sex work is work

Hey, I missed International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.  It was December 17th.  Sex work is work.

Yeah, who decided sex workers aren’t valuable people whose well-being matters?  I didn’t decide that, and I won’t play along.  Sex workers are my favorite people.

Thank you for making choices to speak up for sex workers, respect us, recognize our work as valid.  We could be many different ways and identities–trans or cis, homeless or living indoors, queer or non-queer, disabled or non-disabled.  Addicts or non-addicts, immigrants or not, kind or mean.  Fat and not fat, educated and less educated.  Good at looking conventionally attractive, not good at that.

You could know a lot of people who are sex workers but not be aware of their ways of making money.  If you’re not a sex worker, please don’t believe that makes you superior.

I feel grateful to sex workers and lots of respect.

for housing

A while ago I realized that I have stayed in relationships for housing.  Pretty much I was having sex with someone in exchange for a roof over my head.  I needed to leave but was gathering my resources, and I would continue to have sex with that person, as that was expected of me.

Not sure if that’s sex work exactly, but it’s a super common thing to do.  Mostly about lack of money and lack of support, in my life.  I had no cash and no where to go.

Sex can be for housing, drugs, money, love–why are some reasons considered generally ok, and some aren’t?  I suppose it has to do with power, and winners vs losers of capitalism.

There are a ton of possible reasons for having sex with someone, that I have done or never done.  Keeping the peace, pacifying someone, to avoid being assaulted, to maintain housing.  Care, connection, ritual, manipulation, procreation, boredom, lust, entrapment, curiosity.  Money is just one reason of many, not bad or good.

I don’t want violence against anyone.  But sex workers are more vulnerable.  So please help create a world of safety for all of us, and admit that many types of work are bodily.  Just some have been blessed as moral, and others have not.