Xdolls is a business housed in an apartment in Paris where customers rent time with lifelike

silicone In Organosilicon chemistry, organosilicon and polymer chemistry, a silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer composed of repeating units of siloxane (, where R = Organyl group, organic group). They are typically colorless oils or elastomer, rubber ...

sex doll A sex doll (also, joy toy, love doll, fuck doll or blowup doll) is an anthropomorphic sex toy in the size and shape of a sexual partner. The sex doll may consist of an entire body, or just a head, pelvis, or other body part (vagina, anus, mo ...

s. Registered as a gaming center, it opened in 2018 and that March survived a challenge brought by Communist members of the

Council of Paris The Council of Paris ( French: ''Conseil de Paris'', ) is the deliberative body responsible for governing Paris, the capital of France. It possesses both the powers of a municipal council (''conseil municipal'') and those of a departmental co ...

after police declared it does not violate the prohibition on

brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

s in France. Xdolls was opened on February 1, 2018, by Joachim Lousquy, who previously operated a chain of vape shops. It is housed in an apartment at a secret location in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. Customers book online to spend time at a rate of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

89 per hour in a private room (termed a "game space"Victor Castanet
"Xdolls: la maison de poupées sexuelles"
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Paris Match ''Paris Match'' () is a French-language weekly gossip magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. ''Paris Match'' has been considered "one of the world's best outlets for photojournalism". ...

'', March 8, 2018 .) with one of four lifelike Chinese-manufactured silicone sex dolls approximately tall,"Sex doll 'brothel': Xdolls escapes Paris council censure"

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, March 22, 2018.David Chazan
"Calls for Paris sex-doll 'brothel' to be closed down over rape fantasy claims"
''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

'', March 17, 2018.Leslie Katz
"Paris sex doll 'brothel' to stay open despite protests"
CNET, March 23, 2018.Céline Carez
"Paris: la 'maison close' aux poupées sexuelles fait polémique"
''

Le Parisien ''Le Parisien'' (; ) is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of ...

'', March 16, 2018 ."Paris: ouverture d'une maison close exploitant des poupées en silicone"
''24matins'', February 6, 2018 . with

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

augmentation available at an extra charge. Lousquy says that the dolls are sprayed clean and sterilized in a separate room and that in addition to men the business attracts some couples. Similar establishments opened earlier in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

(in February 2017),

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, and

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

in Europe, and in Japan. Lousquy plans to franchise the business in France and Italy.Simonetta Caminiti
"L'ultima frontiera del sesso? Le "Bocca di Rosa" in plastica"
''

Il Giornale (), known from its founding in 1974 until 1983 as (), is an Italian-language daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 28,933 in May 2023. In 2006, it was considered one of Italy's main national newspapers. History an ...

'', March 18, 2018 . Feminist groups have objected to the business. Lorraine Questieux of the anti-

prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...

group characterized Xdolls as "a place that makes money from simulating the rape of a woman", and Pierre Laurent, general secretary of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

, said he would raise the issue in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

of "sex robots", "some of which can resemble children". Communist members of the Council of Paris scheduled a discussion for the start of the new session in March 2018 on whether it should be banned under the 1946 law against brothels in France; prostitution was also outlawed by a 2012 law. Police visited Xdolls before the session and determined that it was not in violation, and the motion was defeated. Nicolas Bonnet Oulaldj, head of the council Communists, and fellow Communist member Hervé Bégué declared in a joint press conference that Xdolls constituted "the latest invention to bring brothels back into the landscape" and "the pinnacle of the dehumanisation of the relationship between women and men", saying it trivialized prostitution and

human trafficking Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or oth ...

References

External links

Official website

Design, Use and EffectsXdolls history and legal regulations in the EU
{{in lang, de 2018 establishments in France Sex businesses Companies based in Paris