Opinion Customer in rat trap

Causeur (Chatterer) magazine has published. They object to government interference in desire and pleasure: “We love freedom,literature and intimacy. When the state starts taking charge of our private parts,all three are in danger. In opposition to the sexually correct,we intend to live as adults.” The words are a take-off on what many believe is current French obsession with being “politically correct”.

What’s outraged the French is that this petition drew a parallel with two very important causes the progressive Left had fought for and won — anti-racism and abortion. Indignation is against swindling the anti-racist slogan,“Touche pas a mon Pote (Hands off my Pal)!”,coined in 1984. A French NGO named SOS Racisme,created by persons close to the Socialist Party and Left movements,stood for brotherhood and against racial discrimination through this phrase on a yellow hand symbol. So they consider that “Touche pas a ma Pute!” demeans their work,alleging the signatories are right-wing reactionaries guarding their macho privileges.

The “343 Salauds” refers to 343 Salopes (Sluts) manifesto that Existentialist philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir had led for women’s rights in 1971. She’d collected signatures from 343 renowned women who falsely declared they had abortions when abortion was illegal. The culmination of this movement was France legalising abortion in 1975 (see my article https://www.financialexpress.com/news/exotic-riots-by-women/983938/0). Anne Zelensky,one of the original 343 Salopes,says,“When it comes to prostitution,no one is free: not the prostitute and not the client.” Anne-Cecile Mailfert of Osez le Feminisme (Dare to be Feminist) organisation disagrees with the Salauds: “They are 343 dominant males who want to protect their position and continue to use money for access to women’s bodies.”

Interestingly,actress Catherine Deneuve who was among those 1971 Salopes signatories,is today opposing this Bill along with 60 celebrities,including crooner Charles Aznavour: “Without supporting or promoting prostitution,we reject the penalisation of those who prostitute themselves and those who buy their services,and we ask for a real debate without ideological prejudice.” Catherine Deneuve had shot into stardom when she shockingly played a prostitute who found satisfaction in clandestine sex only,in Luis Bunuel’s cult film Belle de Jour (see my article https://www.financialexpress.com/news/lonely-independence/799417/0).

One of the Bill’s perpetrators,Maud Olivier,defends it as,“getting rid of the consequence of unequal and archaic relationships between men and women”. The Bill aims to decriminalise France’s estimated 40,000 sex workers because it will override a 2003 law that bans them for soliciting for customers publicly.

This kind of law where buying sex is a crime already exists in Sweden since 1998. Men have to be careful on the street where police are on the watch with video cameras. Notices are then sent to their homes saying report to the police station. It seems if the wife opens the notice,she angrily confronts the police officer on the phone,to which she’s given the answer,“Please ask your husband why,Madame.” In 10 years only 648 men have actually been convicted and fined,but Swedish authority Anna Skarhed says,“The important thing is to get people talking about it. Society needs to ask: is this something we want?”

Switzerland has started a unique “sex drive-in” solution outside Zurich to prevent their 100 odd sex workers,of them 1,200 officially registered,from working the streets. They hope to stop human trafficking cases,forced prostitution and serious forms of abuse. The sex drive-in is open only to clients with cars. Forty to 60 sex workers can work from the nine garages every day. This idea was inspired by Cologne in Germany,which opened a sex trade reserved zone in 2001. Cologne authorities claim street prostitution has disappeared from downtown,no violent acts are reported,nor can pimps and drug dealers operate among sex workers who are now getting health prevention plans too.

In contrast,look at India’s monstrous,reprehensible figures: 3 million sex workers,of whom 1.2 million are below the age of 18 as per government estimates quoted by Bloomberg News. The National Human Rights Commission reports India’s average child prostitute recruitment age has dropped to 9-12-year-olds. Statistics say the country’s sex trafficking industry is worth $4 billion,the world’s highest. India carries out almost 40 per cent of the world’s female sterilisations,a woman is raped on an average every 21 minutes,a third of all women are illiterate. Surely the status of our women is the worst?

The French debate on whether sex-buying customers should walk into a rat trap is controversial,the latest poll has 68 per cent against it. NGOs helping sex workers say their business will dive deeper underground making them vulnerable to exploitation by foreign gangs,as almost 90 per cent sex workers there are of foreign origin. Said Tim Leicester of NGO Medecins du Monde,“They will be forced to continue to hide themselves. Even if they are not risking arrest,their clients are. And their survival depends on their clients.” Criminalising clients will drive up Internet-based prostitution. The real question that Causeur magazine and the 343 Salauds are asking is whether the human sex drive is stronger,or the bizarre law? The bacterial way that illegal drug trafficking infiltrates deeper and faster,will criminalising sex purchase make people psychologically hanker for it more?

Shombit Sengupta is an international consultant to top management on differentiating business strategy with execution excellence (www.shiningconsulting.com)