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.

A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers.

$900k: Amount awarded to a woman in Oregon after suing her partner for lying about condom use and giving her a case of genital herpes

$29: Cost of a 50 Shades of Grey book-and-bondage set at Babeland in NYC

1: Number of “love days” allotted to Germany’s national soccer team players during this month’s Euro 2012 competition, a non-practice day in which players are allowed to spend time with their wives and partners

7: Years between Wade Davis’ retirement from the NFL and his coming out

4: Years a group of translators spent checking IKEA product names for sexual innuendo before the furniture chain opened a store in Bangkok

6: Countries that have reported cases of newly drug-resistant gonorrhea in the last few years

2006: Year Sister Margaret Farley’s Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics was published; it was condemned by the Vatican this week as causing “grave harm” to readers for discussing masturbation and homosexuality in a positive light

16: Age of Aparna Bhola, a teenage sex educator who works with former sex workers in Mumbai

The post Sex by Numbers: An Ounce of Prevention appeared first on EcoSalon.

A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers.

It’s nice to know that in a rapidly-evolving world, people are always happy to write predictions about the future market for sex robots. Some things do not change, and never should.

61 to 39: Margin by which the decision not to change the United Methodist Church oppositional stance toward gays, lesbians and the transgendered passed at last week’s Tampa convention

2050: Year in which Futures magazine predicts that human sex workers will have been largely replaced by robotic ones

$8000: Approximate retail value of a sex robot (named “US Roxxxy”) available today

13%: Increase in contraception use among sexually active girls between the ages of 15-19 since 1995

Four: Number of the “world’s most eligible bachelors” that will be featured on Fox’s new celebrity dating show, “The Choice”

2: Number of President Obama’s ex-girlfriends whose lives and love letters are excerpted in David Maraniss’ upcoming biography

14,258: Number of “nontraditional” Mother’s Day cards on offer from Greeting Card Universe, including cards for My Two Moms, Like a Mother to Me, Mr. Mom, and From the Pet (Fur baby)

6: Hours a day that concealed speakers play “swallow courtship songs” in the San Juan Capistrano mission in an attempt to bring back flocks of the migrating birds

Image: Eric_I_E

The post Sex by Numbers: Bring on the Sexbots appeared first on EcoSalon.

A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers.

It’s a great week for attractive opportunists looking to make a little money off the internet. Whether you’re looking to become a globetrotting escort or just sexually harass Tim Tebow. Just make sure you give Egypt a miss on your world tour for now (it’ll make sense below, we promise).

5: U.S. Embassy employees currently facing a lawsuit for allegedly running over a Brazilian sex worker after a financial dispute

83: age of the woman whose cadaver was used in a recent Polish medical study claiming to have discovered the G-spot

$1 million: amount AshleyMadison.com is offering to any woman who can prove she has bedded virginal football player Tim Tebow

343: participants in the world’s largest speed dating event, held over a two-and-a-half hour period at the University of South Florida

55: number of participants who dropped out during the event

100% free: Price of a membership at MissTravel.com for “attractive men and women,” which pairs “Attractive” travelers with “Generous” ones

12 inches: “approximate” length of a pink sex toy a New York woman used to assault a police officer trying to resolve a domestic disturbance complaint

28%: growth in interracial marriages between 2000 and 2010, according to a recently published study of Census data

6: hours after death it would remain legal for a man to sleep with his deceased wife, according to a proposed Egyptian bill known as the “Farewell Intercourse” law

Image: Linh.m.Do

The post Sex by Numbers: A Last Hurrah appeared first on EcoSalon.

A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers.

Maybe it’s been a rough week for you. Maybe your dating spreadsheet wound up on the Internet and you had to give up your Match.com profile. Maybe you were discriminated against by the casting director for The Bachelor. Well, cheer up, because it’s time for Sex by Numbers to remind you that it can always get worse.

5: years an Australian woman’s worker’s compensation case for injuries suffered during sex while on a work-related trip has been tied up in court

3: number of Secret Service employees leaving their positions after an encounter with Colombian escorts during a presidential visit to Cartagena

192 million: number of condoms New York health officials have distributed since 2007

3 years: age of a relationship when a couple with young children is likeliest to split up

51: New York sex workers who reported having their condoms confiscated or destroyed during interactions with police

26: number of people arrested last year for public sex in a nine-day sting of a Wisconsin nude beach

1: vegan-only sex shops operating in Berlin

Image: Moaksey

The post Sex by Numbers: Legal Troubles appeared first on EcoSalon.