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As the 'brothel of Europe,' Paris became the favored destination of GIs on leave in 1944-45. The entry of the Americans into Paris transformed sexual commerce, leading to the downfall of the legal regulation of prostitution, ironically because the soldiers so sharply raised the demand for sexual labor. As the legal system broke down under the weight of demand, prostitution became chaotic and unprofessional, and prostitutes were left poor and unprotected. At the same time, a new culture of prostitution emerged in Paris with its own language, geography and protective customs. For the French, the prostitute came to symbolize a loss of French respectability and honor, as well as the domination of French culture by American wealth and power. DOI 10.1215/00161071-2009-022

By Anne-Marie Sohn (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1996.1,095pp.). In this published version of her these d'Etat, written under the supervision of Maurice Agulhon, the historian Anne-Marie Sohn undertakes a [...]

Fashion is in fashion: in recent years cultural critics have taken it up as a serious object of study. The way in which dress inscribes certain power relations and constructs [...]