Overview

The most comprehensive personal essay collection by sex workers available, demanding change in a world where bodies, sex, and difference are increasingly policed and politicised. Personal essays on sex work, by sex workers, demanding change in a world where bodies, sex, and difference are increasingly policed and politicized. This collection of narrative essays by sex workers presents a crystal-clear rejoinder: there's never been a better time to fight for justice. Responding to the resurgence of the #MeToo movement in 2017, sex workers from across the industry-hookers and prostitutes, strippers and dancers, porn stars, cam models, Dommes and subs alike-complicate narratives of sexual harassment and violence, and expand conversations often limited to normative workplaces. Writing across topics such as homelessness, motherhood, and toxic masculinity, We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival gives voice to the fight for agency and accountability across sex industries. With contributions by leading voices in the movement such as Melissa Gira Grant, Ceyenne Doroshow, Audacia Ray, femi babylon, April Flores, and Yin Q, this anthology explores sex work as work, and sex workers as laboring subjects in need of respect - not rescue.

Full Product Details

9781558612853

Table of Contents

Reviews

We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival embodies the rallying cry: 'Nothing about us without us.' Featuring incisive essays by sex workers of all backgrounds, this vital anthology centers diverse narratives about sex work, labor rights, sexual assault, trauma, and healing that too often go unheard. Raw, gut-wrenching, and transformative, We Too is a powerful addition to the canon of books by sex workers and for sex workers and their allies. --Kristen J. Sollee, author of Witches, Sluts, Feminists We Too offers a sharp indictment of this world and a warm invitation to build another one. Against a #MeToo movement that represents some at a high cost to others, We Too places sex workers at the front lines of an anti-violence movement for the rest of us. We Too's vision knows the state is no ally, that freedom won't come without solidarity, and that real cultures of consent will come from the ground up. --Heather Berg, author of Porn Work: Sex, Labor, and Late Capitalism A necessary, wide-ranging, preconception-smashing collection of essays by writers who speak from experience within the sex industry. At turns, these essays are devastating, astute, funny, and heart opening. Taken together, they are a welcome antidote to the reductive narratives about sex worker experiences that we hear too often. We Too is an anthology that honors the humanity, diversity, and depth of insight within the field. Reading it made me want to stand up and cheer. --Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me

While mainstream media does not allow the space for a complex and nuanced portrait of sex work, because such coverage is often weaponized, this book is salvation. The writing is unfailingly keen, each piece individually capable of inducing radical empathy. This book and its fierce creators are ready to change the world. -Booklist, starred review Offers a stop gap, a bridge, or a passage for sex workers enduring violence by uplifting both pain and survival with dignity. -Autostraddle Funny and fresh and very not the same story you might have heard about sex work before-the pieces feel complex and exciting. -Xtra Magazine As the essays in this powerful collection demonstrate, it has always been sex workers who have kept each other safe: from predatory clients, from pimps, and from the police. These essays reveal workers who are not helpless, but oppressed, and are increasingly organizing for their rights. -Lux As infuriating as it is vulnerable, the book serves as a testament that sex workers deserve a central place in both the labor and feminist movements. -In These Times We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival embodies the rallying cry: 'Nothing about us without us.' Featuring incisive essays by sex workers of all backgrounds, this vital anthology centers diverse narratives about sex work, labor rights, sexual assault, trauma, and healing that too often go unheard. Raw, gut-wrenching, and transformative, We Too is a powerful addition to the canon of books by sex workers and for sex workers and their allies. -Kristen J. Sollee, author of Witches, Sluts, Feminists We Too offers a sharp indictment of this world and a warm invitation to build another one. Against a #MeToo movement that represents some at a high cost to others, We Too places sex workers at the front lines of an anti-violence movement for the rest of us. We Too'svision knows the state is no ally, that freedom won't come without solidarity, and that real cultures of consent will come from the ground up. -Heather Berg, author of Porn Work: Sex, Labor, and Late Capitalism A necessary, wide-ranging, preconception-smashing collection of essays by writers who speak from experience within the sex industry. At turns, these essays are devastating, astute, funny, and heart opening. Taken together, they are a welcome antidote to the reductive narratives about sex worker experiences that we hear too often. We Too is an anthology that honors the humanity, diversity, and depth of insight within the field. Reading it made me want to stand up and cheer. -Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me This incredible anthology has pulled together personal stories of sex work that speak to a reality that only so many of us know. There are even fewer of us who have the capacity and desire to relive some of these tacit moments that become predictable fodder for outsiders to bemuse themselves with temporarily. But beyond the buzzworthy story of selling sex is the truth and lived experience, and the understanding of value, self-worth, self-pity and self-empowerment. We Too's firsthand accounts will give perspective and nuance to the 'sex work is work' conversation in this new era of informed consent. -Lotus Lain, adult performer and sex worker rights advocate We Too is a powerful, engrossing collection of essays, each lending a unique perspective from a courageous and resilient voice. Together, these essays constitute a critical resource for understanding the complex and diverse world of sex worker experience. -Isa Mazzei, screenwriter, CAM In We Too, the voices of those within the sex worker community come together on topics that don't get much exposure outside our own private gatherings. This collection is incisive, generous, vulnerable, and insightful with a fair dash of humor and verve. It should come as no surprise that sex workers thinking and writing on harassment and interpersonal violence are much more multidimensional, tender, and thoughtful than most mainstream intellectuals on the topic. It's so important that these stories are heard as told by us. -Rachel Rabbit White, author of Porn Carnival The Me Too movement, started by Tarana Burke, was formed to fight for the working class, often left vulnerable to sexual violence with little to no justice. This anthology, We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival, examines that sexual violence and labor with a lens that looks specifically at how sex workers experience and witness it. Documenting personal accounts of sexual violence in the workplace, We Too can be a hard pill to swallow but presents a path toward healing from and combating rape culture from people who have survived on the front lines. This anthology brilliantly showcases the billowing voice of the sex worker community and how it supports and should be supported by feminist movements like Me Too. -Courtney Trouble, founder of NoFauxxx.com We Too is a crucial, brutally necessary book that works to create needed intersectionality within the Me Too movement and feminism generally. These stunning outsider voices are thick with inside information, personal and political, and most importantly they're great, gripping reads. I'm very grateful for this collection. -Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir: Complaints, Confessions & Criticisms

Author Information

Natalie Westis a Los Angeles based writer and educator. She worked as a professional Dominatrix while obtaining her PhD in Gender Studies. Her personal essays have appeared inSalon,Autostraddle,Kink Academy,Columbia Journal, andthem.She moonlights as a sex work, BDSM, and queer community authenticity consultant for film and television. Tina Hornhosts and produces the long-running kink podcast Why Are People Into That?! She is also the creator and writer of the sci-fi comic book seriesSfSx (Safe Sex). Her reporting on sexual subcultures and politics has appeared inRolling Stone,Hazlitt,Glamour,Jezebel, and elsewhere; she is the author of two nonfiction books and has contributed to numerous anthologies including the queer horror collectionTheater of Terrorand the feminist essay collectionBelieve Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World.Horn has lectured on sex worker politics and queer BDSM identities at universities and community centers all over North America. She is a LAMBDA Literary Fellow, the recipient of two Feminist Porn Awards, and holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence. Originally from Northern California,she now lives in Brooklyn.

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