Natalie West & Tina Horn
We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival: Essays on Sex Work and Survival
This collection of narrative essays by sex workers presents a crystal-clear rejoinder: there's never been a better time to fight for justice. Responding to the resurgence of the #MeToo movement in 2017, sex workers from across the industry--hookers and prostitutes, strippers and dancers, porn stars, cam models, Dommes and subs alike--complicate narratives of sexual harassment and violence, and expand conversations often limited to normative workplaces.
Writing across topics such as homelessness, motherhood, and toxic masculinity, We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival gives voice to the fight for agency and accountability across sex industries. With contributions by leading voices in the movement such as Melissa Gira Grant, Ceyenne Doroshow, Audacia Ray, femi babylon, April Flores, and Yin Q, this anthology explores sex work as work, and sex workers as laboring subjects in need of respect--not rescue.
A portion of this book's net proceeds will be donated to SWOP Behind Bars (SBB).
Product Details
About the Author
Natalie West is a Los Angeles based writer and educator. She worked as a professional Dominatrix while obtaining her PhD in Gender Studies. Her personal essays have appeared in Salon, Autostraddle, Kink Academy, Columbia Journal, and them. She moonlights as a sex work, BDSM, and queer community authenticity consultant for film and television.
Tina Horn hosts and produces the long-running kink podcast Why Are People Into That?! She is also the creator and writer of the sci-fi comic book series SfSx (Safe Sex). Her reporting on sexual subcultures and politics has appeared in Rolling Stone, Hazlitt, Glamour, Jezebel, and elsewhere; she is the author of two nonfiction books and has contributed to numerous anthologies including the queer horror collection Theater of Terror and the feminist essay collection Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World. Horn has lectured on sex worker politics and queer BDSM identities at universities and community centers all over North America. She is a LAMBDA Literary Fellow, the recipient of two Feminist Porn Awards, and holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence. Originally from Northern California, she now lives in Brooklyn.
Reviews
"While mainstream media does not allow the space for a complex and nuanced portrait of sex work, because such coverage is often weaponized, this book is salvation. The writing is unfailingly keen, each piece individually capable of inducing radical empathy. This book and its fierce creators are ready to change the world." --Booklist
"We Too offers a sharp indictment of this world and a warm invitation to build another one. Against a #MeToo movement that represents some at a high cost to others, We Too places sex workers at the front lines of an anti-violence movement for the rest of us. We Too'svision knows the state is no ally, that freedom won't come without solidarity, and that real cultures of consent will come from the ground up." --Heather Berg, author of Porn Work: Sex, Labor, and Late Capitalism
"The Me Too movement, started by Tarana Burke, was formed to fight for the working class, often left vulnerable to sexual violence with little to no justice. This anthology, We Too, examines that sexual violence and labor with a lens that looks specifically at how sex workers experience and witness it. Documenting personal accounts of sexual violence in the workplace, We Too can be a hard pill to swallow but presents a path toward healing from and combating rape culture from people who have survived on the front lines. This anthology brilliantly showcases the billowing voice of the sex worker community and how it supports and should be supported by feminist movements like Me Too." --Courtney Trouble, founder of NoFauxxx.com