Listen to the Sex Workers

To be a sex worker is to negotiate space.

For me, the negotiation began with the body. I use “the body” intentionally—the body, not my body. What aesthetics, what controversial or provocative debates, what syndromic meanings are placed on the sex worker’s body? Which of these meanings would I utilize to earn money versus which meanings would I try to deflect in order to reduce potential harm?

My own body came second, as I continually negotiated what body parts and sexual activities I would make available, or not.

Venue and environment also demanded ongoing negotiation. I moved from survival street work in Vancouver’s East Side to massage parlour work in Kitsilano, and from coyly worded advertisements in the Buy and Sell in the 1990s to explicit...