Any book that aspires to be the first history of the sex workers’ rights movement in the United States will inevitably face accusations of exclusion. But despite some unavoidable failures in representation, Mindy Chateauvert’s Sex Workers Unite: A History of the Movement from Stonewall to Slutwalk, is a pretty damn good history of our movement.… Continue reading Sex Workers Unite: A History of the Movement from Stonewall to Slutwalk (2014)
Tag: Mindy Chateauvert
Activist Spotlight Interview: Melissa Gira Grant on Playing The Whore and Policing The Policers, Part Two
Part one of this interview is here. You encapsulate the tired terms of the sex worker debate, in which the token sex worker is asked reductifying questions ad nauseaum: Is sex work exploitative or empowering? Is it violence against women? How can we help women (always women, and always cis women, never sex working men… Continue reading Activist Spotlight Interview: Melissa Gira Grant on Playing The Whore and Policing The Policers, Part Two
Activist Spotlight: Melissa Gira Grant on Playing The Whore and Policing the Policers, Part One
In the early aughts when I was a novice escort and On Our Backs was still being published, I was wowed by Melissa Gira Grant, an internet porn-making, geeky, theory-spouting phenom, even managing to be friends with her despite the fact that she was an Anais Nïn devotee. Over the years I’ve kept in touch… Continue reading Activist Spotlight: Melissa Gira Grant on Playing The Whore and Policing the Policers, Part One
The Week In Links—February 14th
Trafficking survivor Jes Richardson offers a concise, helpful critique of most ‘rescue’ operations: “When someone is rescued the power, strength, courage, and control is placed in the hands of the rescuers, rather than empowering the person being rescued.” Here are a few “no duh” sex tips from sex worker Siouxsie Q. This guy read Melissa… Continue reading The Week In Links—February 14th
The Week In Links—February 7th
Happy Chinese New Year! Finally, it’s the Year of the Whores. Rest in peace, Gloria Leonard. You sassy old dame, you. Hey, guys, remember our friend Alice Schwarzer? The German “feminist” who is vehemently anti-sex work. Yeah, well, turns out she was hiding a lot of her money in a Swiss bank account and she got… Continue reading The Week In Links—February 7th