A Paris ‘games center’ which allowed customers to have sex with a selection of four different realistic Chinese sex dolls, has escaped closure after the Paris council ruled that it was not a brothel and that police had found it was breaking no law. Feminist and communist members of the council had wanted the center closed down on the grounds that it supposdely degraded women and encouraged rape.
In a joint statement, Communist councillors Nicolas Bonnet Oulaldj and Hervé Bégué said they deeply regretted the council’s decision.
“This establishment, with hyper-realistic humanoid dolls, is the latest invention to bring brothels back into the landscape,” they said.
They went on to describe Xdolls as “the pinnacle of the dehumanisation of the relationship between women and men” and accused it of trivialising the exploitation of women by prostitution networks, and the related crime of human trafficking.
Secret address
Xdolls is located in an anonymous-looking flat in the French capital and opened earlier this year, describing itself as a “games centre”.Clients are mainly men, though some couples also visit, owner Joachim Lousquy, who formerly managed e-cigarette shops, told Le Parisien newspaper.
It has three rooms, each containing a silicone sex doll measuring about 1m 45cm (4ft 7in) and worth several thousand euros.
Customers make their booking and payment online, and the exact address is kept secret. Not even the neighbours are aware of the nature of the business, Mr Lousquy says.
Mr Lousquy says the dolls are sex toys and that he does not see them as degrading to women.