“The definitions of human trafficking victims by the RCMP removes agency from Aboriginal women/girls. When Aboriginal women/girls are missing or murdered and then labeled as the “drug addicted hooker” (as the media often does), it removes the ability for Aboriginal families and communities to speak for their beloved family member. This effect of silencing Aboriginal families and Aboriginal communities is nothing new—this silencing of Aboriginal peoples is embedded in a colonial country, like Canada.” Continue reading »
well-meaning: a note of caution to our allies
A team of medical students at the University of British Columbia have developed a panic button for street based workers in Vancouver. This could be awesome. I hope this helps workers who are left without any decent options for creating basic safety. I also have ambivalent feelings about our saviours, the non sex workers. The best safety for sex workers is when we work together in a setting under our own control. If this button saves lives and prevents violence, then fuck yeah. Just don’t forget that it is second best to sex worker self-determination and should never replace it.
Which is to say, it also makes me uncomfortable to see non sex workers get really excited about how smart and amazing other non sex workers are at saving us. This project may have enormously beneficial impacts for sex workers–if and only if–they implement all the suggestions made by street workers. I just want non sex workers to think twice about: Continue reading »
“Hey Baby, How Much?”: Stop Blaming Sex Workers For Street Sexual Harassment
I leave work around 5 on a steamy day in my favourite summer dress, hit the corner and as I try to cross, a guy in a silver car slows and makes friendly eye contact with me. With his hands he says “wanna get in?” I pause, confused for a second, then laugh, remembering where … Continue reading »
BlogHop! On my next writing and the writing that I’m excited about
So SexGeek invited me to be a part of a blogHop where we do a self interview and then link to other writers–who then themselves do the interview and link to other writers and so on. The interview is designed for fiction novelists (and it’s kind of boring) so i’ve adapted it. What is … Continue reading »
Lip Service: on sex work, relationships & stigma
“Lips like Sugar, Women For Men, 28, downtown, Outcalls only”
1. I prefer to work in the downtown core because I want to bike to my client’s tiny overpriced condos. I love getting on my bike with my handbag in my basket, red dress, hair fresh from the shower, lips glossy and pedaling downtown to see a regular. I love the surprise in every new call, I love working for cash and sometimes I enjoy the sex too. I love the power I have over their bodies and their joy. The money is spectacular and fast. I squeeze in appointments between my day job, friend’s house parties, my therapist, dates, brunches and then a one-hour appointment with a chef named Rob who’s actually done in 15 minutes. We chat in his kitchen about the history of salt and restaurant life while I wait for my cab. Continue reading »
Submission call-out! “We Got This: A Zine about Screening, Safe Calls & Buddy systems for safer indoor sex work”
the deadline for this has passed but I will be accepting submissions for the next couple of weeks as I put the zine together!
(Still) Seeking Submissions to “We Got this: A Zine about Screening, Safe Calls & Buddy systems for safer indoor sex work”
As sex workers, escorts, hookers, prostitutes, pro-dommes/subs who have to work without much protection, we use hundreds of little strategies to stay safe. This zine is about collecting and sharing those strategies. This edition focuses on screening clients and safe calls. Continue reading »
“unhealthy”: on fatphobia and state violence against sex working mothers
Walking back into the house with a new red satin teddy for tomorrow’s two-hour booking, I glanced down at the Sydney Morning Herald and spotted the two headlines: “Cancer deaths much higher for Aborigines” (no shit, we needed another study to tell us that colonialism is bad for Indigenous people’s health?) and directly below it, this headline: “Girl, 12, turns her life around after removal from mother”
Huh. Since when is forced removal a good thing for kids? I wondered.
Answer: when the mom is a hooker and the kid–no, the daughter– is fat. Continue reading »
A li’l respect: Happy Sex Workers Rights Day
Here’s how I spent International Sex Worker’s Right Day (which was begun by the Indian sex workers powerhouse org DMSC): I stood in the kitchen of this upper-middle class home on the south island of New Zealand where I’ve come to kayak and hike and beach, talking with the parents of my friend R. His stepmom … Continue reading »
When I love it the most
That’s the fun thing about sex work. It’s a power game and I’m always perfecting my skill, working on my game. The goal is to be able to create just about any effect I want — from lust and trust to generosity and deference. Whatever. I want to the one that comes out on top. I love sex work because I love power. I love the way it tastes, smells, looks, feels, sounds. Continue reading »
A few notes on anti-racist sex work organizing and the prison industrial complex
On December 12 2009 I graduated from the Anne Braden Anti-Racism Training for White Social Justice Activists in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. It has been an unbelievably valuable experience, heart wrenching, incredibly inspiring, just one of the best damn things I’ve ever done. The program consists of weekly classes, a placement with an … Continue reading »
