La Putain respectueuse

The central theme of the play, which premiered in 1946, the oppression of black people in America, had been familiar to Sartre the year before on a trip to the USA, which also took him to the southern states. For the conservative bourgeoisie, "The Honorable Harlot" was a scandal. It seemed obscene to make a prostitute the title character of a theater play and to use the vulgar putain instead of the neutral term prostituée. At the request of the management of the Paris Métro, who did not want to tolerate the theatre poster in the stations in this way, the title was mutilated to "La P respectueuse" and has been retained in this form until today.