Not all women and men who chose to make a life by doing sex work did so because they had no other options (or were forced into the work). Many people opt to work in the sex industry because they like the work and are exceptionally great business people.

I listened to Bitch’s “Sex Work is Work” Popaganda podcast while running on a treadmill at my gym last week. You may think, “hmm, that’s an odd choice to take one’s mind off running,” but you would be wrong. It was a refreshing episode… really.

I’m so used to hearing about the moral side of sex work. People looking from the outside-in tend to only examine if the work is good or bad for the sex worker. And Bitch took the sex work conversation to another level entirely. The feminist news magazine went into great depth about how people in the sex industry manage their business. Yes, even super hot sex workers have to report their earnings to the government. They also have to drum up business and have a company strategy.

Bitch explored all these ordinary workings that sex workers have to deal with by interviewing three people who are immersed in the field: Mistress Matisse, Seattle dominatrix and writer, Melissa Gira Grant, author of “Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work” and journalist, and Emi Koyama, activist. Matisse discussed how she does her taxes, Grant explained the complex labor perspectives that come with sex work, and Koyama gave great insight on the social and legal realities of sex work.

The 50 minute podcast was interesting and insightful. I also cracked up a few times during Matisse’s interview because the every day realities of her work (trying not to disturb the neighbors, filing taxes, etc.) were so epically normal. (And Matisse is fun-ny… and smart.)

Catch the full podcast here.

Have you ever mused about the actual work-side of sex work? If you’ve done any research about it, leave a response in the comment section!

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The post Sex Work Isn’t All Sex: It’s Also Taxes appeared first on EcoSalon.

Internet trolls are terrible. The. Absolute. Worst. While, typically, trolls use words to get under unsuspecting readers’ skin, recently, over at Jezebel, these Internet scum spreaders upped their game with rape gifs.

According to Jezebel staff, a person, (or possibly multiple people), has been posting violent rape gifs on the site’s comment section for the past few months. (The problem is due to a Kinja feature. Kinja is Jezebel’s site’s publishing platform.) Jezebel writers and editors reported the problem multiple times, asking the “big brass” at its parent website, Gawker, to stop the harassment, but for the most part, complaints were ignored.

According to the site, when the issue was brought up in a staff meeting, Jezebel was told that no major plans were in the works to make the problem go away.

On August 11, Jezebel made a bold move and posted an open letter on its website addressed to Gawker Media. Luckily, within a few days, the post got Gawker’s’ attention. The company is now working on a real solution that should eliminate the problem once and for all.

This story is intriguing for a few reasons: First, it shows that a seemingly forward-thinking media company had to be publicly called out before it took Jezebel staffers’ requests seriously.

Second, the images that were appearing in Jezebel’s comment section weren’t annoying – they were disgusting and would disturb most any reader — male or female. Many Jezebel readers, such as myself, go to the site to get light and funny dish on feminist news and issues. We also visit Jezebel to be part of a community that rallies against companies and people who ignore tragic acts, such as rape and assault.

It’s downright shameful that Gawker didn’t initially take care of Jezebel’s “rape gifs problem.” And, as Jezebel’s open letter points out, if this type of thing happened at any other work place, the site’s writers would have posted about the issue: We’d “cite it as another example of employers failing to take the safety of its female employees seriously.”

Finally, this story also shows that women, and in this case, all people, really, are subjected to horrible types of harassment in various forms every day. Most women have to deal with street harassment when they walk outside. And many women are subjected to other types of harassment while out at a bar, or at work, even at home. Now, sadly, women have to deal with Internet trolls telling them how ugly they are, or that their opinions are worthless. What’s worse is how that harassment has spilled over to a website that strives to support women and feminism.

Luckily, Jezebel’s staff’s letter worked and no one at the company got fired for airing Gawker’s dirty laundry. But this wouldn’t be the case at every company. And that’s why we can’t stop having this conversation. The only way to stop the harassment is to listen to and read stories, such as Jezebel’s story, and to continue having conversations about harassment.

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Image: Cali4beach

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