Employment at the bookshop came with the same promises for me that any other funded pathway to leave prostitution might; that the job would enable me to stop selling sex and serve as a jumping off point for future traditional work.
Tag Archives: Sex Work
Can Sex Workers Make Good Parents?
In addition to those who begin sex work because of having children, plenty of sex workers have children once already engaging in it for the same reasons as everyone else; we want to start a family with a partner, we get pregnant accidentally, or we feel called to help raise the next generation with good values and ethics.
Swallowing Resentment
Being a whore taught me to swallow resentment like nothing else. I learned to hide my disgust at clients’ wealth and entitlement, dodging questions about my true opinions and stroking egos to keep them sweet.
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.
Cleaning Up the Streets
When it’s convenient for police officers to do so, sometimes they take a break from criminalizing street sex workers to engage in another kind of abuse against them. They are exploited as an unpaid labour force of informants on their clients.
Sex Work Non-Fiction Reading Recommendations
This is a non-exhaustive list of reading recommendations on the topic of sex work, from books to zines to online articles, that I intend to regularly update.
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.
Jack Talks About Sex Work 