Catherine De Noire looks like a normal girl next door type, but her choice of career is anything but! People are always surprised when she tells them about her job
If you passed Catherine De Noire on the street, you probably wouldn’t be able to guess what she does for a living.
The 32-year-old, who is currently pursuing a PhD in psychology, looks like your regular girl next door. She has blonde hair and a wide smile but her twinkling eyes are hiding a secret.
It turns out, Catherine also manages one of the largest legal brothels in Europe. And this is something that often takes strangers aback!
She said: “Many people expect brothel managers to be guys in fake furs, covered in gold, carrying a cane, smoking cigars, and surrounded by weapons and drugs. Or they imagine a female version – a ‘Madam,’ an older woman who smokes constantly and used to be a sex worker.
“When people meet me, a normal woman in her 30s who also studies sex work, they are very surprised. They usually say something like: ‘Oh… I expected a brothel manager to be really dodgy, but you’re actually completely normal’.”
Catherine first started her unconventional career during her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the age of 22. She said: “It was really a coincidence – one evening I came across an article with a manager of a legal brothel, and it fascinated me.
“He talked about how this business can be done ethically – that in their brothel, women decide for themselves what they will do, with whom, and for how much.
“They set their own schedules, and the club takes no percentage of their earnings. They simply pay room rent, and that is the only payment to the club.
“The manager also had a degree in psychology. When I finished the article, I knew I wanted to do this job too.”
In her near-decade experience in the role, Catherine has learned not to judge a book by its cover. While she was taken aback by some aspects of the job at first, she soon found her feet.
She said: “When I started to work at that club and learned that a mother and daughter were working there together – literally in neighbouring rooms – it shocked me.
“My first reaction was to imagine myself and my own mother in that situation, which felt extremely awkward. But one thing I have learned in this business is not to judge other people’s life choices and lifestyles by my own standards.
“Just because I would not want that situation does not mean others should be forbidden from it. They were doing nothing illegal, and if both were comfortable with it, it was not my place to interfere.
“I have known them for 10 years now, and I have come to see that they genuinely have a very trusting relationship – almost like best friends, with no secrets between them.”
However, the same can’t be said for others who judge the industry without actually knowing anything about it.
Sharing her insights with Erobella, Catherine added: “There are many misconceptions about this business in general – people imagine beaten women on drugs standing by the roadside, disgusting, creepy clients, and managers with arsenals of weapons who abuse the workers.
“Such cases do exist, because sex work is not a single uniform phenomenon, but they are more extreme situations typically found where sex work is illegal.
“In Europe, where I work, the business is legal, and clubs like ours are subject to quite strict inspections – hygiene, fire safety, regular police visits. We cooperate with NGOs, sex workers pay taxes, and they have legal protection.”