Though I have to say, PJ Starr is one of the good ones who has supported me in a lot of ways, and she is boots on the ground, very much so. I’ve always been a big believer in coalition-building like what’s described here, it definitely is less of a thing in sw org’ing the Northeast, and seems to have become even less so since I left.

From what I remember from the time, people were sympathetic to Marcia Powell, but it’s true that she hits two of the biggest stigmas that sw rights people perpetuate against each other – mental illness and drug use.

Sex workers on the internet who are not boots on ground activists are a lot worse about being snooty and elitist than movement people. Though they like anyone can be outright dangerous, hostile, or just microaggressive. There are careerists who defect, there are people who are so petty and vindictive that they will even betray people to LE/IRS/out them to people they know, there are the usual sorts of predators around activist groups (don’t know of LE wasting their resources on us but they’d obviously fall into this category), and a sea of people (ok, “sea” is not the norm yet in the US for this organizing) more valued societally than you is more intimidating than the usual things people get intimidated by, not to mention the very real structural impediments to diverse membership even where there have been inroads in that direction.

Unfortunately, I found the “happy hooker poster child” statement (not by P.J) to reflect an unjustified stereotype that is used against the sex workers’ rights movement so much. This distracted me from what I thought was an otherwise very insightful interview. Yes, there are people in the sex workers’ rights movement who have expressed positive attitudes toward sex work. However, this doesn’t mean the activists are only concerned about “happy hookers.” Rather, one of the main components of sex workers rights advocacy is our right to define for ourselves how we feel about our work. Also, all the negative overgeneralizations about sex work can get very distressing and does not reflect all of our experiences. I say this as somebody who hasn’t had all wonderful experiences in sex work and an adverse experience led me to sex worker advocacy. Sometimes, people may just need to focus on the positive as a way to challenge the negative energy we can be subject to from the dominant society–or at the very least, to bring some balance to the dominant discourse on prostitution.

That said, there are also sex workers’ rights activists who have expressed experiences and perspectives far from the “happy hooker” image–experiences of being exploited, arrested, subject to violence, etc. There is definitely room for the sex workers’ rights movement to diversity. Yet, since I’ve become involved in the movement about a decade ago, I’ve noticed the movement in the U.S. grow and become more diverse. I still wouldn’t say that every group of sex workers is equally represented in the movement.

The sex workers’ rights movement has been at the forefront of addressing abuses against sex workers, including those by the system, and at the forefront of advocating for harm reduction and stopping hatred and violence toward sex workers. Not to mention, also giving sex workers voices in policies affecting our livelihood–which our voices are all too often excluded from. I say voices in the plural because we speak from multiple voices, not just one. To imply that the sex workers’ rights movement is mainly about promoting a “happy hooker” image trivializes the important social, political, and economic justice issues that sex workers’ rights activists have tirelessly been working on, despite backlash. Yet, we’re not perfect and there’s always room to improve.