Friday Five: Sex Work Liberation
Here’s your weekly dose of sexy brain food, this time discussing sex work. Take 5 minutes for 5 things that will widen your understanding of this form of labor and prompt you to connect to your erotic self.
Legal Sex Work?
Although the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends globally working toward the decriminalization of consensual sex work, and countries like New Zealand are already leading the way, the U.S. government is still regulating how people use their bodies. The justification? Stopping and preventing human trafficking.
However, advocates say criminalization puts sex workers in danger regardless:
Criminalization forces sex workers “to move their work or structure their work in such a way as to avoid police contact,” says Kate Mogulescu, an assistant professor of clinical law at Brooklyn Law School. Avoiding police might mean sex workers need to go to more remote locations where they are more vulnerable or simply can’t have a support network when their rights are violated on the job.
Criminalizing sex work also puts sex workers at risk of police violence. In one 2008 study (PDF), nearly one in five sex workers and people profiled as sex workers said they had been asked for sex by a police officer, and one respondent said she had been “made to perform sexual favors to avoid being charged with prostitution,” points out author Anna North in her article The movement to decriminalize sex work, explained.
Sex work should always be safe and empowering, but while we get there, and if sex work is something you're considering, you might want to start with forms of safer sex work (brought to you by tech), such as erotica content creation, camera/phone call sessions or maybe even escorting.
2. Sex Work is Purposeful
“Sex workers tend to be empathetic individuals, they are meditators, caretakers. There is something about them that allows them to be generous with their bodies, their time and their intimacy. There is a lot of emotional labor that goes into being somebody's fantasy for an hour. When it’s your job, you are equal parts a personal assistant that needs to look at their penis and a therapist that needs to accept the truest and rawest versions of themselves.”
— Former Sex Worker Rachel Music
3. Doctor Dominatrix
Badass women like Mistress Damiana are changing the Dominatrix game toward a more respectful and safe community. As a Psychology P.h.D and Professional Domme, Damiana does so through her Conscious Kink Community platform with the purpose to:
“Cultivate and foster a conscious, safe, supportive
container of acceptance and positivity for fellow
members around all things kink.”
If you’re interested in learning more about starting a career as a dominatrix, you can check out her Evolutionary Dominatrix Academy.
4. Escorting
In the U.S., it’s completely legal, and you can get paid to simply escort—or accompany—someone on a date. But it’s not as easy as it sounds and requires being mentally strong, knowing your boundaries and being safe.
“My first escort date was at 19 years old during my sophomore year of college. I heard of the website Seeking Arrangement from a friend and decided to make a profile with an open mind. Although the site remains adamant about being a nontraditional dating site and not an escort service, that’s most of the time how things play out. I have been on and off the site for 6 years now and have gone on 15+ dates in multiple countries. Here is some big sister advice I wish I had known…”
5. Personally...
Maybe none of this is resonating with your life, but we hope that by reading you’ve at least gotten a better understanding of the lives and professions of sex workers. Still looking to connect to your own personal kinky or erotic side? Try a Sexual Fantasy Sexploration (or join an Erotic Blueprints online session)! Follow the writing prompt below with an open mind:
💭You are in a comfortable, cozy place with two other people you find very, very attractive. Not just physically, but you find it so hot how much they seem to want to please you. They both tell you that they’re open to your desires and are here to treat you like royalty. Imagine what you would ask, how you would ask it, what it might feel like, what it might lead to…
