#pinole may have been here

The sex industry’s always been fascinating and exciting to me and I like the idea of being in control of my own sexuality. I didn’t have much luck as a sugar baby and was unfortunately taken advantage of so I ultimately left the sugar bowl and didn’t do sex work again until I turned 22

Sex work as a sociopolitical issue is used as a scapegoat to avoid addressing larger issues like poverty and violence against femmes. Sex work is not the problem and trying to make it disappear makes the problems worse.

Clinical psychologist and sex therapist Dr. David Ley has long been critical of the sex addiction framework, and wrote the book The Myth of Sex Addiction to explain why. I sat down with him to explore why sex addiction is a problematic concept, and how it contributes to whorephobia.

Whenever my job is mentioned in newspapers, blogs, or magazines, the same tropes tend to pop up: moral panic, drug abuse, violence. Journalists quote us selectively, so that it sounds as if we’re living out the sex-negative, whorephobic stereotypes the public are used to consuming.

If you’re anything like me, you may be worried about poor labour practices, environmental issues...and above all, that you’re not throwing your money at a business that’s sexist or whorephobic. Thanks to some inspired entrepreneurs worldwide, we do have better options.