SACRED MONSTER

SACRED MONSTER

Share this post

SACRED MONSTER
SACRED MONSTER
"You Can't Afford It."

"You Can't Afford It."

How a courtesan mastered the art of the publicity stunt from her boudoir

Chloë Cassens's avatar
Chloë Cassens
May 15, 2025
∙ Paid
2

Share this post

SACRED MONSTER
SACRED MONSTER
"You Can't Afford It."
2
3
Share
Valtesse de la Bigne poses for a photo, c. 1870

History’s greatest masters of personal branding and marketing have always been sex workers.

Where a new way to advertise oneself emerges, a sex worker is right behind it, ready and able to use it to maximum effect. The advent of photography brought with it women who would, essentially, create the earliest versions of collectible baseball cards with their faces and names displayed. The printing press was used to distribute sporting guides (shout out to my sage and savage friend Liz Goldwyn’s book-slash-objet d’art Sporting Guide: Los Angeles 1897) which pointed travellers in the direction of the whorehouses which best suited their tastes (and wallet sizes.) Pornographers and sex workers swiftly capitalized on the vast potential of the internet in ways that we still see today – from early websites and chat rooms to now, social media, OnlyFans, and subscription-based sites. *(If you are already a subscriber, join the Sacred Monster chat and I might tell you the story of being walked through the day-to-day operation of the OnlyFans account of one of the most famous porn stars working today. She told Liz and I that she was clearing over $500,000 per month via that platform in 2020.)*

One of the most enduring marketing campaigns ever waged rests in the Musée des Art Décoratifs today. To the naked eye, it’s simply an ornate, bordering on tacky, bed. To those in the know, it is the state bed of Valtesse de la Bigne, one of the most iconic and enduring grande horizontales of the Napoléon III era.

Valtesse remains one of the great rags-to-riches stories of her time. Born in a Parisian slum, her ascent was neither smooth nor assured, and was purely the result of her shrewd thinking, bold ambition and shameless embrace of the philosophy that all publicity was good publicity.

At the peak of her notoriety, she was immortalized by Edouard Manet and Emile Zola, although where Manet painted a portrait of her enshrouded in all of the respectability a courtesan could want, Zola did the opposite, skewering her for her lack of scruples, talent, and perceived vulgarity.

Valtesse de la Bigne was simply famous for being famous. One hundred years before the age of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and influencing.

Valtesse de la Bigne, like many of history’s greatest self-starters, was not born that way. Emilie-Louise Delabigne entered the world in 1848, the daughter of an alcoholic and a grisette in a Parisian slum that is today’s 10e arrondissement. As a grisette, her mother made poverty wages as a laundress, and supplemented her income by engaging in prostitution.

Denied an education and forced to work as a child, Valtesse’s entrée into sex work was the unfortunate result of a rape she suffered while walking to her job in a dress shop when she was only 13 years old. An old man attacked her on the street, she later recounted, and this changed her perspective of herself, humanity, and the world around her. After this event, Valtesse was determined to work her way out of her miserable circumstances.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to SACRED MONSTER to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Chloë Cassens
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share