I’ve started publishing under the name Juliet November and here is my debut piece in this month’s issue of The Walrus, (Canada’s national arts, politics and culture mag) about working in Australia. It’s short and a bit plain (unlike me!) but it’s also exciting to be talking to mainstream Canada about ho’ing.
Congrats!
hello you,
Jessie Abraham on the online social network put up a link to your blog article: Born Whore i just thought i’d give you a wave, will catch up again soon, with your blog bookmarked!
xx me/mel
I am so glad that someone finally opened up a spread the truth about prostitution, and the risks of other female employment. However, it is important to also discuss the psychological consequences associated with sex work. Though not a prostitute myself, I am in the sex trade (an exotic dancer) and am well aware of the stress and emotional pain one can endure. Further acknowledgement (or discussion if I am wrong, I am well aware that these are totally separate professions) would be beneficial. But do not let this discount the fact that this work needs to be legalized for the health and safety of these women (and men) involved.
I love this article.
Juliet November, is it alright for me to include this article in a reader that is being put together for a conference. It would be included as a reading for a workshop I am running around sex work, Scarlet Alliance and the GFC.
lovelovelove,
Mish
Hey Ashley, just wanted to say that I thought about your comment and concluded a coupla things:
1. I have had plenty of exotic dancers in my life and frankly, I think dancing may be way harder work than whoring. the emotional labour seems hella fucking huge vs. the one hour I have with a guy. I mean, all that endless hustling! the horribly limited (racist, ageist) range of what bodies are considered acceptable! My sister is having knee surgery to deal with the effects of 8 years of bounding around on high heels.
2. There are shitty things about sex work–but this isn’t at all different from any work! I do sex work because it’s the least shitty option, by far. I’ve encountered more stress and less autonomy in all my other work. So far sex work is where I have had the most control over my work (in some ways, obviously criminialization fucks with that) and the most freedom *from* work–because of how little i have to work, given my wage!
Here’s the thing: work is hard. Welcome to capitalism. And it’s really, really fucking hard on those who live at the intersections of racism, capitalism, patriarchy, transphobia etc. Note the PERVASIVE fucking CRAZY RELENTLESS violence committed against trans women sex workers of colour–which is often either tolerated or committed by the state. That’s why we need to tear down the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, abolish policing and prisons, build communities that can take care of each other without the state, create housing, jobs, education and healthcare where people come before profits and learn ways to love and connect through our differences. There will still be hookers after the revolution.
to quote the Oakland organizers responding to the deaths of queer and gender variant youth of colour Jason Mattison Jr and Jorge Steven Mercado-Lopez: LOVE. SURVIVE. ORGANIZE.