by Furry Girl
10.27.11
Throughout my life, I've often felt like I'm in the middle. (Which is a positive way of phrasing that I don't fit in well anywhere.) I have too many fiscally-conservative views to be a proper leftist, but I'm not cheering for the uninsured to be left to die like some libertarians. While I have an unshaved crotch and don't have a mainstream LA porn appearance, I lack the tattoos and rainbow hair to demonstrate that I'm "smarter than your average porn star," as one popular alternaporn site marketed its collection. I also don't mesh perfectly with the American subculture of "empowered" sex workers, whatever that's supposed to mean.
There's this profile tacitly promoted by current sex workers' rights activism of how exactly one should look and behave if they are truly empowered: it's a movement for punks and anarchists, for feminists, for people devoted to deconstructing gender, for people with liberal arts degrees, for sex radicals and kinksters, for Pagans, for artists, and most importantly, for people who don't fit mainstream beauty standards. In short, the typical person drawn to ho activism is the typical person drawn to any sort of activism: one who constructs their identity around to how they are not like the rest of society. As a person who straddles the weird/normal border, I don't always feel like I fit in with American sex workers' rights activists, so I can only imagine what it's like for someone whose only "non-normal" trait is their occupation. I have no solution to the problem of the over-representation of "lifestyle outsiders" other than to do my best to encourage more typical sex workers to step up and claim their stake in their own movement.
Inspired by Annie Sprinkle's Anatomy of a Pin-Up, I thought I'd make an Anatomy of an Empowered Sex Worker.
Do you have what it takes to be empowered?
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Furry Girl: a good time not yet had by all.
Activism
- I operate SWAAY.org, an accessible sex workers' rights site that educates the general public about our lives and our issues.
- I've been vegan for 13 years because it's the easiest way for an individual to contribute to less violence, suffering, and exploitation.
My adult sites
- Cocksexual.com: Strapons
- EroticRed.com: Menstruation
- FurryGirl.com: Unshaved
- TheSensualVegan.com: Store
- VegPorn.com: Herbivores
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New to my blog? Some favorite posts
- "You have no right to dislike feminism after all it's done for you!"
- "You misrepresent true feminism by focusing on the bad feminists. They're not real feminists anyway!"
- An argument for more sex workers to be out?
- Degrading, violent desires
- Do you have what it takes to be an empowered sex worker?
- Feminism is the shitty relationship you had in your early 20s
- Feminist porn isn't a branch of sex workers' rights, it's an obstacle
- How are we branding sex workers rights in the US? (Let's focus more on *worker*, less on *sex*!)
- How to do your homework on trafficking, "rescue", and the affected communities
- Let's stop pretending that "objectification" is a thing that exists
- Musings on ethical porn and the red herrings of "feminist porn" and "violent porn"
- My call for a "working" class uprising against inaccessible discourse and the over-representation of dabblers
- Sex trafficking is the new crack: manufactured "epidemics" as political tools
- The common logical fallacies deployed by anti-sex worker activists
- Things I've gained from being a sex worker: an anti-paternalistic perspective
- Vigilantism and 'crushing bastards': in praise of anger, hatred, and taking joy in the smiting of one's enemies
- Want to play BINGO with the antis?
- Watch out for psuedoscience: my long-time nemeses of concern trolling and "teaching the controversy"
- What do I mean when I say "sex worker"? Why I'm against an overly-broad definition
- Why I call them "anti-sex worker" rather than "anti-porn" or "anti-prostitution," and why you should too
Favorite sex/ho blogs
- Amanda Brooks
- Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers
- Belle de Jour
- Born Whore
- Bound, Not Gagged
- Dan Savage on SLOG
- Danny Wylde
- Jiz Lee
- Kat's Stories
- Laura Agustín
- Lux Nightmare [2006-2007]
- Maggie McNeill
- Our Porn, Ourselves
- Sequoia Redd
- Serpent Libertine
- Sex Worker Pie Charts
- Sexonomics by Brooke Magnanti
- Shit They Say to Sex Workers
- Stuff Sex Workers Eat
- Whore Madonna
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This is hilarious and i love it. I've noticed this anatomy of whatever theme in every stereotype group there is, and it's great to see someone actively mocking this conformity amoungst the non conformists. Almost every goth and emo kid at my school always went on about how the popular girls all look the same they are so unoriginal blah blah, but if you put a bunch of emos or goths together you can't tell them apart either. I think its a great example of how nothing anymore is truly original or different :)
Comment by Chantelle — October 27, 2011 @ 6:48 pm
-20 cred points for the tan!! (this was hilarious)
Comment by Devin — October 28, 2011 @ 1:03 pm
Hah, lovely.
We all just don't fit nicely into little boxes. One of the things I ran into again and again was that I didn't fit in with the "Sex-positive, pro-sex worker activists" because I was a working sex-worker. I wasn't some academic, interested in theory, or some hipster, interested in being trendy. I was interested in safety, making my money, and not getting busted. day to day stuff. I've never read anything by Che Guverea (damn, can't even spell his name.)
Comment by Comixchik — October 29, 2011 @ 8:22 am
I enjoy your blog,I really do.
However reading youre not "a proper leftist" is shocking.
Maybe it is still worthwile to organise some more selfeducation.
My suggestion would be to go on a sebatical to study life in any european country of your choice, preferably Belgium, Holland or Sweden.
Comment by jan — October 30, 2011 @ 10:09 am
Lol, I think I tick all the boxes except the feminist poetry and the glasses.
Comment by Thierry Schaffauser — November 4, 2011 @ 11:21 am
I tick some of the boxes, but I definitely don't get all the empowered ho "points." (And I don't think many people even read Che nowadays, but his visage still made for a quick representation of what American left-wing activists like.)
Comment by Furry Girl — November 8, 2011 @ 3:01 pm