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\u201cI\u2019d rather sell my ass than my soul, it\u2019s harder but much cleaner\u201d, Claudette told me on one of our first meeting. How can one not write a story about her?<\/p>\n
I had been working for a few months on a documentary project about sex workers in Switzerland, seeking to understand why this country considers that prostitution can be a job as any other as opposed to the French state which stipulates that every form of prostitution is a violence against women.My book on the subject does not attempt to explain this job, which has as many sides to it as it has persons practicing it. The book seeks to give a voice to Claudette, to let her tell her story and express her views. Because one of the reason that explains the differences in legislations between Switzerland and France is that in France one rarely hears the opinions of the ones for whom we make the laws. We think we know better than they what they need, and we refuse to believe that a priced sexual relationship might sometimes be desired by a woman. A prostitute is unhappy, we are told, and if she claims the opposite it\u2019s because she is not aware of being miserable.<\/p>\n
Often, because of her job people pity Claudette, or try to \u201csave\u201d her. But rarely do they listen to her when she talks about her achievements as a father and grandfather, her record as a champion cyclists and her victories as a sex worker\u2019s rights campaigner.<\/p>\n
Claudette controls her life, makes her choices clearly and knowingly. She does more than just live her life, she loves it. She has endured her whole life the discourse made by strangers trying to reduce her to what she is not, because of her job but also because of her gender. Claudette is hermaphrodite. She is born with both male and female genitals, a condition that is not very well known and often mistaken with transgender. People often think that being different is a difficulty to overcome, that a physical peculiarity is a trauma, especially when it comes to gender. But the way Claudette was raised has allowed her to never feel undermined by her gender.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never felt like a boy. That wasn\u2019t me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI never felt bad about being hermaphrodite, it\u2019s the others who have a problem with it, not me. I was born with both male and female genital parts so that it wasn\u2019t clear if I was a boy or a girl when I was born. But my parents let me chose who I was, what my identity was even if they declared me as a boy at my birth. In 1937 it was an undeniable advantage. But I have always felt like a girl and I lived my life accordingly. I have the sex of the angels, why would I be ashamed of it? \u201c<\/p>\n
\u201cThe satisfaction of work well done is incomparable in prostitution. When a client is happy, I\u2019m happy too. It\u2019s social work, how can anyone deny that we make people happy, that we are useful? In my job I have the certainty that I have done what was right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith some clients it doesn\u2019t go as well as with others. For a lot of men the need to go see prostitutes is stronger than they are, they can\u2019t help themselves. They do it without thinking. And when it\u2019s over they start remembering that the money they just spent they needed it for rent, for groceries or that their wives is going to be asking where it went. And all of a sudden they don\u2019t speak to you anymore, they become shifty and they\u2019re ashamed of what they\u2019ve done and of you. How many times did I give 20 francs back to a guy who had realized he had to walk back home under the rain at 3am because he had given me all he had including money for a cab\u2026they can\u2019t help themselves. And I\u2019ve been a good prostitute but a bad whore. I couldn\u2019t take advantage of that need like some other girls did, and I couldn\u2019t let them walk home under the rain. Men can be weak.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI always found comfort and strength in the message of Christ. It\u2019s his message of love that nourishes me, everything else is of no importance to me. The church, as an institution, does not interest me and I actually don\u2019t agree with what they do there even if I am Catholic. But the example set by Christ gives me courage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSport has always been an important part of my life. Cycling is one of my passion, I have done it all my life and I have no intention to stop. I still win competitions at my age and record better times than people thirty years younger than me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cActivism is complicated. I\u2019m one of the few who fight for the cause of sex workers using my real identity and showing my face, as Griselidis Real used to do. I\u2019m exposed to the judgement of my family by doing it, for my work as well as my gender. I lost touch with some family members after my first TV show where I clearly stated I wasn\u2019t just a volunteer in that fight, but a sex worker myself. But at my age you know that there are two types of families: the ones you\u2019re related to and the ones you chose. If my blood relatives reject me then I have my other family, the ones I chose and who know and accept me for who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claudette unnerves some people because she lives a happy and coherent life while denying a fundamental moral precept. But her case is neither isolated nor unique. Claudette and others like her have a right to be heard, to be participants in the debate on legislation that currently criminalizes and excludes them. Prostitution is a complex profession that one cannot reduce to a simple rapport of victims facing their tormentors. This documentary is a testimony that seeks to deconstruct Manichean ideas by telling the life of Claudette, as a whole, a life where prostitution and gender play a part without defining it.<\/p>\n
Email from Claudette received 21 Oct 2013<\/span> Malika Gaudin Delrieu<\/span>
\nHi Malika,<\/em>
\nThis morning it\u2019s been 52 years since we said “yes” to each other for life.
\n52 years of happiness that I share with the friends I hold dear.<\/em>
\nKisses,<\/em>
\nClo.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n http:\/\/malikagaudindelrieu.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n