Dear sugar babies and other sex workers
Your job does not define you
You can do and be whatever the fuck you want
You are strong, and independent, and paying your fucking bills
Be proud of yourself
Published on Apr 10, 2012
Making Sense of Sex interview of Shannon Williams by Diana Adams, discussing the myths and social pressures on sex workers and clients as well. This video is a collaboration between Sex Crimes Cabaret and Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance.
Published on Apr 10, 2012
Making Sense of Sex interview of Shannon Williams by Diana Adams, discussing the myths and social pressures on sex workers and clients as well. This video is a collaboration between Sex Crimes Cabaret and Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance.
![♥Meet A Whore♥
Today we meet a male whore from Frankfurt, with a lot to say :)
1. What is your name? I am Marc of Frankfurt. This is my “community name” and I recommend strongly to new sex workers to have this extra name different from the sex work “artist name” or nom de plume (yes, sex work is a highly skilful art of stage-managed pleasure delivery). I believe that some sex workers need more than just one or two names, they need at least this 3rd name. Not to cultivate a dissociative identity or address different fetishes or service ads, but to not conflate business, let alone private family life, with political activities like emancipatory fights for SW unionising, decrim and anti discrimination legislation or myth busting media work against religious or feminist sex work hate groups, abusive institutions, facilitators or perpetrators. Using a community name is a security tool albeit good for branding as well and is central part of stigma management which every sex worker is confronted to do.
2. Where are you from? Confer to my name The city with the biggest harbour (which means airport in modern times;), has big banks (which means profit making out of thin air by fractional reserve banking of fiat money with compound interest) and still higher general income level. The Metropolitan area with 7 million people, is located in the centre of Germany. I am born in Germany too but do not work in the same city of my birthplace and family. This is both stigma management and site marketing. I am well travelled and educated in different countries of the world and still like to learn more about sex work in different settings and countries.
3. What is your involvement within the adult industry? How long have you been a part of it? I have experience as pleasure companion, male escort, trained tantra masseur, sex energy coach, sex work analyst, networker and advocacy facilitator.
By the way, many sex workers would feel the question, when asked so frankly but naively/innocent about years, to be intrusive and a possible threat to discretion. That is because sex workers are typically not chosen by clients due to experience and years of professionalism, let alone prostitution wisdom or number of clients, but most often merely by youth, sexiness or just photo-optical looks. Hence age is a critical issue and the fundamental rule of prostitution goes like this: “my body is my capital stock”. Because sex workers are often most highly sought after, when they are either young or new to the flesh market, by the age tag you can estimate the market value of the sex worker’s body (objectification) or the income generating capabilities (commercialisation), and that in almost any other professions is regarded as private business secret. One of the biggest challenges then for many sex workers is the declining income curve [“theory of retrogressive life cycles” 1932 by P. Cressey, Chicago and measured 2008 in Mexico by R. Arunachalam e.a.]
Furthermore, easy to grasp and compare numbers like age and price are a signal and quality marker of an otherwise intimately individualized and thus highly subjective and incomparable good. Just the opposite than numbers are, sex work services can be regarded by and large as staged fantasy product. It is not all talent and endowment but also skills and attitude. This immaterial qualities in a material market setting are reason to the often not spoken about business aspects why workers tweak age numbers to a little or greater extend.
A final money aspect I like to stress, since prostitution is the complex combination of sex and money, where the corporate media mostly is obsessed with the sex aspect. But money has so many work aspects, since as digital processable numbers, money became the most powerful equalizer for all markets, goods and workers. This mobility is reason for enhanced world wide competition up to conflicts and migration, which informal sex work is very much a part of (globalisation). So my involvement in the industry is not only sex work practice, but also the theory of sex, money and prostitution.
4. How did you start out? When I became a sex worker I decided to join sex worker support networks and conferences (formerly known as whore congress) in order to learn the most about my new highly competitive business field and often informal practice. We all know that one can hardly find any renowned academy or formal training course due to taboo, stigma, marginalisation, alienation and up to criminalisation. All support and advice on how to enter prostitution, work safe and sustainable is in many countries illegal. That is valid even in decriminalized or legalized settings like Germany is since 2002 with estimated 200.000-400.000 sex workers (rate per inhabitant: 2.5-5 per mille). But still here for many conservative people and institutions sex work education is regarded as promoting prostitution - a formerly criminalised and still not accepted and not funded an endeavour.
5. Favourite thing about the industry? Sex work and prostitution has a much needed function in society, which already Roman-catholic scholar Augustine has known about. We sex workers bring fulfilment and meaning to the life to many of our clients and valuable members of society (mostly male, but not only). We sex workers (female, male and transgender) deliver opportunities for fun, excitement and fulfilment and contribute to a more relaxed and peaceful society (social stability). Prostitution as social institution is a college on sexuality, self-awareness and self-realisation.
Furthermore prostitution is the opposite and complementary institution to marriage or (serial-monogamous) partnership. The quality of prostitution is to facilitate gorgeous sex in separation from love or social liabilities. And it is a huge reallocation mechanism between the sexes or generations.
My conclusion is that there are not many other things, services or professions being more intense, full of truth, than giving joyful sexual experiences to other people. We often get rewarded with heartfelt thanks and eyes full of gratitude. Sure that is the positive aspect and we must concede that all that depends on the workers capacity, competence, price level … and last but not least on the setting where sex work can take place safe and in which freedom and self determination of the sex worker is safeguarded structurally.
6. Least favourite thing about the industry? The prostitution taboo (arising from the sex taboo) and the whore stigma (putophobia, whorephobia, anti-trafficking which hunt and white slavery discourses since 100 years); intersectionality: xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny … hate crimes up to ‘war on whores’; the prostituton trap (biologism of fertility and ageing; iron law of wages and pauperism [F. Lassalle 1850ies]; the mostly demand-side controlled buyers markets; the criminalisation and prosecution; the informal often clandestine and thus quite risky nature of sex work, which may lead to the fallen-angel syndrome or sex worker burn out (SWBO, google the great poster from A. Sprinkle and N. Almodovar).
7. If you could change one thing, globally or locally in the industry, what would it be? Install unions and sex worker self-representational body on every economi-political level: the workplace, the red light area, the local district, the municipality, the region or local state, the national or federal state, the globe. On that top level www.nswp.org is just doing that since 1992.
We need sex worker “coming-out groups” and “legalizing workshops” (i.e. whore colleges facilitated by unions or NGOs). By web2.0 technologies the first time ever we people have the power to realise all that at least virtually. www.sexworker.at is an example network in .at .de .li .lu central Europe est. 2005.
8. What would you like the world to know about the industry? The world and people know about the industry since culture evolved with big cities granting some sort of anonymity to its very people and with the invention of money to facilitate trade, cooperation and liberalisation. We sex worker are very much a part of it. We are not a problem - but part of the solution!
9. Anything else you would like to say?Sex work is work!Nothing about us - without us!Love you hooker - pay ‘em well!Isolated we’re exploitable - united we stand!
Check out the sex worker and support group for your region in this on-line database www.bit.ly/sexworkinternet
10. How can people contact you if they would like to know more?Use my sex worker community networking profiles: www.facebook.com/marc.frankfurt or in German www.sexworker.at/marc
Clients we sex workers do find in separate localized markets, which are highly diversified and where completely different content and look-and-feel marketing is required.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/14db998289c74c76d17ad0fc923ddde4/tumblr_mgoajcdbnR1rxgdveo1_250.jpg)
♥Meet A Whore♥
Today we meet a male whore from Frankfurt, with a lot to say :)
1. What is your name? I am Marc of Frankfurt. This is my “community name” and I recommend strongly to new sex workers to have this extra name different from the sex work “artist name” or nom de plume (yes, sex work is a highly skilful art of stage-managed pleasure delivery). I believe that some sex workers need more than just one or two names, they need at least this 3rd name. Not to cultivate a dissociative identity or address different fetishes or service ads, but to not conflate business, let alone private family life, with political activities like emancipatory fights for SW unionising, decrim and anti discrimination legislation or myth busting media work against religious or feminist sex work hate groups, abusive institutions, facilitators or perpetrators. Using a community name is a security tool albeit good for branding as well and is central part of stigma management which every sex worker is confronted to do.
2. Where are you from? Confer to my name The city with the biggest harbour (which means airport in modern times;), has big banks (which means profit making out of thin air by fractional reserve banking of fiat money with compound interest) and still higher general income level. The Metropolitan area with 7 million people, is located in the centre of Germany. I am born in Germany too but do not work in the same city of my birthplace and family. This is both stigma management and site marketing. I am well travelled and educated in different countries of the world and still like to learn more about sex work in different settings and countries.
3. What is your involvement within the adult industry? How long have you been a part of it? I have experience as pleasure companion, male escort, trained tantra masseur, sex energy coach, sex work analyst, networker and advocacy facilitator.
By the way, many sex workers would feel the question, when asked so frankly but naively/innocent about years, to be intrusive and a possible threat to discretion. That is because sex workers are typically not chosen by clients due to experience and years of professionalism, let alone prostitution wisdom or number of clients, but most often merely by youth, sexiness or just photo-optical looks. Hence age is a critical issue and the fundamental rule of prostitution goes like this: “my body is my capital stock”. Because sex workers are often most highly sought after, when they are either young or new to the flesh market, by the age tag you can estimate the market value of the sex worker’s body (objectification) or the income generating capabilities (commercialisation), and that in almost any other professions is regarded as private business secret. One of the biggest challenges then for many sex workers is the declining income curve [“theory of retrogressive life cycles” 1932 by P. Cressey, Chicago and measured 2008 in Mexico by R. Arunachalam e.a.]
Furthermore, easy to grasp and compare numbers like age and price are a signal and quality marker of an otherwise intimately individualized and thus highly subjective and incomparable good. Just the opposite than numbers are, sex work services can be regarded by and large as staged fantasy product. It is not all talent and endowment but also skills and attitude. This immaterial qualities in a material market setting are reason to the often not spoken about business aspects why workers tweak age numbers to a little or greater extend.
A final money aspect I like to stress, since prostitution is the complex combination of sex and money, where the corporate media mostly is obsessed with the sex aspect. But money has so many work aspects, since as digital processable numbers, money became the most powerful equalizer for all markets, goods and workers. This mobility is reason for enhanced world wide competition up to conflicts and migration, which informal sex work is very much a part of (globalisation). So my involvement in the industry is not only sex work practice, but also the theory of sex, money and prostitution.
4. How did you start out? When I became a sex worker I decided to join sex worker support networks and conferences (formerly known as whore congress) in order to learn the most about my new highly competitive business field and often informal practice. We all know that one can hardly find any renowned academy or formal training course due to taboo, stigma, marginalisation, alienation and up to criminalisation. All support and advice on how to enter prostitution, work safe and sustainable is in many countries illegal. That is valid even in decriminalized or legalized settings like Germany is since 2002 with estimated 200.000-400.000 sex workers (rate per inhabitant: 2.5-5 per mille). But still here for many conservative people and institutions sex work education is regarded as promoting prostitution - a formerly criminalised and still not accepted and not funded an endeavour.
5. Favourite thing about the industry? Sex work and prostitution has a much needed function in society, which already Roman-catholic scholar Augustine has known about. We sex workers bring fulfilment and meaning to the life to many of our clients and valuable members of society (mostly male, but not only). We sex workers (female, male and transgender) deliver opportunities for fun, excitement and fulfilment and contribute to a more relaxed and peaceful society (social stability). Prostitution as social institution is a college on sexuality, self-awareness and self-realisation.
Furthermore prostitution is the opposite and complementary institution to marriage or (serial-monogamous) partnership. The quality of prostitution is to facilitate gorgeous sex in separation from love or social liabilities. And it is a huge reallocation mechanism between the sexes or generations.
My conclusion is that there are not many other things, services or professions being more intense, full of truth, than giving joyful sexual experiences to other people. We often get rewarded with heartfelt thanks and eyes full of gratitude. Sure that is the positive aspect and we must concede that all that depends on the workers capacity, competence, price level … and last but not least on the setting where sex work can take place safe and in which freedom and self determination of the sex worker is safeguarded structurally.
6. Least favourite thing about the industry? The prostitution taboo (arising from the sex taboo) and the whore stigma (putophobia, whorephobia, anti-trafficking which hunt and white slavery discourses since 100 years); intersectionality: xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny … hate crimes up to ‘war on whores’; the prostituton trap (biologism of fertility and ageing; iron law of wages and pauperism [F. Lassalle 1850ies]; the mostly demand-side controlled buyers markets; the criminalisation and prosecution; the informal often clandestine and thus quite risky nature of sex work, which may lead to the fallen-angel syndrome or sex worker burn out (SWBO, google the great poster from A. Sprinkle and N. Almodovar).
7. If you could change one thing, globally or locally in the industry, what would it be? Install unions and sex worker self-representational body on every economi-political level: the workplace, the red light area, the local district, the municipality, the region or local state, the national or federal state, the globe. On that top level www.nswp.org is just doing that since 1992.
We need sex worker “coming-out groups” and “legalizing workshops” (i.e. whore colleges facilitated by unions or NGOs). By web2.0 technologies the first time ever we people have the power to realise all that at least virtually. www.sexworker.at is an example network in .at .de .li .lu central Europe est. 2005.
8. What would you like the world to know about the industry? The world and people know about the industry since culture evolved with big cities granting some sort of anonymity to its very people and with the invention of money to facilitate trade, cooperation and liberalisation. We sex worker are very much a part of it. We are not a problem - but part of the solution!
9. Anything else you would like to say?
Sex work is work!
Nothing about us - without us!
Love you hooker - pay ‘em well!
Isolated we’re exploitable - united we stand!
Check out the sex worker and support group for your region in this on-line database www.bit.ly/sexworkinternet
10. How can people contact you if they would like to know more?
Use my sex worker community networking profiles: www.facebook.com/marc.frankfurt or in German www.sexworker.at/marc
Clients we sex workers do find in separate localized markets, which are highly diversified and where completely different content and look-and-feel marketing is required.
“We are here! We are here as brothers and sisters, moms and dads, sons and daughters some of us even grandparents, but WE ARE HERE!” These were the words I spoke at the opening of the 1st African sex workers conference in Johannesburg 3 years ago and now I say them again, “WE ARE HERE!”
(Source: africansexworkeralliance.orghttp)
Beautiful handmade poster/birthday gift from Emily Davidson. #feminist #feminism #sexwork #art #poster
I love these definitions. It’s a grey area and hard to explain to most civilians, the difference between these two.
(via bordello-diaries)
(Source: bordello-diaries)
(Source: sundancer70, via sensualstripper)
Anonymous asked: How many working women would offer anal sex to clients?
Im really not sure…. I personally dont do it ever, but i know many sex workers that do… everyone is different :)
Love Holly xx
FACTS AND FICTION ABOUT SEX WORK
FICTION: Sex workers are ‘vectors of disease’
FACT: Actually sex workers have higher standards of sexual health than the general community, and there has never been a reported case of sex worker to client or client to sex worker HIV transmission in Australia. Some of this stereotype originally comes from the syphilis scares of the 18th and 19th Century in Europe, before effective condom technology made commercial sex safe. In Australia, sex workers are extremely responsible when it comes to their sexual health, after all our bodies are our business, and like pianists who take care of their hands, sex workers have good reason to care for our assets. Most sex workers use condoms for oral sex, which is rare in the general community.
FICTION: People are forced into sex work
FACT: Only as much as anyone is forced into any form of waged labour. Very few people are independently wealthy, and so most people are forced to earn money in some way, or receive welfare payments. These are the same choices available to sex workers. In Australia, a country with a welfare system, no one is forced to choose whether to do sex work or starve. Most people who work in the sex industry demonstrate skills such as good communication, negotiation and ability to deal with diverse people. These skills are useful in other service industries, as well as the helping professions. People choose to sex work because of the higher rate of pay than other jobs, flexibility of hours and the opportunity to be self-employed.
FICTION: Sex work makes sex workers drug dependent
FACT: Firstly, drug use in the sex industry is much less widely spread than you may think. Recent Australian research suggests that approximately 10 - 15% of sex workers are injecting drug users. This means that 85-90% are not. The most commonly used drug in the sex industry would be nicotine. Sex workers use alcohol at a lesser rate than the general community. Most sex workers that use illicit drugs began using them before they began sex work. Illicit drugs, precisely because they are illegal, are over priced and can be difficult to acquire. Drug users may choose to do sex work in order to earn higher wages than other forms of employment in order to purchase expensive drugs and also to have the time available to access them. Sex workers are rarely driven to use drugs in order to ‘cope with sex work’.
FICTION: Clients of sex workers are dangerous psychopaths who couldn’t get sex elsewhere
FACT: A recent large scale survey of sex industry clients showed that clients are no different to any other male in the general community. Clients come from a range of ages, races, religions and socio-economic backgrounds. Clients are certainly no likely than any other man to be violent. Many clients are married, so they are not necessarily undesirable or possessing poor social skills. Clients access the services of sex workers in order to have sexual variety, to have hassle free sex outside of a relationship, to have pleasant company, to relax, to have an orgasm. Generally clients do not visit sex workers to pick a fight or to cause harm. It is a well known fact that women are more at risk of violence from someone they know, their partners or family members, than a complete stranger. This is as true of sex workers as other women.
FICTION: Making tough laws against sex work keeps people out of the sex industry and helps sex workers
FACT: Economic motivations are the most likely factor in a person deciding to work in the sex industry. This is evidenced by the growth in the sex industry all across Australia in recent years, even in States and Territories where sex work remains criminalised. This growth is probably a result of a range of economic reasons, including cuts to welfare payments. Harsh anti-sex work laws have a negative impact on sex workers in a number of ways. A criminalised sex industry is an underground sex industry that reduces the access of sex workers to health and support services. Sex workers are also less inclined to report crimes against them when working in an illicit industry, as they would be incriminating themselves in the process. While brothels are illegal, they are not recognised as workplaces, and sex workers have no status as employees. This means that sex industry employers have no legal responsibility to comply with Industrial Relation legislation, or to provide a safe working environment for their employees. Criminalisation creates a barrier for those sex workers who may wish to exit the sex industry. As more and more jobs require police checks, a criminal record can reduce sex workers chances of finding alternative employment.
Source: http://www.acsa.org.au/linked/sin/facts%20and%20fiction%20about%20sex%20workers.pdf
Sex workers protesting against police brutality (in Union Square).
Sex Workers WANT to Stop Trafficking
Sex workers and advocates for sex workers say why it’s important to include them, and their clients, in the fight against sex trafficking. They ARE part of the solution, but criminalization and harassment by law enforcement often prevents them from doing so.
A public service announcement from www.redlightdistrictchicago.com