9 Responses to “sex work is the new black”

1. Ian Thomas Healy Says:
   
   January 17th, 2008 at 7:15 pm

   Well, I think you and other writers like you (meaning with a similar background) are the pioneers of this next “Civil Rights” movement, and you’re doing the right thing – getting the word out there through this blog, through your book, and your other efforts. It may take a long time, but I bet you will eventually find mainstream acceptance.

   Best of luck!

   Ian

   
   
2. JW Says:
   
   January 17th, 2008 at 7:15 pm

   I’m confused. Isn’t “fulfillment” where the order is filled and shipped? Is it harder than that?

   
   
3. Thais Says:
   
   January 18th, 2008 at 5:41 am

   I don’t think it’s a “new” black because there is nothing new about.
   First women got the right to vote and work. Then came the end of black segregation. But we still have racism and gender inequalities, decades and even a century later.
   Now we have gays and polyamory beginning to be openly accepted. Hopefully, sex work may be next.

   But the key word I am afraid is ‘beginning’ not ‘accepted’. It’s going to be a long struggle. I suggest we look at what’s already been achieved and draw strength from it: communications between sex workers all over the world, sex work rights movement, conferences. Who could have imagined any of that 20 years ago?

   
   
4. Amanda Brooks Says:
   
   January 18th, 2008 at 9:52 am

   Ian,

   Thank you. You get it.

   JW,

   Yes, fulfillment is simply warehousing stock and fulfilling orders. Some places also offer credit card processing and an online shopping cart (or their own online catalog for sales processing). That’s pretty much it. (I don’t have a merchant account and so wanted a more complete package of fulfillment services.)

   Thais,

   No, it’s not new, but it is one of the few “acceptable” prejudices to have in America (and the whole world, really). Plus, it made a catchy title, IMO.

   There has been a lot of progress but that it’s still okay to consider sex workers as inhuman is highly offensive to me. Gays were generally seen as freaks or sickos — but still mostly human. Other alternatives sexualities are still often seen as abnormal — but identifiably human.

   The Internet has made a huge difference in sex workers communicating with each other. To be frank, I don’t expect to see the changes I want in my lifetime. But I do hope to at least see sex workers accepted as humans, however “wrong” or “immoral” they may be.

   I do a news blog for SWOP-East and every day in my Google Alerts I see comments (after blog posts and news articles) where the commenter doesn’t even see the sex worker as human. Chilling comments. The prevailing attitudes are awful. For whatever reason, sex workers are unwitting symbols of a deep hatred for sexual women. Changing that attitude first will change everything else. Unfortunately, that attitude is still perfectly socially acceptable. Maybe that’s the real problem.

   XX

   
   
5. Being Amber Rhea » Blog Archive » links for 2008-01-18 Says:
   
   January 18th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

   [...] sex work is the new black – After Hours| random discourse from a retired escort Amanda takes the publishing industry – and really, all of society – to task in this post. It is made of WIN. (tags: sexwork hypocrisy assholes society publishing books prejudice bigotry) [...]

   
   
6. Thais Says:
   
   January 19th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

   Amanda, that was illuminating.
   I am simply not exposed to general public view as much… Although I have seen quite a number of comments on different blogs that expose that mentality, I kept thinking those were just occasional idiots.

   
   
7. Amanda Brooks Says:
   
   January 20th, 2008 at 7:04 am

   Thais,

   I don’t think the problem is isolated. But for whatever reason it doesn’t make me pessimistic — maybe because I know better than to believe those comments? It does sadden me though.

   XX

   
   
8. Hobbyist Says:
   
   October 10th, 2010 at 11:42 am

   I think that race is a valid analogy. There’s so many ways that a majority keeps a minority silenced. One particularly perverted side-effect of (ost)racism is the self-loathing present in most sub-groups I’ve looked at (non-whites, gays, sexual deviants, etc.).

   On the one hand you have the in-your-face, militant ones who climb on the barricades, and on the other those who (more or less secretly) would like nothing more than assimilation into the mainstream, and internalize as truth the prejudices displayed by the majority.

   When a handjob pro claims that she’s not a sex worker because she doesn’t do THIS or THAT particular (dirty) act, or a former escort feels violated, victimized, and crippled by guilt over an activity that she once chose willingly… I’m reminded of blacks who bleach their skin and shun darker brothers, Asians who have their eyes re-cut, and gays who torture themselves living the straight lifestyle married to the other sex.
   Denial is a powerful force.

   This is the first sex worker blog I read that is completely devoid of justification, commiseration, delusion, and above all, condemnation of others of a perceived lower status to feel better about oneself. It is what it is, “not that there’s anything wrong with that!”. I love it.

   Now, that the sex worker “stigma” would scare publishers is absolutely baffling to me.

   
   
9. Amanda Brooks Says:
   
   October 11th, 2010 at 5:19 pm

   Hobbyist,

   You said it. You truly captured it in a nutshell. So many of the problems sex workers face is indeed because they have internalized the stigma. They just don’t realize it.

   Oh, I’m deluded. Just ask anybody

   Publishers are a spineless lot. At least, IMO.

   XX