Adapted from a g-chat between Caty Simon and Maggie Mcmuffin: American Horror Story: Freak Show draws on the traditional connection between perfomativity and sex work. Acting has always been connected with prostitution, since before the Jacobean era to very recently. And by connecting performance in a freak show with sex work, the show is pathologizing… Continue reading Support Hos: American Horror Story: Freak Show
Tag: sex worker history
The Truth Will Come Out: An Interview With Jill Brenneman and Amanda Brooks
Interview co-authored by Josephine and Caty Content warning—the following contains descriptions of extreme injuries and rape suffered by two sex workers due to a campaign of violence by an abusive client, as well as an account of child abuse. Jill Brenneman and Amanda Brooks are veterans and heroines of the sex workers’ rights movement. As… Continue reading The Truth Will Come Out: An Interview With Jill Brenneman and Amanda Brooks
Tin Horn Gamblers and Dirty Prostitutes: Vice in 19th Century Council Bluffs (2014)
I usually regret the rare moments in which I’m prevailed on to cut whorephobes a break. My empathetic nature is almost always taken advantage of in these instances and I’m left feeling as if I’ve been had. As compensation, I exude coolness in interactions with potential whorephobes. It’s come to be the most significant way… Continue reading Tin Horn Gamblers and Dirty Prostitutes: Vice in 19th Century Council Bluffs (2014)
Moving Through Archetypes: Juniper Fleming and Reclamation and (Dis)Atonement
I interviewed sex worker artist Juniper Fleming on her collaborative photo series with other sex workers, Reclamation and (Dis)Atonement. Your project consists of remaking iconic Western art works, creating photographic reproductions in which you replace the main figures in the paintings with sex workers. What does depicting sex workers in these roles achieve? As sex… Continue reading Moving Through Archetypes: Juniper Fleming and Reclamation and (Dis)Atonement
Remembering Stone Butch Blues’ Pledge To Sex Workers
Trans/queer writer and socialist hero Leslie Feinberg died last week. The event rekindled my memories of squatting on the floor of Barnes and Nobles at the age of 17, reading the work zie’s1 most known for, Stone Butch Blues, a bildungsroman set in the lesbian working class bar scene during the Stonewall era. I was… Continue reading Remembering Stone Butch Blues’ Pledge To Sex Workers