sex worker

Enforcing Northern Ireland’s New Swedish-Style Sex Purchase Law – A Sex Worker’s Story

November 19, 2014 // 5 Comments

Guest post by Kate A rainy night in Belfast. Cold and wet with a wind whipping round the corners of the barren streets where women used to stand. How things have

In the Booth with Ruth – Tara Burns, Survivor of Labor Trafficking in the Sex Industry, Sex Worker and Sex Workers’ Rights Activist

October 29, 2014 // 10 Comments

We need anti-discrimination laws (as recommended by the Obama administration in 2010) to protect us from discrimination in accessing housing, employment, child custody, public services, financial instruments, health care, and education. This is not an abstract concept. If you don’t want people to be prostitutes, or even if you just want people to be able to leave the sex industry, making it impossible for sex workers and sex trafficking victims to get other jobs or rent a home is the opposite of effective...

Burgundy Leggings by Tracey Helton

September 28, 2014 // 7 Comments

Guest post by Tracey Helton As I slide my back against the hot wall, I can feel the energy being sucked out of my body. Underneath my burgundy sweater and matching burgundy

In the Booth with Ruth – Tara Burns, Author

August 19, 2014 // 3 Comments

I've always written about my experiences... I'm also drawn to making some kind of sense and art from my experiences, and being the one to frame my own narrative.

In the Booth with Ruth – Jemima, Sex Worker, Writer and Student

August 15, 2014 // 13 Comments

I was a sex worker, but like most isolated by the nature of the work. Whilst I knew the law as it applied to me I was unaware there were people campaigning to change the laws, or that other countries has different systems, many of which were a lot worse than the UK. I started talking to and reading other sex workers writings, and attended a few events. Realising that I was not alone was such a huge moment for me.

Collateral Damage: Sex Workers and the Anti-Trafficking Campaigns at Kampnagel, Hamburg

August 7, 2014 // 17 Comments

I am honored to screen Collateral Damage: Sex Workers and the Anti-Trafficking Campaigns at Kampnagel’s sex work issues conference “FANTASIES THAT MATTER. IMAGES OF SEXWORK IN MEDIA AND ART.”

‘Whore Diaries III: Retirement’ by Tara Burns – Only 99c/77p to Download Today

July 28, 2014 // 3 Comments

The Tara Burns I first knew was a character in my novel, Soul Destruction: Unforgivable, until I discovered there was a Tara Burns who was also an author and sex worker.

In the Booth with Ruth – Pye Jakobsson, Sex Workers’ Rights Activist from Sweden

March 17, 2014 // 12 Comments

I am concerned with labour exploitation in general. I have my doubts regarding if the trafficking terminology is really helpful... Without a clear distinction between sex work and forced labour we can never really address the exploitation that happens in the sex industry as well as in other industries...

In the Booth with Ruth – Lori Adorable, Sex Worker and Sex Worker Rights Advocate

January 15, 2014 // 18 Comments

You can argue all day over whether the sex industry is harmful to women as a whole and workers in particular, but you can’t argue with the studies that show the Swedish model allows violence against sex workers to continue. You also can’t argue the fact that, were it to succeed, sex workers would simply find themselves unemployed. So clients may be ‘punished’, but the workers will be punished as well. If you want to help those in the sex trades who don’t want to be there, provide more options. Provide alternatives. Don’t just take this one option away.