A resident stands to speak. Can we expect to see an end to prostitution in this neighbourhood? Local elected officials and police commissioners promise that the situation will improve while underlining the historical nature of this problem. The situation is changing for the better. The dominant discourse of the residents present is, granted, one of empathy but under one condition: not in my backyard. Sex work has no place in a gentrifying neighbourhood. In the heart of the 2nd arrondissement, not far from Les Halles and a few metres from the famous Rue Montorgueilโa bustling open-air market where Parisians frequent trendy terraces and renowned food shops with sumptuous window displaysโRue Saint-Denis is and always has been an anomaly.
While downtown Paris is increasingly marked by the presence of bourgeois residents and businesses, Rue Saint-Denis continues to be a world of deviance. True to its legacy as a working-class neighbourhood, the Rue Saint-Denis area seemed, until recently, to have remained on the fringes of the gentrification dynamics affecting the 2nd arrondissement: rents were still low, and there were obvious indicators of precariousness. Every day is a walk on the wild side here. The prostitutes on Rue Saint-Denis have a particular and privileged position in the space of sex work and are therefore not representative of either Parisian prostitution or the profession at large.
This phenomenon has been studied by a number of French sociologists, including Lilian Mathieu. They have been on the street for several years and own the studios where they turn their tricks.
They are keenly aware of the different health and social resources available to them and are only very rarely addicted to drugs or affected by HIV. Socially, they are relatively well-integrated and they fully own, even openly assert, their status as prostitutes. Their many years of experience give them authority and legitimacy in the eyes of their younger colleagues. They constitute a relatively cohesive group whose members acknowledge one another.
Julie is one of these women. Everywhere else gentrification has completely taken over, but Rue Saint-Denis has stayed cosmopolitan and kept the scars of its past. Through the testimonials of Julie and others involved in sex-related businesses, I wanted to understand how these actors negotiate their place in this evolving urban space, from their simple presence on the street to forms of resistanceโinformal, everyday, and silentโagainst gentrification.
