After several years of working in nonprofit agencies that take a harm reduction approach to working with drug users and sex workers, I’ve observed many similarities between the war on drugs and the war on trafficking. As the drug war has lost popularity, the war on trafficking has gained momentum. Both the war on drugs… Continue reading Casualties of War: The Wars on Drugs and Trafficking
Category: Politics
Alix Tichelman’s Trial By Headline
Last month in Santa Cruz, 27-year-old sugar baby and fetish model Alix Tichelman pled guilty to manslaughter in the heroin overdose death of her Google executive client Forrest Hayes, and was sentenced to six years in prison. Throughout the eight months Tichelman was in custody, the media luridly painted her as “The Callgirl Killer,” “The… Continue reading Alix Tichelman’s Trial By Headline
What I Do Know: The Colonial Evisceration of Cindy Gladue
Content warning: This piece contains references to rape, murder, violence against Indigenous women (especially Indigenous sex workers), and other disturbing material. When I told my boyfriend that I was going to write an article about Cindy Gladue and the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW), he reminded me that I should keep my… Continue reading What I Do Know: The Colonial Evisceration of Cindy Gladue
The Imaginary Choice Feminist
When I make porn I find it to be a positive experience. That is based on a wide range of factors that I’ve spoken and written about in depth over the past eight years. For one, trans women’s sexuality is greatly misrepresented in media and it’s important to me to be able to create… Continue reading The Imaginary Choice Feminist
The Price of Knowledge: Discrimination Against Sex Workers In Academia
This essay is based on research interviews I conducted with current and former sex workers who are undergraduate or graduate students at universities across the globe. Their names and other identifying information have been changed. I am subject to the capricious whims of my patriarch, a pimp of sorts, the man who decides the parameters… Continue reading The Price of Knowledge: Discrimination Against Sex Workers In Academia