There were sustained protests before France banned prostitution, in 2016, with a version of the sex buyer law pioneered in Sweden. A group of notable prostitution enthusiasts, calling themselves the “343 salauds (scumbags)”, thought it would help if they launched a campaign called “Touche pas à ma pute”, translated, according to taste, as “hands off my whore/hooker”.
After what were, presumably, two miserably pute-starved years for the salauds, who included Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer, it emerges that they will, after all, have recourse to silicone alternatives, in a new sex-doll brothel. Councillors and some feminist groups had asked the council of Paris to close down Xdolls, in line with anti-prostitution law – and because it demeans women.
But having investigated the flat hiring out silicone female dummies, for €89 (£78) an hour, the council has found – how could it not? – that the dolls being dolls, the establishment could not be a brothel, and was therefore legal.
- The Guardian
