"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."
For a while I’ve been fascinated with the sex industry, my curiosity manifesting in occasional, random bouts of research and daydreaming throughout my college career whenever something like stripping, camming or escorting tickled my mind.
I thought I’d had a plenitude of sexual experience when I started—I... had a sex blog where I would write about OKCupid and Craigslist hookups—but most of those encounters were things I was hazing myself through.
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.
The threats sex workers face are not just from clients or individuals in society; the very system we live within is at the root of much of the violence we face.