Hello, I’m your anonymous local whore and I want to talk about whoring within patriarchal capitalist society, with full service sex work being the focus of the piece. 

I want to encapsulate sex worker visibility and dignity without glorifying reality. There are a few things I’m trying to avoid in writing this article that I find is a big drawing point for a lot of voyeuristic civ readers when talking about sex work. I won’t describe what the interior of an illegal brothel looks like, the services I offer, my personal clients, or recount in riveting detail my ‘worst’ client experience. I also want to avoid talking about rates. Civs are mystified by the price of sex and have ignorant opinions on it. If you’re that interested in a hooker’s rates, have your wallet in your hand. 

The general media either covers high-end escorts or homeless street workers and
exhaustingly compares us to victims of human trafficking. These people exist, but the narrative contributes to whorearchy and more misconception on what most sex workers look like.

With whoring being one of the ‘oldest’ and most accessible professions, there was a time where whoring was one of the few ways womxn could work. When trying to envision the whores of history, we might imagine anaemic ladies of the night weakly roaming the streets of colonial Europe or a room of lounging Ottoman concubines. Yet historically women being viewed as property in the context of marriage is not nearly as frowned upon as low-down-dirty prostitution. Royal or affluent families married (pimped out) their daughters as objects to seal a financial and political gain.There are a lot of famous ‘mistresses’ over history like Coco Chanel (fashion designer and Nazi) or Marilyn Monroe that no one wants to admit were prolific sex workers.

We see them as socialites that utilised themselves for opportunity. Courtesans and mistresses of the time were publicly criticised as promiscuous gold diggers, yet they’ve translated into idolised scandals. On the other hand general sex work is still considered too ugly to look in the eye. 

“The real crime is that those who consume sex work live happily in society, whereas those who actually perform sex work are stuck on the fringes and forced to bear the brunt of the shame.”
- (April, Sex Worker).  

I’m not saying these legends weren’t independent women for their time, but there’s hypocrisy in their acceptance. Everyone pretends they don’t see a transaction in these ‘arrangements’. They see philanthropy from a refined gentleman to a beautiful sugarbaby looking for opportunity and mentorship. A free spirited providing angel who lives under a capitalist man.  It’s the ‘Pretty Women’ rags to riches archetype. That wicked womxn needing support and guidance from men with Freudian
fatherly complexes. 

This narrative of SWers as charity cases helplessly falling into the ‘trap’ of sex work is what brought on the Nordic Model Approach that’s been worming its way into Parliament.  Labelling all FSSWers as victims is just a way misogynists and SWERFs police our bodies. 

“Evidence shows that the Nordic Model does nothing for the very groups it claims to protect. In the Republic of Ireland, violence against sex workers increased dramatically after similar legislation was introduced in 2017 (Northern Ireland implemented the law in 2015). According to Ugly Mugs Ireland, crimes against sex workers almost doubled in the two years following the introduction of the law.”
- (Decrim Now)  

Imagine sexworkers being their own property and having control over their own autonomy to create profit the same way they’ve done throughout history except without being indebted to a male presence. In a society where labour is what gives you value, sex workers are considered valueless because sex is not seen as labour. The art of seduction is not seen as a monetizable craft when society believes a man is entitled to it for ‘free’. 

Most sex workers I’ve encountered in the community consider themselves working class and/or
from working class backgrounds. You might’ve fictionalised SWers as luxury objects being dished out massive stacks as seen in The Wolf of Wall Street or Hustlers. A large portion of clients are working class as well and some SWers will price their services according to their market. We should all vouch that money has nothing to do with one’s value as a person. I have inflated my rate upon hearing my client is a banker the same way I have deflated my rate in clubs when a punter only has x amount of money in cash. I will say my encounters with hoarded wealth and the process of taking that back to spend within my community feels good. The universal attitude shared among hookers of ‘Fuck him! He’s rich. Take his money’ stems from the understanding of this country’s growing class divide.

Sex workers have been at the forefront of radical and working class movements. Many migrant, POC, and queer bodies who have been refused decent civ work and safe working environments found an income in sex work.  The first brick thrown at Stonewall was led by trans SWers Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Endesha Ida Mae Holland was a black civil rights activist and SWer in the grassroots voter registration in the 60s playing a role in voting equality in the U.S. So many faceless hookers, who have not been acknowledged by their own political/social movements, have stood on the picket lines of protests for public education, labor laws, and health care. They understood sex work was a way to survive while fighting. 

MPs salaries have skyrocketed to above £90,000, while wages have barely increased, food, rent, and heat skyrocketed, and the systems that were meant to protect us are killing us. In late stage capitalism, your craft isn’t priced, your time is waged. We are locked into our shifts and our unpaid overtime getting nothing after our expenses. We are on a hamster wheel with the promise of a small and smaller piece of cheese. Being in the sex industry, for a lot of us, can be claiming back all that time. The time and money to pursue dreams, make art, raise children, go to school, travel, volunteer, and support yourself alongside other jobs that are heavily underpaying you. 

Social and corporate hierarchical working environments do not budge for the disabled, neurodiverse and migrants/refugees. These machines tend to leave massive gaps in pay and accountability for the mistreatment for POC, trans, and women workers. SWERFs cry on about how the government could decriminalise a profession that’s so degrading. I don’t believe anyone who stands this point has ever worked as a waitress. I felt like more of a whore in a hat when I was choking down tears during my minimum wage 12 hour swing shift whilst subjected to handsy male customers and staff.  At least in my field I have the power to tell someone to promptly fuck off without getting fired. Working in hospitality is not by default degrading the same way sex work is not degrading without the degrader. In both cases workers should be better protected and compensated for their hard labour. 

Whilst many of us work in the shadows for the sake of our privacy and safety, I still pay taxes, and I am now even part of a sex worker’s union. The SWunion is a workers’ movement that is unionised with the Bakers Food & Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) and works alongside organisations like Decrim Now, SWARM, English Collective of Prostitutes, and other activist groups.  Due to the criminalisation and stigmatisation of sex work, other sex workers are often the only people we are able to rely upon for resources. “Our members have advanced the rights of sex workers in a multitude of ways. We’ve proved sex workers are due worker status in strip clubs, we’ve won compensation when workers’ content is stolen, we’ve fought against financial discrimination. Every time we win, it makes all sex workers’ access to labour rights and protections more secure, including my own” - (Representative for  Sex Workers Union). Our power is in numbers and I have found solace in the union’s mission to protect
one another.  

My whoring is a byproduct of the objectification and the degradation of working in a hostile society where waged legal work doesn’t get me close to anything anymore. I don’t want to participate in all the ways the capitalist class has hurt me. The bottom line is that as of right now, even with my ups and downs, I’m better off a whore than not a whore. I have also discovered I’m better at fucking than carrying drinks.

Since adjusting my main income to almost entirely be supported by sex work, it’s opened me up to a freer, but more complex way of life.  Not only is working in a black market economy hard, but living in the ‘shame’ of a criminalised profession is isolating.  I have been scammed, threatened, assaulted, exploited and there has been no decent legal infrastructure to actually protect me. When there’s no respect, or support in our government, unknowing FSSWers have turned to the governance of pimps for protection. In most cases calling the police isn’t even considered an option in emergencies for workers who are minorities.

“Politicians talk about sex work as violence against women, whilst ignoring that many sex workers are women who primarily suffer violence because of the laws surrounding sex work that they uphold.”
- (Representative of the Sex Workers Union) 

Being a sexworker alone can make people perceive you as a second-class citizen without the other various layers of systematic oppression. Sex work does not exist in a vacuum and communities suffer intersectionally under the overarching hatreds towards whores.

“The stigma that comes from criminalisation affects FSSW’s access to housing, other paid work, appropriate healthcare, and more. It creates a sense of fear in everyone who does this work and gives clients undue power  knowing that your family, work, or landlord finding out could be life-destroying.”
- (Representative from Decrim Now)

The continued criminalisation of sex work is the fear of being raped and not being able to report it directly to the police, and also, the general fear of the police. It’s a fear of deportation. It looks like an inability to cross borders when travelling. It’s banks terminating your account and landlords not accepting your housing applications. It looks like your social media and messaging platforms getting deleted. Payment platforms and banks freezing your account. There are no laws against being fired or refused work by future professions if they do find out you have a history in the sex industry. It looks like business dependent promotional platforms like Onlyfans and Twitter threatening censorship while profiting off content creators with no legal accountability from the financial jeopardy they put hundreds of thousands in. We are so tired of having a bad day of work blown up to be our rock-bottom while everyone else monkeys around this avalanche of bullshit.   

Not all SWers politicise their work as much as I do. I believe the act of whoring is politically radical and it shouldn’t be a crime to put bread on the table. I thrive in my community, and this underbelly counterculture is my idea of liberation.  Our visibility, our solidarity with one another, and our empowerment for our right to just work is such a big part of why I continue to do what I do.  I live modestly and work less as a personal choice. I don’t know wine, my heels are knockoffs, and I am not in the ‘high-end’ category of my work. I do love waking up and having my daytime hours free. I have the privilege to make money where money is due and not be contracted to stay in a place for hours a day. I go where I want when I want and my obligations are free flowing at my own accord

Most importantly, lately I feel happy, not had.