The world’s oldest profession wants modern work rights. Prostitutes are demanding a recognised status similar to other self-employed workers, with access to a pension scheme and normal benefits. They also want the distinction made clearer between consented prostitution and trafficking.
Nikita, a transvestite prostitute (pictured left), told French News, “Most people working in the sex trade have chosen this career and are proud of what they do.” A founder member of Les Putes, he hopes to end ‘putophobia’, arguing that sex work is an occupation like any other, except it’s prone to stigmatisation and social exclusion. “Benefiting financially from the earnings of a sex worker – pimping – is illegal in France. Landlords can be punished if they rent to a prostitute. Some unscrupulous ones, aware of this, exploit prostitutes by charging way above market rents.”
The girls working from vans in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris face new challenges from local police. Since Nicolas Sarkozy’s controversial bill three years ago making soliciting a crime, they are liable to huge fines. “In addition to doing a very tiring job, they’re subjected now to frequent police harassment and not given support if they’re victims of violence,” said Nikita, who also accuses the police of bribing the girls. Nikita is determined that the conditions of this often ‘invisible’ occupation is brought to the public’s notice.
François Gil from Droits des Femmes, Femmes des Droits, an association which campaigns for women’s rights, says: “All the girls from the Bois de Vincennes want to do is get on with their jobs.”
Nikita, a transvestite prostitute (pictured left), told French News, “Most people working in the sex trade have chosen this career and are proud of what they do.” A founder member of Les Putes, he hopes to end ‘putophobia’, arguing that sex work is an occupation like any other, except it’s prone to stigmatisation and social exclusion. “Benefiting financially from the earnings of a sex worker – pimping – is illegal in France. Landlords can be punished if they rent to a prostitute. Some unscrupulous ones, aware of this, exploit prostitutes by charging way above market rents.”
The girls working from vans in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris face new challenges from local police. Since Nicolas Sarkozy’s controversial bill three years ago making soliciting a crime, they are liable to huge fines. “In addition to doing a very tiring job, they’re subjected now to frequent police harassment and not given support if they’re victims of violence,” said Nikita, who also accuses the police of bribing the girls. Nikita is determined that the conditions of this often ‘invisible’ occupation is brought to the public’s notice.
François Gil from Droits des Femmes, Femmes des Droits, an association which campaigns for women’s rights, says: “All the girls from the Bois de Vincennes want to do is get on with their jobs.”
