Comments on: Tap Dancing For The Man: Leaving Academia For Sex Work

By: BP

BP — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 05:05:00 +0000

In reply to Berlin. That's so awesome that there are out SWs in your department and that it is SW friendly. Jealous! Do you know if the PhD students intend to look for academic positions when they finish? Because one of the things I struggle with is knowing that finding a Tenure Track job is so difficult in the first place, and I can't imagine that hiring committees would look favorably upon a history of sex work.

By: shelly jones

shelly jones — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 16:59:51 +0000

Sex work, for me, affords me the opportunity to pursue higher education. Through my work I have the freedom and money to continue my studies. Working outside of the adult entertainment realm I have found it difficult, if not downright impossible, to continue my studies.
Without a degree, the jobs I have worked are the typical- waitress, receptionist, sales. Being a single lady, I am usually required to work 2 jobs just to make ends meet. Working a sales job, I make more money but I have found that I am required to work a zillion hours, and so my grades suffer.
One of the perks of being an entertainer is the fact that I can work toward my degree without any debt, and I can truly apply myself. My grades are excellent and I have time to really learn.
I truly enjoy my work and feel no shame from it. I have grown in many ways through my work and it has forged a deep understanding in me of the human condition in general. I have had the opportunity to meet some truly beautiful and wonderful souls, and every day I learn something about myself and people as a whole. I look now for at our similarities, I don’t waste time pointing out our differences.

By: Berlin

Berlin — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 17:47:56 +0000

I start a PhD program in women’s studies in September. I love my school and department, even if there have been a few administrative hiccups (during the changeover from one GPD to the new one, the new one told us the wrong course requirements and a bunch of MAs took an extra course than was necessary). My department is super sex worker friendly (I’m one of four sex workers doing research about sex work at the MA level and there are at least two or three more at the PhD level). My supervisor has written a number of things about sex work in the Caribbean and she’s wonderful. But, I will say this, there is a serious disconnect between academia and activism and I still get frustrated by students who find out I’m a sex worker doing sex work research who then want me to educate them. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

By: nebethetepet

nebethetepet — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 17:32:26 +0000

Great article!

I’m a current college student (age 21) just starting on the academic hamster wheel (sophomore year). Initially (at 17), I wanted to be an anthropologist, so I headed for Europe, hitchhiking, couchsurfing, olivepicking and cavedwelling my hippieish way to understanding humanity. I figured that self-directed field school was the most direct and debt-free way to learn. I’m stubborn and ghettofab that way.

It wasn’t until I escorted in Istanbul, however, that I began to realize how interconnected the world is, and how diverse mankind can be. (But of course, we all have the same needs, and money is a universal language.)

In the daytimes I taught beginner English at a brand new little school, but I felt ungrammatical and uneducated. I dressed up in my professional-looking outfit and I felt like a phony. Whiteboards, tape recorders, substitute teaching a class of 12 that repeated everything I said in Turkish, refusing to do assignments because I was at least six years younger than any of my students… I was not cut out for the struggle and self-doubt.

At night I would get my outcalls, and there I was my element! Here, I was overqualified. I had lived on three continents, spoke four languages, and knew how to flatter a tired businessman. There was no struggle; I knew my sexual, emotional and intellectual boundaries. I could describe them clearly and live by them.

Academia does not have vocabulary for emotional and intellectual boundaries. The expectation is that you let school hijack your life, your mind, and your emotions (“exams this week, I’m ugly and sweatpants-y, I can’t come out” or “what does that bitch MEAN, C-minus?”)

It’s got its moments, though. And every superhero, even a sex worker, needs a dayjob.

By: Elana

Elana — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 15:26:08 +0000

Pretty damning stuff about academia! Makes me feel kind of sad because I genuinely love my department and being a PhD student. I do sometimes encounter the issues complained about here (unwarranted snobbery and backwards old white dudes), but mostly when I interact with other institutions or publications. There are still some bubbles out there that truly are just a bunch of very smart people trying to cultivate cool ideas in younger smart people, with no bullshit =^_^= But I suppose it’s not relevant to the site to interview someone under the header, “I’m happy in academia and my sex work career was a non-starter”…! I hope everyone gets the opportunity to find the career path that suits them and makes them happy.