France for Freebooters
An independent traveller's guide to France and its history
FRENCH SEX: half a million French seek counselling
It looks as if the old stereotype is obsolete. According to a recent article in Madame Figaro, a supplement of one of France's major daily newspapers, in 2005 around half a million French men and women have paid from 30 to 180 Euros a session for sexual conselling.
A full spectrum of clients
On a typical morning, a Parisian counsellor will see patients such as:
- a young woman whose passionate love affair is fading as she starts to get bored with making love
- a stressed-out businessman in his fifties, whose wife has sent him because he's losing his virility
- a 45 year old mother who is worried that, although she enjoys making love, she never has any spontaneous desire to do so
- an adolescent wondering if his genitals are 'normal'
- a 77 year old man who has rediscovered an old flame from his youth and would like to re-live the old days
Will the 'sexologue' replace the psychiatrist?
Not yet, it seems. Even at the trendiest city dinner parties, people don't yet start conversations with 'as my sex counsellor was telling me the other day...'
What's behind this new development?
According to sociologist Janine Mossuz-Lavau, author of the research paper 'Sexual Life in France', three decades after the great wave of sexual liberty, women are still expected to be lovers but now they also expect to satisfy their own desires in the process. Much of the huge growth in sexual counselling relates to this change. Doctor Marc Ganem, President of the French Society of Clinical Sexology, is quoted as saying:
'When I started consulting in 1976, most of my clients were women aged 40 to 45, mothers of full-grown adolescents, telling me they were bored with sex. In 2005, far more are women aged 20 to 25 seeking sexual success before becoming mothers, wanting to enjoy their sexuality to the full.'
Unrealistic Expectations
Viviane Chocas, the author of the Madame Figaro article, quotes Laura Beltran, another consultant, as saying that unrealistic assumptions that 'every time should be perfect' have made matters worse. 'But this misunderstanding does ensure a steady flow of clients', she adds.
Beltran comments that the arrival of Viagra caused a frenzy of appointments, 'but it's all very well to take a pill that gives you an erection. The real problem is what are you going to do with it?'
The End of a Myth
So there you are. Whatever was the case half a century ago, it seems that today there are probably just as many worried and confused French men and women as there are English ones.