The Impact You Can Make: Speak Up and Other Communication Revelations

Since the story of the murder of a NYC-based sex worker in Boston broke last week, I’ve been keeping up on the details of the story mostly through Twitter and the enthusiasm and resources of sex worker advocates. Eliyanna and I used the sad and frustrating example of this story during the Speak Up media training last weekend. And you know what? It was upsetting to push people to talk about something so fresh and raw – a woman murdered by a client, a woman who could’ve been many of the people in the room. But that’s the thing about media inquiries about current events – it’s upsetting. It’s raw. It’s happening right now, and you need to compose yourself and say something sharp and on-message.

One of the things that we kept hammering on during the training was that there are a bunch of different ways to speak up to the media powers – not all of them have to be reactive either, you can step up and be proactive, push your agenda and your message. Though sometimes it doesn’t seem it because of the evidence of corporate media everywhere, the media needs us to make stories. And producing this stuff is a conversation – or it can be if you’re smart.

I took my own advice this week, knuckled down and wrote this here letter to the editor of the Boston Herald. They’ve been publishing a lot of articles, several front page stories, about the man who has been dubbed the Craigslist Killer. The tone of the pieces has settled a bit, but early in the week there was a lot of maddening stuff happening in them, especially the general smearing together of all sex industry jobs into one monolithic one: “hooker.” I dashed off this short piece and it was featured prominently on the Letters page on April 23rd. This letter made it into the paper because it was short and to the point – and it had only one point. Letters to the editor are not for pontificating, they are for quick and sharp observations or clarifications. I do so love a little well-articulated rage. It goes quite a ways.

Anyway, it’s the eve of my 29th birthday (well, technically it’s after midnight on the 25th so it is my birthday, woo-hoo!). And so, speaking of communication: I have a birthday request. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past year – really the last six months – that I really really want to keep alive is that showing appreciation for the amazing work other people do is an important thing. When I’ve felt the most invisible and useless and miserable, there have been moments where a short message from someone (friend or total stranger) saying something nice about my work has saved me. And so as a birthday favor to me: write a fan email thanking a person whose work has profoundly affected your outlook on the world. Cc or Bcc me. I know it would mean the world to whoever is on the receiving end, and I can’t think of a better birthday gift for me either. Knowing that you’re spreading the love will help inspire me as I embark on my 29th year, with new big and awesome projects in the works.