Glamour and vulgar: the two faces of sexuality on the French Riviera. The first is not hidden: cabarets and trendy clubs, erotic shows, “hot” parties… This flattering and stylish facet is displayed, played upon. It thrives, from Cannes to Monaco. But when it comes to sex shops, swingers clubs, sex toys, or BDSM, reactions are more negative. The darker side is “seedy,” “dirty,” or even “perverse”… The expressions used towards this milieu do not really encourage a desire to know more. During this investigation, old clichés have indeed been verified. Unlikely hygiene, unhealthy atmosphere, and dubious customers exist. But these attributes tend to disappear. The sex trade today is akin to a neighborhood business. Even a place of listening, an unpretentious haven in a society with many frustrations. It is no longer just a shameful, unmentionable, and underground activity as it was 20 years ago.
To better understand the significant place of sexuality in our society and its social role, we met Claude Genna. This Nice-based sexologist takes stock of today’s mores, new practices, and the growing, sometimes unsettling, insinuation of sex in our lives. Has sex killed love? Has sexual liberation become sexual “consumption”? The personal ads in free papers, on the Internet, in major regional newspapers blend with enticing advertisements. Meetings “solely motivated by seduction” that often flirt with prostitution: “what Nice lacks is a meeting place, a kind of public forum,” analyzes Claude Genna. He provides an objective look at sexuality in all its forms, for an educational but taboo-free introduction to sex in Nice.
