Published 16 October 2024
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Most media is not exactly on our side. Still, over the years quite a few must-sees for sex workers have been created. Must-sees because of their exceptional, touching, authentic or beautiful qualities. In: You’ve got to see this! sex workers review film, television, radio, and music about sex work. Noor Wildeling watched and listened to Stromae’s Fils de Joie.
Carolie Barbier, stylist and wife of Stromae, is the one who came up with the idea to create a national tribute to a deceased sex worker, in the music video for his song Fils de joie (Stromae, 2022). The video features mourning masses, military marches, and a coffin, decorated with flowers, all to show how high ranking the deceased and her occupation are within this fictional world. A group of colleagues, sensually dressed in black, are dancing for her and carrying the coffin, which is greeted with the same grace as the distinguished attendees who attend to say their last farewells.
I felt touched the first time I saw the video, to say the least. It’s pure imagination, but the appreciation of us and the work that we do felt good. And it seems like a bold gesture for Stromae to dedicate his most expensive music video to sex workers.
But what exactly is Stromae singing? Where at first we just hear the usual worn-out clichés: “The first time was the hardest, and what is hardest after that, is deciding when will be the final time”, Stromae gives it an original twist. In these lyrics it is not a sex worker speaking, but a client. In the two verses that follow, a brothel keeper and a police officer are talking, and in the chorus we don’t hear the “fille de joie” (lady of pleasure), but her son: he gets called a “fils de pute” (son of a whore), which Stromae beautifully transforms into “fils de joie” (son of pleasure).
While the client, brothel keeper, and police officer show little respect towards the sex worker in question, the son is proud of his mother and calls her a hero. In doing so, he presents a kinder and more human image of sex work, a counterpoint to the shame expressed in the verses from the perspective of the client, brothel owner and police officer. Yet a tragic tone predominates in the chorus. The lyrics give the impression of the pathetic and exploited sex worker, while the music video shows the sex worker as a highly valued member of society.
The strange contradiction between lyrics and video aside, with this song Stromae does add something important to the debate about sex workers and our role in society. Many outsiders do not give enough thought to the fact that a significant proportion of sex workers are mothers. Stromae gently pushes towards normalising this by giving a voice to one of their children: they have a mother they can be proud of.
