Lucas Chuffart

Lucas Chuffart, born in 1948. He was a facilitator of youth groups in various organizations. He spent a period in the Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo) from 1987 to 1994, where he ensured the training of young people.

He has been engaged in the French feminist movement for over 20 years and he is active in numerous associations. He is a member of Chiennes de garde, a network in defense of women slandered in public, founded in 1999; of La Meute des Chiennes de Garde, against sexist advertising; of the international network “Encore feminists!”.

In 2011, he became the co-founder of Zéromacho, an international network of men against the system of prostitution and for gender equality. He is currently the treasurer of the association Zéromacho. He has undertaken numerous travels to meet around 3 600 signatories of the Zéromacho manifest.

In 2014, he was a candidate in the European elections, in the list “Féministes pour une Europe solidaire”.

“Realising change” session

We, men from the network Zéromacho, call the men who pay for an act of prostitution “prostitueurs” [punters].

This is what we understand about their mentality: for them, Money can buy everything. They want to exert power through money. It is a sexualized domination. For them, there is a category of women “for that”, which does not include their wives nor daughters.

We created Zéromacho to act against the system of prostitution because it is a form of violence to treat human beings as products, to submit them to traffic which is a kind of slavery. We address the prostitueurs to explain that buying a sexual act from someone who does not experience any desire whatsoever is a form of violence.

We work towards a world of respect for human beings, of equality between women and men. We want a world in which sexuality will be the encounter of two desires, with freedom and equality.

Our manifesto (the Portuguese translation is on the website of Zéromacho) presents the principles of our engagement against the system of prostitution. It has been signed by 3 573 men in 64 countries and by only 5 men in Portugal: there is a big margin! Increasing the number of Portuguese signatories of the manifesto could be the first step of their engagement and lead to the creation of a group. We do pedagogical work by refuting the biggest objections that try to justify the need for prostitution: our text is available on the website in French, English, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian (you can download them here). Men say to other men to respect women, to respect sexuality.

In order to get the law in France approved, we met with men and women politicians to explain the need for an abolitionist law.

We invite the members of the network Zéromacho in all countries to create local groups, to participate in regional or national collectives, to organize our annual action of ironing in public, which is about equality between women and men and sharing domestic taks. Men iron is public and teach other men to iron as well.

Through these different ways, Portuguese society can evolve to change mentalities and towards an abolitionist law of the system of prostitution. These are our richest voices.

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