Row blows up over France’s first brothel with sex dolls

FRANCE: France’s first sex doll brothel has been approved after a thorough police inspection, despite claims that it breaches legislation banning prostitution.

Communist and other ultra-left members of the Paris city council have introduced a motion denouncing the business, in the city’s well-heeled 14th district, as an affront to women. They have called for XDolls, which charges €89 (NZ$152) for an hour with a sex doll, to be made illegal.

Bruno Julliard, the deputy mayor of the city, who is a Socialist, dismissed the motion as a waste of council time, saying it was ‘‘far removed from town hall business’’.

He was backed by a source at the interior ministry, who said the brothel had been inspected by police last week. ‘‘They checked to see if it caused public disorder and on the face of it, that is not the case. Everything is in order. There are no complaints from neighbours yet.’’

Joaquim Lousquy, the owner of the business, which is officially registered as a games centre, said: ‘‘The police officer was very nice. He looked at everything.’’

XDolls, which claims to offer four different models, only gives its address to customers after they pay in advance. It is one of several sex doll brothels to have opened in recent months in European cities, including London, Barcelona and Amsterdam.

Paris’s Communist councillors say the business breaches 1945 legislation that outlawed France’s thriving brothel industry. The law was tightened in 2016 to make it a criminal offence to pay for sex in France. However, it is not an offence to charge for sex.

‘‘This business cannot be considered as a games centre but as a place of prostitution, and therefore its owner can be likened to a pimp,’’ says the motion.

‘‘It is damaging the image of women. We have gone from treating women as an object to simply having an object.’’

Lorraine Questiaux, a spokeswoman for the Nid movement, an anti-prostitution campaign group, said the sex doll brothel would encourage ‘‘a culture of rape’’.

‘‘The police have a duty to ensure the respect of peace, salubrity and human dignity. And on this last point, can we accept in France a trade based upon the promotion of rape?’’

Lousquy replied: ‘‘We are doing nothing more than hiring out toys. We are talking about a metal skeleton with silicone on it. We are offering something clean and legal.’’

Eloise Becht, aka Ovidie, a French former adult film actress who now makes feminist pornography, said: ‘‘Honestly, I find it very humiliating that people are getting worked up about masturbatory objects when human beings have to struggle all year long to get their voices heard. Let’s listen to them first and to the dolls afterwards.’’