TUCKING into her cheese sandwich, Catherine de Noire keeps an eye on the clock.
It’s just gone midday and she’s expecting the lunch time rush at any moment – with hoards of hungry men due to rush through the door.
Catherine de Noire works as a manager in a legal brothel[/caption]
She says that aside from the red lights outside the interior looked ‘surprisingly normal’. Pictured: Stock image of a brothel in the red light district of Amsterdam[/caption]
But Catherine doesn’t work in a deli or a local boozer – her office is a brothel and lunchtime is one of the busiest times of day.
“Surprisingly, the earliest ‘rush hour’ at the brothel is 12pm to 1pm, when men pop in on their lunch-breaks from work,” she tells Sun Club.
“The next is between 3pm and 5pm, giving them time to get home without raising suspicion.”
Catherine, 31, had been studying for an undergrad in psychology in 2016 when she first became interested in a career in the sex industry.
“While I loved it, I was getting frustrated with its attitude to sexuality,” she says.
“Reading psychology books, so much of sex was described as ‘deviant’.
“As a fan of swingers’ parties, ‘deviant’ or ‘abnormal’ seemed like very judgemental words to me.”
One day while researching an essay Catherine came across an article that grabbed her attention called Psychologist in a Whorehouse: They Call Me Pimp, but I Protect Women.
“I lived in a country in Europe outside the UK where sex work was legal,” Catherine says.
“The article was written by a manager at a brothel who had a background in psychology.
“He emphasised the importance of respecting and protecting sex-workers.
“The girls were independent contractors, who rented space from the brothel in exchange for a flat rate.
“It sounded like my dream job.”
Catherine found an email address for the same brothel and got in touch to ask if they had any vacancies.
To her delight she was called for an interview.
“Beforehand, I couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous,” she admits.
“Not only did I not have any experience in the adult industry, I also had no managerial experience.
“I had no idea what to expect of the office, I was half expecting it to all be leather, velvet and fake fur.”
Catherine says that while some people confuse her for a pimp, her job is to protect the workers[/caption]
It was during her psychology degree that she became disillusioned with the way sex was viewed[/caption]
“But while the outside of the building was all done up with red lights, the interior was surprisingly normal.”
The manager, who was the author of the article she’d read, gave Catherine a tour of the HR and IT department
“We had a fascinating chat,” she explains.
“He told me that women are often at an advantage in brothel management because they don’t try to control the workers.”
The following week Catherine started working at the brothel as a manager.
“I’d be working nighttime shifts, from 7pm to 6am, but I quickly learned that the brothel wasn’t just busy in the evenings,” she says.
Catherine’s main responsibilities involved answering emails, overseeing bartenders, IT and marketing as well as recruiting and onboarding the girls themselves and she quickly discovered that stereotypes did not apply.
“In the media, sex workers were often represented as desperate or addicted, but this wasn’t my experience,” she says.
“Some of the girls were earning up to £40,000 a month, and many planned on working for just a few years to set themselves up for the rest of their lives.
“Yet, plenty of them were from overseas, and needed local advice or help reading over rental contracts.”
It was a few months into her job that Catherine decided to come clean about her work to her family.
“Dad’s a nuclear physicist, and his response was typically calm, understanding and matter of fact,” she says.
“But Mum was horrified, she thought that I was a pimp!
“But I explained I wasn’t exploiting the girls but rather looking after them and the more I explained, the more she came to accept it.
“Dad even came into the office with me one day to see the set-up.
“From then on, I never lied when someone asked me what I did.”
Protecting the workers was of the utmost importance to the brothel and was a large part of Catherine’s job.
“We had panic buttons in all the rooms and made sure they knew the workers had the right to say no to any request,” she explains.
“While some of the girls did just BDSM work, others exclusively worked with lesbians – it was entirely up to them to decide.”
While clients were well behaved on the whole, Catherine says that they did have to remove them occasionally.
On another occasion I recognised a familiar face in the corridor – my dentist
Catherine de Noire
“Sometimes we’d have to call security to turf them out at 5am when they didn’t want to make the journey home,” she says.
Intriguingly, one of the most surprising things that Catherine discovered was that plenty of men weren’t even looking for sex.
“Sometimes they were only after companionship,” she explains.
“One guy paid one of the girls £4,500 just to drive to a graveyard with him and share a cigarette.”
But it wasn’t all quite so straight-laced.
“One man turned up in a head-to-toe polar bear suit for a role play session,” Catherine says.
“I had to explain to him that he would have to remove the head while he was in reception for security reasons.
“Another man turned up dressed as a plumber and spent the whole booking fixing one of the blocked loos.”
Working in the brothel required the utmost discretion from Catherine who came across some pretty awkward scenarios.
“One of our girls came in to work every Monday, while her husband visited as a client every Friday,,” she says.
“Neither of them knew about the other and it wasn’t my place to tell them.
“On another occasion I recognised a familiar face in the corridor – my dentist.
“I realised where he’d been while I had been trying to get an appointment, fortunately, he didn’t recognise me.
“His office was filled with family portraits of him with his wife and kids, and I thought he might have been a bit embarrassed.”
While the workers of the brothel were discreet, occasionally angry wives and girlfriends would get wind of their partners’ hobbies.
“Plenty would buy a ticket and storm through looking for their boyfriend or husband,” Catherine explains.
Are brothels legal in the UK?
There has been a growing debate in the UK about whether brothels should be legalised, following the emergence of pop-up brothels across the country. These temporary establishments, often set up in residential areas, have sparked concerns among local communities and law enforcement agencies. The current legal framework in the UK criminalises the operation of brothels, but individual sex work is permitted. This has led to a complex and often problematic situation for those involved in the industry.
Advocates for legalising brothels argue that regulation could improve safety and working conditions for sex workers. By bringing the industry out of the shadows, they believe that sex workers would have better access to health services and legal protection, reducing the risks of exploitation and violence. Furthermore, regulated brothels could be subject to health and safety standards, ensuring a safer environment for both workers and clients.
On the other hand, opponents of legalisation worry that it could lead to an increase in human trafficking and exploitation. They argue that normalising the sex industry might encourage more people to become involved in it, both as workers and clients. Additionally, there are concerns about the impact on local communities, with fears that legalised brothels could lead to an increase in crime and antisocial behaviour in residential areas.
As the debate continues, it is clear that there are no easy answers. Balancing the rights and safety of sex workers with the concerns of local communities and broader societal impacts remains a complex challenge. Policymakers will need to carefully consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of legalising brothels in the UK, taking into account the experiences of other countries that have taken similar steps.
“When arguments did break out, we’d gently encourage them to take it outside or to a private room.”
While most expressed a healthy interest in her job, Catherine explains that her job could pose a problem when it came to dating.
“I noticed quite a few men seemed to be bothered by my job,” she says.
“One guy told me my job was fascinating but he’d never let his girlfriend do it.
“It wasn’t a problem, I was happy to give him the boot.”
Catherine says that working in the brothel definitely changed her view of marriage and monogamy.
“I met plenty of men who’d tell me they loved their wives, they just weren’t having sex anymore,” she adds.
“I’ve had men tell me that the brothel has saved their marriage.”
Fascinated by everything she was learning, Catherine started posting about her experiences online.
“There was such stigma around the topic and I wanted to encourage a conversation and debunk stereotypes of the industry,” she says.
“People loved my videos and I soon amassed 400,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok.
I’ve had men tell me that the brothel has saved their marriage
Catherine de Noire
“I even started an Only Fans account where I could tell my wildest stories.”
But while she received plenty of positive attention, she also endured some backlash.
“My inbox and comment sections were filled with death and rape threats against me, my family, and my potential future children,” she says.
“It was shocking and I had to be careful with my mental health.”
Eight years into her job, Catherine realised it was time to take a step back.
“When I first started the job at 22, the night shifts didn’t really bother me,” she says.
“But by the time I hit 30, the 3am to 6am stretch started getting much harder.
“Especially as I was simultaneously studying for a PHD in organisational psychology.
“Now, I’ve been working in this role for nine years, and I’m starting to think about my next steps.
“I definitely want to stay in the industry, but perhaps move across to a luxury swingers club or something similar.
“Ultimately, my work in a brothel has taught me one important lesson.
“Sex work is only dangerous when it’s illegal, legalising it keeps women safe.”
She wants sex work to be made legal globally in order to keep women safe[/caption]
