"BDSM to me is about taking a part or parts of ourselves and blowing them up to be our entire existence in this nonlinear moment of time. This might include aspects of ourselves that may be buried and that we often do not fully understand."
"As sex workers we take on a lot of emotional labor and energy from our clients. It’s so important to recharge not only our bodies but also our souls."
I had always been curious about this sex work – I was lucky to, for whatever reason, keep out a lot of the negative messaging people around me growing up received about their sexuality.
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.
'I think sex work has made me feel like I have to be in a binary to be able to be marketable, and it’s been a journey not letting that dictate my ability to actualize.'