I think we live in a world that hates poor people and sensationalizes sex in a really nasty way. I feel that ideology constantly harms sex workers and excludes us from social liberation movements by objectifying our labor while rejecting our existence in the same breath.
I am a New York City-based dominatrix and cultural activist. I started doing BDSM professionally in 2016 after finding a dungeon on craigslist (those were the days) and then mostly did online work for a year or two while I finished college before transitioning to full-time in-person BDSM.
Plenty of sex workers have not-so-fun stories about getting started ... Instead, ask us about our favorite movies, music, food, flowers, etc! That is a much better way to learn about us as individuals
When it comes to sex work, there’s no shortage of lessons to be learned about oneself, including what “sex”, “work” or even what the term “yourself” actually means. I’d have to say that it’s mostly taught me that there's no wrong or right answer.
"Finding community helped me to not only work through a lot of shame that I held around being a sex worker, but also to develop the skills and tools needed to engage with kink and in-person sex work in a safer and healthier way."