Activists want to shut down France's first sex doll "brothel" for promoting rape

Paris councillors are considering calls to close France’s first sex doll brothel Tuesday, following objections from feminist and left-wing groups.

Situated in an apartment in the French capital’s 14th arrondissement, Xdolls opened last month, offering clients a choice of four different Chinese-made silicon inflatable sex toys.

The business is legally registered as a games center, but critics object to it on the grounds that it is essentially a brothel, a business that's illegal under French law.

“It’s as if you go there to play pinball or table football,” Nicolas Bonnet Oulaldj, the Communist leader on the Paris council told Le Parisien.

Oulaldj has tabled a motion for the business to be closed, despite police who visited the premises determining that no law was being broken and it posed no threat to public order.

“Xdolls conveys a degrading image of the woman,” Oulaldj said.

Feminist group Mouvement du Nid (Nest Movement) agrees, arguing that the business promotes rape culture.

“Xdolls is not a sex shop. It's a place that generates money and where you rape a woman,” said spokeswoman Lorraine Questiaux.

“Can we in France approve a business that is based on the promotion of rape?”

Similar businesses have popped up in other European cities in recent years across Spain, Germany, England, the Netherlands and Austria. Xdolls’ owner, Joaquin Lousquy, has told French media that despite the opposition in Paris, he hopes to opens similar businesses elsewhere.

Cover image: France's first brothel featuring sex dolls opened on January 29, 2018, in Paris. (Christophe Bertolin/IP3/Getty Images)