Body Sellers
by Rainn Jackson
Sex work has a complicated history; some view it as liberating while others view it as exploitive. However, some would argue that all types of work under capitalism are exploitive. All workers go to work and sell their bodies and labor for a certain amount of time each day for a wage which the owner will take a percentage of. Some online sex workers would argue that sex work gives people the freedom to work on their own time and keep all of their profit. Those who do sex work in person sometimes have no other way to make money, therefore making it more exploitive. Sex work is also often used as a way for queer people, especially trans people to escape oppression in the workplace. In many states in the U.S., it is still legal to be fired for being gay or trans and many queer people are harassed by coworkers or bosses. There is a stigma around sex work and there are issues such legality in certain countries, as well as abuse which is difficult to avoid for in person sex workers. In this book, you will find interviews with sex workers who have also worked for a wage who discuss how sex work has been different than wage labor.
Body $ellers
Rainn: If you’ve worked for a wage how is it different than the sex work that you do? @GoddexJae (they/them): I’m actually doing both right now. Working for a wage is way different, you’re running on someone else’s schedule and there’s not a lot of forgiveness for things like mental health impacting your work very often. You also often can’t shun abusive customers, or you could lose your job, which is super damaging to someone’s health and motivation. Meanwhile, sex work has made me feel more in control of myself, what I do and when I do it is all up to me. Yeah that makes it harder in terms of being required to self motivate, but in return I get to look however I want, dress however I want, and create things that not only make me money, but also that are creative endeavors I find genuinely fun. Plus with an AMAZING community and something to do all the time, I’m never bored. And when you have ADHD that’s a big issue. But mostly, sex work is a more safe and friendly environment for me, due to the fact that I get to limit my own sensory input to what I know works and not have to muscle through whatever they have at work that sucks. I get to stand firm in my right to be treated well because I’m my own boss, unlike many times I’ve had to smile and actually apologize to customers who were just verbally and emotionally abusive because they wanted something I couldn’t give them. I feel safer in my own ability to handle things because of sex work and it’s helped me reclaim my body in ways that working for a wage made me feel like was impossible but important. Now I know how much I’m worth. And it is way more than minimum wage.
Rainn: Some of my friends who are queer sex workers feel the need to present as femme in order to get more attention from clients. Do you feel pressure to present yourself a certain way? @GoddexJae: Absolutely. I did present as cis female for a while but I hated it. Every second I felt like a fraud. Brought back bad memories too when I’d be called feminine words and pronouns. But I got more customers then too. I’m still trying to work out what my niche is. Because there is a market for people like me, it’s just harder to find.
“Sex work has made me feel more in control of myself; what I do and when I do it is all up to me.�
Rainn: If you’ve worked for a wage, how is that different from sex work? @SolitairePrest: There’s no intimacy involved in a day job and the money is poor as are the conditions and terms involved. Rainn: What kind of wage job/jobs have you worked? @SolitairePrest: I was a financial analyst for a banking organization. Rainn: So do you feel like you have more freedom and make more money doing sex work? @SolitairePrest: When i worked at the bank it was on someone else’s terms and was enriching someone else. I had no freedom. This has allowed me to semi retire. I am only 35 years old. If i had carried on then i would have not been able to do this. The money at the bank was good but not as good as what I make now.
Rainn: Can you tell me about your experience doing sex work? Anonymous: I started a little after around the time I became homeless. I was sleeping outside, when an older person drove up to me and asked if I was hungry and wanted a job. I didn’t really have much of a choice, and he seemed nice enough. The jobs seemed simple enough at first, bring this person food/drugs, do menial tasks at another person’s house. Eventually people started wanting more from me, and I realized it was expected of me to do what I was asked. Generally speaking, people were asked for by name. Though I was 14, I looked much older, which worked to my disadvantage. If I didn’t do what they wanted, best case scenario would mean I was homeless and starving again. More likely scenario would be being beaten or worse. I did what I had to in order to survive. It’s only comparable to wage labor in the since that you do it in exchange for the resources you need to stay alive. No wage job ever forced me to do drugs to stay docile and unable to resist. I’ve never been locked in the basement of a customer for 72 hours when working at Taco Bell. Rainn: Did you feel that you were selling your body in either situation? Anonymous: You sell your body in some way for pretty much every job. This differentiates itself in some ways because of the direct impact of what it does to you, even when you’re done “working” for the day. In an ideal work day, most wage jobs won’t result in any differences in your body. For this, your body becoming dirty, scarred, and for some people even diseased was the job itself.
Rainn: Yeah for sure. No one should have to go through that. Do you think it would help for sex work to be legalized so that sex workers would be able to report abuse without repercussions? Anonymous: I think the issue of legalization can be more complicated than “whole legalization versus complete illegality.” Of course, the victims of sex work shouldn’t be illegalized, but the issues of the sex industry are deeper than labor regulations. If there was ever going to be an “ethical sex industry” it couldn’t be just the current one with more government oversight. The current one would have to die and a new one built from scratch. Imagine slave plantations after the civil war had ended. What if the slaves continued to work for the former masters, but just rephrased their relations as boss-employee instead of master-slave? Power dynamics, personal relationships, and the in place structures of dependency like this don’t just melt away because of some law being passed. Rainn: Yeah I completely agree. I think it’s a societal problem with people feeling entitled to others’ bodies. Anonymous: Furthermore, the issues aren’t solely with the people in charge. The people that pursue sex workers do so because of their vulnerability. Assuming government insight could prevent abuses of sex workers by clients; the industry would shrink tremendously. Government oversight wouldn’t result in sex workers becoming regular, legal wage laborers; they overwhelmingly would just become underground, unregulated sex workers with the same systems of exploitation intact.
Rainn: That makes sense, Do you think sex work can still be beneficial for some sex workers under certain conditions? Anonymous: In the sense that the alternative is starvation and homeless, maybe. Mostly for the camgirl types who are effectively the gig economy equivalent of a sex worker. There’s a world of difference between high-class escorts and camgirls versus the majority of global sex workers that have little say or empowerment in the matter. Maybe these new sex workers are contributing to building a new sex industry without the exploitation of the one I was a part of. I’m not sure. I have a few issues with these privileged sex workers, for whom it is more of a choice, being the loudest voice for sex workers in terms of calls for legislation. Rainn: Can you elaborate on why you take issue with that? Anonymous: Because they don’t have the same experiences and they’re only applying their experiences to what they think should be legislated. I don’t think just federally legalizing sex work would solve the issues of the sex industry for the reasons I mentioned previously. People like those famous expensive escort for millionaires or camgirls are almost exclusively concerned with legalization based issues because that’s what affects them the most. Yeah, allowing sex workers to speak about abuse and exploitation without fear of being arrested is good; but talking about the horrifically abusive, full of literal human trafficking sex industry as though it’s “empowering” is whitewashing deeply rooted issues
that will never be addressed if they’re ignored to advertise the fantasy life of a fun camgirl living her dreams off of horny dudes throwing money at her or high class escorts having exciting affairs with millionaires. A majority of sex workers aren’t having a good time. They don’t have a choice.
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