Janine Mossuz-Lavau and Marie-Elisabeth Handman, La Prostituion à Paris, Paris, Editions de la Martinière, 2005, p. 13.

  6 As cited in the testimony of Sélénia (a student who worked as a prostitute for a year on the streets of Toulouse) in E. Philippe, 'Etudiante, je me suis prostituée', published in the monthly Esprit Femme, February 2007, 21, pp. 56–7.

  7 Pascal Lardellier, Le Coeur Net – Célibat et amour sur le Web, Paris, Belin 2004, p. 65.

  8 Extract from production notes by the writer and director Yann Reuzeau for his play Les Débutantes – Prostituées en quelques clics, which ran f
rom November 2006 to February 2007 at the Manufacture des Abbesses in Paris.

  9 Christelle Schaff, Prostitution en France: l'enquête, Éditions de la Lagune, 2007, p. 50.

  10 Obviously, not all prostitutes on the internet are independent: many work for 'agencies', some under constant pressure from pimps, particularly where 'tours' (to all intents and purposes slavery rings) have been arranged. When a prostitute is 'on tour' she works for a pimp who installs her for a set time in a hotel in a large Western city, and she serves a substantial number of clients (often more than ten) every day before he moves her on to another town. All the recruiting (usually in Eastern bloc countries) and soliciting is carried out via the internet. In May 2000 a complementary department was set up within the OCRETH (Office Central de Répression de la Traite des Être Humains) to tackle criminality associated with advances in technology. This body, the OCLCTIC (Office Central de Lutte contre la Criminalité liée aux Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication), is responsible for overseeing minor offences as well as crimes involving immoral earnings of 'pimping'.

  11 Matthieu Franchon and Andreas Bitesnich, 'Salariées le jour, escort girls la nuit', published in the weekly Choc, 28 June 2007, 87, pp. 26–33.

  12 In escorting jargon 'taboos' are sexual practices the escort refuses to perform in the context of sex for money. Conversely, the expression 'no taboos' indicates an escort prepared to accept every kind of practice.

  13 Malika Nor, La Prostitution, Paris, Le Cavalier Bleu, 2001, p. 54.

  14 This sort of voluntary amateur prostitution is in fact the subject of Reuzeau's latest play Les Débutantes – Prostituées en quelques clics. It features Marion, a 19-year-old student of medicine who occasionally prostitutes herself via the internet to pay her way through university.

  15 15 According to the Observatoire de la Vie Étudiante (OVE), in France 47 per cent of students have salaried work alongside their studies and 15 per cent of them work at least six months of the year on at least half time.

  16 Christelle Schaff, op. cit. p. 140.

  17 As part of my research I met a young male student who worked as a street prostitute for two years and now uses the internet – deemed 'safer than the street' – to find clients. He does not have an advertisement or blog, but logs on to gay sites to make new contacts. He feels that the fact that men – and therefore male students – are under-represented as 'providers of paid sexual services' is a question of supply and demand. 'The male demand for "free" heterosexual sex is greater than the supply – hence the institution of female prostitution to compensate for this discrepancy. On the other hand, there is a much smaller discrepancy between the supply and demand for "free" male homosexual sex. There are, therefore, fewer male prostitutes than their female counterparts because what they are offering competes with "free options".'

  18 Financial help from parents and other family members represents 44.6 per cent of student resources [CREDOC figure, 1992] – Olivier Galland and Marco Oberti, Les Étudiants, Paris, La Découverte, 1996, p. 67.

  19 During research, I met two female student escorts for whom financial gain was not the principal aim of their prostitution. Both were (comfortably) supported financially by their parents.

  20 Jean-Marc Philibert, 'La prostitution gagne les bancs de la fac', Le Figaro, 30 October 2006, p. 11.

  21 Jean-François Dauriac has been a regional student welfare officer for Créteil (1992–2001) and Versailles (2001–4). In 2000, Claude Allègre – then French Minister for Education – instructed Dauriac to establish the current economic circumstances of French students with a view to setting up a 'student social security scheme'. Jean-François Dauriac, summary of notes from his report, Paris 2000.

  22 Jean-Marc Philibert, op. cit. – there are currently 2,200,000 students in France.

  23 Such as Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron, Les Héritiers: les étudiants de la culture, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1989; Raymond Boudon, L'Inégalité des chances – La mobilité sociale dans les sociétés industrielles, Paris, Armand Colin, 1979; François Dubet, 'Les étudiants', in F. Dubet et al., Universités et villes, Paris, L'Harmattan, 1994; Stéphane Beaud, 80% au bac . . . et après?, Paris, La Découverte, 2003; M. Euriat and C. Thelot, 'Le recrutement social de l'élite scolaire en France', Revue française de sociologie, XXXVI-3, July–September 1995, pp. 403–38.

  24 In 2006 student aid represented 6 billion euros and affected 2.2 million students. Source: Laurent Wauqiez, Les aides aux étudiants: comment relancer l'ascenseur social?, Paris, 2006.

  25 Claude Grignon (chairman of the OVE's scientific committee), Les étudiants en difficulté: Pauvreté et précarité – report submitted to the Minister for Youth, Education and Research, Paris, 2003.

  26 Ibid.

  27 Thomas Laqueur, La Fabrique du sexe – Essai sur le corps et le genre en Occident, Paris, Gallimard, 1992.

  28 Parents do still keep an eye on their children's sexual activity, particularly in connection with the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases or of unwanted pregnancy. Michel Bozon, Sociologie de la sexualité, Paris, Armand Colin, 2005, p. 54.

  29 Michel Bozon, op cit., p. 16.

  30 This study, conducted by a French organisation, does not refer to the student population but targets young people aged 18 to 25 whose cases are followed by Social Services and who are in precarious economic and social positions. The youth integration scheme of the ANRS (National Association for Social Re-adaptation), Le risque prostitutionnel chez les jeunes de 18–25 ans (initial study), Paris, 1995.

  31 Michel Bozon, op. cit., p. 25.