Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose

Author:Francine Prose
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

All of Paris is talking about the case of Lou Villars, the talented auto racer currently suing the French government and the French Women’s National Athletic Association to force them to reinstate her professional license to compete.

Ever since last spring, in a dramatic public encounter, Villars has been barred from the track. She had been slated to represent France, driving the Rossignol 280 in the Women’s International at Montverre. Since then Villars and her mostly female supporters have been holding weekly demonstrations on the steps of the Third Tribunal, where the trial began today.

This morning the judges heard from the defense, arguing that Villars sets an unhealthy example for young woman athletes—and all French women. She smokes three packs of cigarettes a day, swears like a sailor, drinks whiskey to excess, punches referees, and corrupts innocent girls. (Could I say this in the paper? Let the editors decide.) In addition she dresses in trousers, an offense to public decency, and has gone to the extraordinary length of surgically altering her body to look more like a man.

As evidence, the prosecutors introduced a photo of Lou Villars in male attire.

When the buzz subsided, Lou’s lawyers presented their case. She should have her license back. Had the judges heard of Joan of Arc? Would they have ruled like her judges?

Their client admits that she underwent an elective operation, but not because of vanity and certainly not perversion. Like everything she does, it was for sport, which, along with God and France, is her reason for existing. And what was wearing trousers compared to the treason committed by the government and the French Women’s National Athletic Association by not letting the French auto industry prove itself against Germany, Italy, and Great Britain?

All eyes were on Lou, who was seated between her attorney and Armand de Rossignol, the scion of the auto manufacturing family. Dressed in a man’s white cotton suit, a silk tie, and a white fedora, Lou was a model of gangster high style. When her lawyer pronounced the word treason, Lou’s arm shot up in the salute of the French far right. The judge instructed Lou’s lawyer that his client would be removed from the courtroom unless she behaved.

Highly sensational testimony is expected to follow, though the word on the boulevards is that the bookies are offering ten to one against Lou Villars. Meanwhile the racing-world star has announced that, if she loses, she will move to Italy or Germany or even the United States, any country that accepts her—and knows how to treat its athletes.

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