Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture (2005)
I can’t quite say I disliked Female Chauvinist Pigs—though as a sex worker I feel like I should, as it grossly misunderstands and oversimplifies my industry. Author Ariel Levy discusses how women’s...
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[I]n a culture trashy with raunch yet clenched with righteousness, the sex worker persists and insists. She is lamented by some feminists, lauded by others, lectured by religious groups, legislated by...
View ArticleThe Week in Links: February 10
RT talked with some pro-dommes about their profession. Nothing Earth-shattering was revealed, but it’s always exciting to see large news networks cover sex workers in a respectful light. The...
View ArticleInterview: Sophia St. James
Sophia St James is all smiles. The former stripper and current queer pornographer, activist, and sex educator, had taken a seat on the soft couch of the quiet, NE Portland feminist bookstore. The...
View ArticleStripper Music Monday: “Kisses Down Low” And The Holy Trinity of Cunnilingus...
Kelly didn’t get to sing this during the Super Bowl. Her songs are much, much dirtier than Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child, and “Kisses Down Low” is Rowland’s entry into one of the best types of sex songs:...
View ArticleThe Feminist Porn Book (2013)
I’ve seen the question “where is women’s porn, made for women” before, and I’ve seen it answered, but I’ve rarely seen the question “where is black porn, made for black women?” The Feminist Porn Book...
View ArticleStrip Club: Gender, Power, and Sex Work by Kim Price-Glynn (2010)
In the midst of Girls Gone Wild culture, in which stripping is made to seem effortless and women’s naked bodies are cast as easily replaceable, Kim Price-Glynn enters the Lion’s Den. The Den, a seedy...
View ArticleLes Mis Isn’t An Anti-Trafficking Bible
Les Miserables translates roughly as “The Downtrodden.” Fantine is one of these downtrodden, a young working-class grisette who hides her out-of-wedlock child to obtain respectable employment. When...
View ArticleQuote of the Week
“There are only two kinds of whores in the media and in the minds of most feminists; the gorgeous rich glamazon and the beaten-down junkie whore. Hilariously, you can be both. You can also be neither....
View ArticleActivist Spotlight: Carol Leigh on Sex Worker Sinema and Challenging the...
Carol Leigh, aka Scarlot Harlot, was the first sex workers’ rights movement celebrity I ever met. I’d been escorting for only a few months when she came to speak in my area, and I identified deeply...
View ArticleBelated Quote of the Week
Maybe you’ve never seen a man know that a woman is a sex worker and nonetheless respect both her, and women in general, in which case you need to consider getting different friends. I’m pretty sure...
View ArticleThe Week In Links—November 29
Sixty French celebrities, including Belle De Jour star Catherine Deneuve, signed a petition to protest a bill in France Parliament that would impose fines on the clients of sex workers. Thus, admirers...
View ArticleThe Week In Links—January 3
The Lusty Lady’s vacant space will be reopened by Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield, who own the cafe next door, as a cocktail bar which “will pay homage to what the Lusty Lady was…the wonderful...
View ArticleThe Week In Links—January 17
Myanmar began a debate around decriminalizing sex work. The founder of the Sex Workers in Myanmar network (SWIM), Thuza Win, hopes the law will be changed before the 2015 general elections. Research by...
View ArticleActivist Spotlight: Melissa Gira Grant on Playing The Whore and Policing the...
In the early aughts when I was a novice escort and On Our Backs was still being published, I was wowed by Melissa Gira Grant, an internet porn-making, geeky, theory spouting phenom, even managing to be...
View ArticleThe Week In Links—April 11
Monica Jones’ latest court date is today. Jones, an Arizona State University student, was targeted for arrest after she attended a SWOP-Phoenix protest against an oppressive diversion program, Project...
View ArticleQuote Of The Week
…please, please, don’t tell me that sex work is ALWAYS “violence against women.” Don’t tell me that my sweet, awkward, unable-to-find-dates client who pays me for two hours and MASSAGES me, without...
View ArticleI Did Not Consent To Being Tokenized
I am a sex worker who was coerced into doing work I felt violated by, and I am horrified by SWERFs (Sex Worker Exclusionary Reactionary Feminists) who insist that all sex work is by nature coerced and...
View ArticleStill Learning: On Writing As A Privileged Sex Worker
I work as a writer and a pro-domme. For me, the first stems from the second; the financial independence I earned from my pro-domming gave me the confidence and clarity to think and write. In my...
View ArticleDeeply Leisured (2014)
Deeply Leisured, a one-woman show by local Melbourne talent Queenie Bon Bon that details the joys and battles of being a sex worker, played during this season’s 2014 Fringe Festival. I was fortunate...
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