Labor of Love

(Image via Melissa Gira Grant's twitter account)

You might recognize this sentiment: the sex workers’ rights movement is funded by “the industry.” We are “the pimp lobby,” whether we’ve ever been in any sort of management role ourselves or not, let alone whether we’ve abused or exploited other workers. You might think it’s pretty easy to laugh at that sort of thing,… Continue reading Labor of Love

The Week In Links—May 16th

Go Audacia Ray and Red Umbrella Project!!! The big news this week is that the NYPD has finally ended the policy of confiscating condoms from suspected sex workers to use as evidence! The change still leaves a loophole, however: they can still seize and use condoms as evidence in sex trafficking and promotion of prostitution… Continue reading The Week In Links—May 16th

House of Pleasures (2011)

House of Pleasures (also called House of Toleration or L’Appolonide: Souvenirs de la Maison Close in its native France), directed by Bertrand Bonello, is a film depicting the last year of a legal French brothel, a maison close, at the turn of the 20th century. While the film does predictably illustrate the old prostitution-is-inherently-miserable motif, sex… Continue reading House of Pleasures (2011)

Discussing Other People’s Lives: Social Work and Student Sex Workers

(Screenshot of Graf and O'Neill's Student Sex Worker Outreach Project page on the Portland State University's Women's Resource Center's website)

Adrienne Graf and Annie O’Niell are two social workers whose focus  has been sex workers. O’Niell has experience as a sex worker and Graf is an ally. Together, they have facilitated workshops at the university, state and national level on how to work with students in the sex industry. Here, they have a conversation about… Continue reading Discussing Other People’s Lives: Social Work and Student Sex Workers