The stripper was my mother, she never used that name, that cigarette thing never happened, she smoked them not put them out. Len Katz wasn’t there, Jon Estren and Ron Jordan were there. Patia and Len hated each other’s guts. It wasn’t a Mini-con either, it was Al Schuster’s last Star Trek convention at the Statler Hilton in NYC in 1976. It was a fiasco, they massively oversold, the police had to force them to stop selling tickets. they’d become friends at that convention her and Takei.

Wow, @Wendy : Double standards, Hon. Men SHOULD be allowed anywhere women are. We should be allowed anywhere men are. Thats equality. I’d truly accept and applaud any male, female or person, sex worker or not, who found their way to this website and expanded their world view by reading the articles. Open discussion and seeing SWs as people (and intelligent people, at that) can only be helpful in making us more accepted in society.

Also – So you speak to men at work but refuse to talk to them outside of work? That must get extremely tricky.

I was directed to this article from realitysandwich.com – pointing out that the internet is a wide open place. Also that it is almost impossible (dare I say irresponsible) to restrict great content like this to a specific audience, especially considering reading it has transformed my perspective of sex workers. The power of language and communication to transform culture and society cannot be understated.

Everyone is capable of sexism. While the sexism of those who oppress and marginalize is quite obviously much more powerful, dangerous, and perpetuating of stereotypes and oppression – being a member of an oppressed or marginalized group does not remove the possibility or presence of sexism, racism, genderism, etc..

To be honest, I find it quite hypocritical to chastise someone for misogyny (quite rightly, I would agree) only to immediately turn around and espouse misandry as something great. There is a big difference between institutionalized sexism and individualized sexism. To immediately marginalize someone’s opinion due to their sex/gender/race/whatever is going directly against the goals of understanding and egalitarianism which are our only hope as a society/species, and goals this site seems to value. If this site wants to challenge and correct “public opinion” and cultural misinformation with regards to sex workers, the commenters cannot afford to tell people off simply due to their sex or profession, as women can be just as ignorant and offensive as men. If we aren’t all in this together, we are going to make a much more difficult time for ourselves as a family of life.

Sorry for rambling, and if you read this far, thank you! I look forward to any correction or clarification of my assumptions.

So the assumption here is that everyone else’s priorities ought to revolve around one person’s lifestyle choices? That’s absurd. No one person’s preferences supersede everyone else’s rights. This is a public website, not a sex-workers-only forum. If titsandsass were a private site, then anger over an intrusion would be entirely justified, but it’s publicly accessible, so that anger is not justified. Wendy, you’re entitled to your opinion, but are not entitled to beat other people over the head with it. In any case, advocating a position of hatred is exactly the opposite of anything helpful to the cause of eliminating misogyny. Hate begets hate.

Matthew – You have just as much right to be here as anyone else. Just don’t be condescending anymore – nobody has time for that. Coming to any site requires a certain amount of respect for the other users, which I didn’t see in that first post, or in the one meant to be an apology.

Admittedly, I am not a sex worker, and as my name may suggest; I am a man. It is truly moving to have read this article – perhaps for reasons I cannot fully explain – it did make a great impression on me. The service of this piece seems to lie less in affirming the understandable reaction of anger or disappointment shared amongst sex workers and their families… and deeper in the realm of nurturing understanding in those who are ignorant. Those who had perhaps not considered the judgement and dehumanization associated with some occupations, and how pervasively the message is persistently reinforced.

I don’t mean to step on your toes, as there are certainly situations and places women and men value their mutual privacy. This sort of article – published with a public forum for discussion – seems like a place where understanding could be fostered in conversation which sets aside the old stories of oppressor and oppressed; and allows a dialog that embraces a new story in its unfolding.

Fair enough.

I <3 Misandry!

Cate, I don't care about your disappointment that I was not welcoming to Matthew. I care about my desire to speak with other sex workers without having to speak to men who are not sex workers.

Thank you, Cate. I would also like to apologize to Wendy. I meant my saying she was rambling a bit to be teasing, and it didn’t occur to me it may have been offensive. Emotion truly doesn’t convey well through text. Again, I apologize, and thanks for the support. I’m certainly an ally.