How to Discuss Sex Work with Friends and Family

As with many taboo topics, it can be hard to decide how to handle the conversation around sex work when it comes up. Between bills restricting porn access and stories on the news about prostitution stings and brothel raids, discussions are happening more and more within families and friendship groups who would ordinarily avoid discussing sexual matters.

The Price of Cisification

SWARM and THORN recently collaborated on putting together a zine, entitled Nuance Doesn’t Pay the Bills – a work of poetry, prose, and essays from trans sex workers! I was lucky enough to be asked to write a piece for it, The Price of Cisification which I’ve included below. It’s all about the costs associated with pretending to be cis while selling sex as a trans person.

Trans and Intersex Non-Disclosure vs. The “Trap” Stereotype

The choice over whether or not to disclose being trans or intersex to sexual partners can be a difficult one for many people, but the risks and pressures are especially high for those who sell sex. Instead of solely navigating the possibility of gendered violence when disclosure comes up during unexpected flirtations or planned casual sexual encounters, sex workers have to weigh up these issues against the harms that come from poverty if we cannot see enough clients.

Pushing Us Offline: Escort Site Censorship

As the Online Safety Act comes into effect in the UK, impacting websites where sex workers advertise our services, we find ourselves on the cusp of a nation-wide censorship effort that will push sex workers towards third party managers and brothel or street work.

Hooker Mentality

Tired of reading leftist theory that degrades sex workers, misunderstands the nature of our work, or ignores us altogether? Or maybe you’d like to hear what sex workers’ experiences reveal about capitalism and gender and policing? Hooker Mentality covers all the ways that selling sex can give hookers an insight into the systems which control us all.