So a fantastic conversation on Twitter sparked my curiosity and now I’m looking for a wide spectrum of answers from both current/former sex workers and partners of sex workers.
Are you a current or former sex worker, have you been in the sex trade, or have you engaged in body work?
or…
Have you ever dated, or are you currently dating, a sex worker, body worker or someone in the sex trade?
I would love for you to share your experiences if you’re up for it.
Current/former sex workers, body workers, and others in the sex trade:
What have you needed to feel your partner is supportive of you as a sex worker? What have been your biggest dating and relationship challenges?
Current/former partners of sex workers and others in the sex trade:
What challenges did you face as someone in relationship with a sex worker, and what do you think would have helped (or did help) you meet those challenges?
(Feel free to share with your networks - responses should tag http://facebook.com/ms.sabrina.morgan, @SabrinaMorgan on Twitter, or be emailed to sabrina@sabrinamorgan.com)
My first lesson plan that was published is now illegal in TN. Awesome. But seriously, awesome-a lesson plan for how to talk to teens about safe ways to engage in anal play is def. a highlight of my career. Titled: Securing the Back Door Published by The Center for Family Life Education at Planned Parenthood of Greater Northern New Jersey. Want to order the manual and support PP? Go here: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/greater-northern-nj/sex-ed-books-videos-dvds-29249.htm
The words “tolerate your job” and “good partner” don’t belong in the same sentence unless perhaps you’re an assassin, not someone who is paid to bring others pleasure.
Still, it does nicely illustrate the difference between a partner who is okay with your job in the sex trade and a supportive partner…
A GOOD PARTNER WILL TOLERATE YOUR JOB IN SEX WORK.
A GREAT PARTNER WILL RUN YOUR BUSINESS FOR YOU WHILE YOU’RE IN JAIL.
(SUBMISSION)
Join sex workers in DC! On July 20th - July 21st join us in DC for the Sex Worker Pre-Conference
The Sex Worker Networking Zone: Rocking the Boat! will have workshops, performances, videos, exhibitions and presentations. If you would like to participate in the Sex Worker Pre-Conference and/or present in the Sex Worker Networking Zone: Rocking the Boat!, fill out the application and send it in!
All forms should be emailed toIACsexwork@differentavenues.org If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Kelli Dorsey kelli@differentavenues.org
(via Kelli Dorsey at Different Avenues; application available at http://www.sabrinamorgan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/registrationform.doc)
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The main people I hold responsible for this hopeless, unhelpful dichotomy with no useful action being taken outside of what we’re doing for ourselves: Non-sex workers.
Cos you either want us to be your little tragedy porn puppets or your impossibly fantastic courtesan icons and you will never allow the full complexity of what we experience on tiered levels to be fully understood or comprehended or even allowed for. You insist that it be one or the other and within an oppressive framework many of us bend over backwards trying to meet that expectation under the belief it’ll somehow make things better for us. We HAVE to be victims so you can feel justified in pitying us and can make yourselves feel useful by ‘rescuing’ us and we HAVE to be liberated happy hookers so you can feel okay about watching porn and sending anonymous, invasive questions to any sex worker blogs you find online.
http://everythingbutharleyquinn.tumblr.com/post/22117647775/unimpeachable-bravery-i-dont-care-about-your-choice (via sexworkerproblems)
Make room for our shades of gray.
(via crankyskirt)
Look at this and guess what it is (hint—it’s not a penguin, it’s not a banana peel, and it’s not a flower).
Have you guessed yet? Seriously, guess.
“I want to get that image out,” says Seattle artist Lynn Schirmer. She was sitting in her loft in the Tashiro Kaplan Building the other day, drinking tea. “I want everybody everywhere to know what that shape is.”
That shape is a human clitoris. If what you see when you close your eyes and picture a clitoris is merely a nubby button, then (A) you are normal, and (B) you are wrong. The nubby button is connected to a neck the size of the first joint of your thumb, and stretching from that neck are two arms that flare like a wishbone—arms that can be as long as three-and-a-half inches. The two bulbs that also extend from the center, which make the clitoris look like a penguin, were thought to belong to the vagina until recently. In the 1990s, Australian urologist Helen O’Connell “initiated the mainstream medical profession’s rediscovery” of the clitoris, Schirmer says, “and it took until just a few years ago to see it fully mapped via MRI and other noninvasive imaging technologies.” The result? The discovery that the clitoris has 10 times more erectile tissue than anatomy textbooks or the illustrations at the doctor’s office show.
From In Her Pants, by Jen Graves
(via mrsexsmith)
[video]
“
Last year, New York City health workers gave out 37.2 million condoms. That works out to an average of 70 condoms every minute of the year. The city got into mass-scale condom distribution to help prevent the spread of debilitating and deadly diseases.
On the other hand, the condoms are also used to mark people for arrest on prostitution charges.
[snip]
One arm of the government is giving people condoms. Another arm is confiscating them from the very people who are most vulnerable to catching bugs and passing them along. How, precisely, does this make sense?
” —http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/nyregion/in-new-york-city-giving-away-and-taking-away-condoms.html?_r=1
Good piece in the New York Times about the condoms as evidence issue, with some quotes by me as well as Sienna Baskin from the Sex Workers Project.
(via audaciaray)
(via audaciaray)
Fire Cat Kitty: The Status Quo is Violence -
Such a moving piece. This tells the general public exactly why we need decriminalization, and how it benefits them directly.
A piece that I originally wrote for the Huffington Post following the Ontario Court of Appeal ruling on sex work laws. The post as originally published was edited down due to length. Here it is in it’s entirety. Trigger warning for sexual violence - Rene
The Status Quo is Violence
…We were ready to accompany Abigail to her appointment with the officer on Tuesday. We wanted her to identify sketches and pictures, to show authorities what this man had done to her body.
Tuesday came and went and Abigail never showed up at the drop-in centre, nor did she make it to the police station.
Little did we know, she had been put on house arrest, while on her way to deposit her statement, for breaching conditions linked to a previous charge of solicitation. …
So important to remember.