Threadbare: Clothes, Sex & Trafficking (2016)

Red: In journalist Anne Elizabeth Moore’s new book Threadbare: Clothes, Sex, And Trafficking, in which years of her reporting are illustrated by comic artists Delia Jean, Melissa Mendes, Ellen Lindner, Simon Haussle, and Leela Corman, among others, she takes us around the world, untangling the many levels of exploitation and corruption inherent in the garment… Continue reading Threadbare: Clothes, Sex & Trafficking (2016)

Porno-Enlightenment: How Pornography Propagates A Liberal Worldview

“Modern industry, in overturning the economical foundation on which was based the traditional family, and the family labour corresponding to it, had also unloosened all traditional ties.” – Karl Marx, Capital I open up my browser and type “pornhub.com” into the search bar. Once the page loads, I hover my cursor over “videos” and click… Continue reading Porno-Enlightenment: How Pornography Propagates A Liberal Worldview

Activist Spotlight: The Migrant Sex Workers Project On Borders and Building Movements, Part Two

I interviewed Toronto’s Migrant Sex Workers Project co-founders Elene Lam and Chanelle Gallant as well as Migrant Sex Workers Project member Kate Zen over video chat. The first part of that conversation, edited and condensed for posting, is here. The group’s vital representation of a population often absent from sex worker activism inspired me. I… Continue reading Activist Spotlight: The Migrant Sex Workers Project On Borders and Building Movements, Part Two

On Performing Capitalism

Does your client look like this? (Trade Union Magazine, 1925, via Wikimedia)

I recently had a realization about my work after returning from an international trip with one of my sugar daddies. I was only gone for four days, but I felt like I had just spent a month with one of the worst bosses from one of my straight jobs. I was a ball of stress… Continue reading On Performing Capitalism

Sex History: A Response To Rashida Jones And Her Critics

Rashida Jones at the premiere of I Love You, Man, at South by Southeast in Austin, in 2009. (Photo by Flickr user thomascrenshaw)

Rashida Jones, one of the producers of Hot Girls Wanted, a new documentary on the amateur porn industry, recently proclaimed that women do not derive pleasure from performing in porn. “It’s performative,” she explains, “women aren’t feeling joy from it.” She proceeds to ask, “What is the real cost [of performing in porn] to your… Continue reading Sex History: A Response To Rashida Jones And Her Critics