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Staking claim
March 17, 2005
I spent most of last night working the door at the $pread launch party, which was fun because I got to be social without burden of trying to mingle. Like at all the $pread parties, which are benefits to raise cash money for publishing the magazine, sex workers got a discount at the door.
Because of the nature of the party, the attendees were more than sympathetic to the cause, but nonetheless I had many a conversation wherein a person coming into the party asked, “what counts as sex work?” or something along those lines. My response was always - “It’s whatever you personally consider sex work to be. No questions asked.” Did some people take advantage of the discount? Maybe, but I would bet that even in the $pread venue, it’s difficult to say, “yes I’m a sex worker.” It’s so rare that claiming to be a sex worker is actually a good thing, and not an oh-shit-I-got-caught thing or some other source of shame.
At one point in the night some cigarette marketers came through, and as they were leaving, they told me, “This sure doesn’t look like a room full of hookers.” I smiled at them and replied, “Well, a lot of us are sex workers, not everyone here is a hooker.” They still looked puzzled and asked, “Well, how can you tell who is and who isn’t?” Indeed, that is the question.
Posted by Dacia at March 17, 2005 05:38 PM
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