The "French System": The Sanitary Administration of Prostitution in 19th-Century Paris. The historical context behind the Olympia by Édouard Manet
- Art d'Histoire
- Jan 24
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 29
In the 19th century, the French State did not aim to abolish prostitution but rather to manage it with the cold efficiency of a public utility. This approach, which came to be known across Europe as "Regulationism" or "French System", was based on a stark hygienic philosophy formulated by Alexandre Parent-Duchâtelet. He viewed prostitutes as an inevitability in any large gathering of men, comparing them to sewers or garbage dumps: necessary facilities that required strict supervision to prevent them from contaminating the rest of society. The primary goal was not moral redemption but the protection of the nation's health against the ravages of syphilis.
The Administrative Machine: Tolerance and Control
Established under the Consulate in the early 1800s to curb the perceived licentiousness of the post-Revolutionary period, the system relied on a policy of administrative tolerance. The State effectively oversaw the trade through four main institutions: the brothel, the medical dispensary, the prison, and the vice squad.
The system created a sharp legal distinction between women. On one side were the "registered" or "submissive" girls who complied with police rules; on the other were the "clandestine" or "rebellious" women who operated in the shadows. Once a woman's name was entered into the police registers, she effectively forfeited her civil liberties to become a subject of constant sanitary surveillance.
The Nomenclature: "Brèmes" and Numbers
To manage this population, the police enforced a strict categorization. Women working in "tolerated houses" (brothels) were known as girls "en numéro" because they were identified only by their entry number in the Madam's register.
Those who worked independently were called girls "en carte." They carried a specific registration card, which they were required to present to police officers upon request. In the slang of the streets, this card was known as a brème (bream) due to its flat shape and pale color. The card listed the obligatory medical visas.
Holding this document came with humiliating restrictions designed to make the profession invisible to respectable citizens. These women were forbidden from soliciting during daylight hours, banned from major thoroughfares like the Champs-Élysées, and, in some towns, prohibited from wearing hats ("hair in style") to distinguish them from "honest" women.
The Dreaded Medical Visit: The Speculum as a Tool of Repression
The cornerstone of this system was the mandatory medical examination, intended to create a "sanitary cordon" against venereal disease. Brothel residents were examined weekly, while independent girls had to visit the dispensary twice a month.
The process was industrial and dehumanizing. At the dispensary, women were processed rapidly—doctors could examine up to twenty-five women in an hour. The exams took place on specialized, intimidating furniture like the Hamilton examination table or the adjustable chaise-longue-speculum, which left the women feeling exposed and ashamed.
Hygiene was often an afterthought; the speculum was rarely sterilized between patients, meaning the doctors themselves often transmitted the infections they were searching for. Terrified of being sent to the prison hospital, women developed inventive ways to mask their symptoms. Some used small pieces of colored skin glued over sores to hide them, while others consumed special chocolate-coated lozenges to conceal ulcers in the mouth and throat!
The Hunt: The Vice Squad and the Raid
Enforcement fell to the Vice Squad in Paris (Brigade des mœurs), a special police unit often criticized for its arbitrary power and corruption. These agents, sometimes motivated by performance bonuses, patrolled the streets to track down women who missed their medical exams or solicited too openly. They were often depicted in caricatures as shadowy figures or spies lurking in doorways.
Their most feared tactic was the "raid" (rafle). On boulevards, agents would sweep up dozens of women at a time. As depicted in Alexandre Steinlein's illustration of a raid found in the archives on Arrests and Detention, these arrests were violent and chaotic. Women were forcibly dragged away by men in dark coats. Even innocent women were occasionally caught in the net, as agents would silence protests with a slap, confident in their authority.
The Sorting Center: The Dépôt
Women arrested during raids were taken to the "Dépôt" at the Police Headquarters. This holding area was a place of extreme social leveling. High-class courtesans who dined at the finest restaurants found themselves sharing greasy benches with the most destitute streetwalkers.
It was a grim antechamber where fates were decided. Pimps, known as "marlous," would often come to the Dépôt to negotiate the release of their earners (their "marmites", their "pot") in exchange for providing information to the police. Those found to be unregistered or sick faced further incarceration.
St-Lazare: The Prison-Hospital
The ultimate punishment for the non-compliant was the prostitutes' prison, St-Lazare, ironically nicknamed "the countryside" by the inmates. Conditions inside were harsh. Women slept in a massive dormitory of over a hundred beds or in small cells. They were forced to work eleven hours a day sewing linen or bags. Their earnings, known as the "gobette," were meager but necessary to buy small comforts like milk or wine to supplement the prison's foul gruel. The environment was described by observers as a pit where women were buried alive.
The Paradox of the Nuns
The most contradictory element of this republican system was that the state entrusted the guarding of these "fallen women" to the Sisters of Marie-Joseph. A treaty from 1849 gave these nuns control over the internal workings of the prison, vividly depicted in the illustration Morning prayer.
However, their strict religious morality proved disastrous for the system's sanitary goals. Ignorant of the realities of their charges' lives, the nuns imposed severe rules, such as banning personal underwear and enforcing silence. The inmates were so terrified of the nuns' judgment and the prison's harsh regime that they went to great lengths to avoid arrest, hiding their illnesses and continuing to work while infectious rather than face the "purifying" mire of St-Lazare.
The Collapse of the System: Clandestinity Rising
Despite the immense machinery of control, the "French System" eventually failed to contain the trade. As shown in the statistics on brothels, the number of official houses collapsed, dropping from over two hundred in the mid-century to just fifty by the 1900s.
Conversely, the figures on clandestinity reveal that the number of "insoumises" (unregistered or clandestine prostitutes) exploded. Observers estimated there were 30,000 women working secretly in Paris—represented in the period's statistical pie charts—flooding the boulevards and theaters, far outnumbering the few thousand registered women.
The Moral Crusade of Père-la-Pudeur
Faced with this perceived tidal wave of immorality, moral crusaders like Senator René Bérenger known as Père-la-Pudeur tried to intervene. He fought against the visual pollution of vice: pornography, licentious posters, and risqué theater performances.
Bérenger pushed for laws in 1898 to prosecute "public indecency," targeting everything from street advertising to the "overflowing river of mud" found in naturalist literature. However, caricaturists frequently ridiculed his efforts. In satirical images like The Right to Prosecute, he is depicted as a joyless figure fruitlessly chasing young women with a drum, or trying to cover the nudity of Paris with a vine leaf.
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