You’ve just found out that your friend or acquaintance is a sex worker. Naturally, you have questions.
Let’s go through some of the topics you might be curious about and how to approach any questions you still have with your friend:
Tag Archives: prostitution
Selling Sex and Scarcity Mindset
As someone with a history of homelessness and financial struggle, which I have always used sex work to remedy, my stress about finances has always been connected to an expectation that selling sex is the sole solution.
After Client Aftercare
Sometimes my need for aftercare has been due to a client harming me. Far more frequently, I need it to insulate myself from the stigma which makes me feel alone and ashamed and far more resentful, than I otherwise would be, of an experience which is usually more on the side of annoying than traumatic. Being around other sex workers frees me from those feelings.
Attention Deficit Hooker Disorder
Not all types of sex work are well-suited to ADHD, but it is an easier profession to make accommodating than most. There are certain types of sex work which are favoured by those with ADHD, all of which are impacted by it.
Sexual Autopilot
I’m sure it’s not strictly true that I can’t have sex without slipping into what I think about as my “sex autopilot” mindset. For now, I seem to slip into it often, and it destroys my romantic relationships.
Bullshit Radical Feminist Arguments About Sex Work
Sex work is indeed often dangerous, particularly prostitution. It’s made that way by criminalization and stigma. Decriminalizing it gives sex workers more rights, more freedom, and more control over our bodies and consent. Radical feminists do not wish me well.
Criminalized Friendships
Being friends with a sex worker may mean you face stigma, but if you’re a good friend and you support the sex workers you know then you could also find yourself breaking the law. The law may even end up considering you to be your own friend’s sex trafficker.
How Non Sex Worker Characters Can Be Relatable to Hookers
With the state of current depictions of sex workers, it’s no wonder that the characters I relate to the most from a sex worker perspective often aren’t sex workers at all. They’re created in such a way that they have parallel experiences to a lot of sex workers even without being them.
Applying the Label “Sex Worker” to People Selling Sex Throughout History
When it comes to researching historical prostitution, it is incredibly difficult to find accounts which come directly from people selling sex. The further back in history we go, the more true that is. Since the term “sex worker” is a recent invention, coined in the late 70s, and most works will use euphemisms or derogatory terms, there is often debate over whether it is appropriate to retroactively call people sex workers if they sold sex.
Contemporary Prostitution Translation – 1884, Léo Taxil.
Preserving sex worker history is a goal that is extremely important to me; all too often we are spoken over, our stories suppressed or lost to time. When I started reading “La Prostitution Contemporaine”, a book in which the author argues for the full decriminalization of prostitution, I became obsessed with it and decided it needed to be translated and preserved in English.
Jack Talks About Sex Work 