2016’s Best Sex Work Writing

Caty’s picks: Media Coverage of Sex Workers Erases Our Voices by Lily Fury Tits and Sass contributor Lily Fury’s Establishment piece confronts a problem which we’ve devoted thousands of words to on this site: the flattening, sanitizing, and sensationalizing of sex workers’ stories by the mainstream media. The quotes she elicits from interview subjects like Shagasyia… Continue reading 2016’s Best Sex Work Writing

What Trump Means For Sex Workers

(Image by Flickr user IoSonoUnaFotoCamera)

It is not incidental that Prop 60 in California mandating condom use in porn was defeated in the same election cycle as marijuana was legalized in many states and Donald Trump ascended to the presidency. We are witnessing the inherent contradictions of a neoliberal marketplace, contradictions that should make sex workers and our allies reconsider… Continue reading What Trump Means For Sex Workers

Both A Mother And A Whore

A Virgin Mary mural in Madrid. Photo taken by Perivolaris. (image via Flickr user drjohn2005)

The illusion of “common sense” and its alleged empirical certainties is one of the the most steadfast means by which we collectively propagate whore stigma. As a recent example, critics lampoon Imtiaz Ali’s short film, Indian Tomorrow, for portraying an economically savvy sex worker. “Prostitutes who rattle off sensex [India’s stock market] figures during sex,”… Continue reading Both A Mother And A Whore

The Week In Links—June 26th

yeah i'll watch your show about murdered sex workers. As long as Tim Riggins is in it.

Season Two of True Detective maintains the original’s fixation on sex workers. I’m wary, but love me some Tim Riggins, so I’ll be watching! Tits and Sass contributor Juniper Fitzgerald is the latest in a chorus of voices pointing out that the current trafficking hysteria is just history repeating itself. Children from families in poverty are also… Continue reading The Week In Links—June 26th

The Price of Knowledge: Discrimination Against Sex Workers In Academia

(Image via plasticdollheads.com, courtesy of Gemma Ahearne)

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