I am a twenty-four year old s*x worker living in NYC.

I have worked in this industry for almost two years. Here’s what I know:

1. We ALL sell our bodies in varying degrees when we work

2. Sex work is NOT ONLY work but ALSO goes beyond work

3. Sex work evolves constantly and looks like so many things

4. What you will read will be limited to MY experiences working in the industry

5. Sex work is ancient yet so disruptive to our current economy and political realties

6. For a “progressive” country, the US has little conversation or meaningful representation of sex work and the diverse array of people’s experiences

7. always wipe front to back

I am inviting you into this space because I have no answers for anything. And if you feel the same way, I find it is so hot that so many of us are confused. One of the reasons I am jumping in on this Substack trend is due to the frustrating lack of media representation of swers (sex workers). And I should clarify- I am a cis white female who was born in the United States, so parts of my identity are systemically overrepresented. However, I theorize that this generation has a unique relationship with sex work as opposed to other generations. This is all the more reason that sex worker representation needs to increase in proportion to its growth! For instance, we saw an explosion in the creator platform OnlyFans. Currently, OnlyFans has over 2 million content creators and is worth around 3 billion USD. That’s not to say that all creators are producing sexy content! And it is not to say OF is the ideal ethical platform for ppl in sex industry! It’s also not to say that harmful legislation did not affect this trend. It’s just something to chew on. What the pandemic did for lots of people is re-imagine how we spend our time and what we want work environments to look like. What work environments do we want to create for ourselves? (but honestly, how long are we going to be in denial about what we actually want, which is to not work at all!)

So I hope that by sharing my experiences, sex work could be destigmatized  to some degree and that more people in the industry will share their experience as well if they feel it’s beneficial for themselves. And let’s create community. I worked in isolation for awhile out of safety but also because I didn’t know anyone else doing what I was doing. Sex work can be a lonely lifestyle sometimes, and sharing my experience makes me feel to more connected.

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