Sex Work Awareness

Yet another reason to help us support Sex Work Awareness

Elizabeth — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:40:32 -0800

Sex Work Awareness helps sex workers and their allies challenge the way that the mainstream media outlets and prohibitionist writers tell their stories and report on the issues that most directly affect them. Here is a very recent example:

In reaction to the ABC News Ashely Dupre Exclusive Megan at Jezebel wrote this piece applauding recent changes to prostitution law in the UK that will criminalize the buying of sexual services and increase reliance on shaming techniques to try to inhibit demand for prostitution thus increasing the stigma attached to sex work. The new rules troublingly conflate trafficking with prostitution and make it less likely that clients will report suspicions that a worker has been trafficked. The Jezebel piece is full of assumptions about prostitutes, and these are the same assumptions - often fueled by methodologically problematic and heavily biased research - that are used to justify policy changes whose unintended consequences are likely to make things more dangerous, not less dangerous, for women.

Organizations like Sex Work Awareness help sex workers be heard more often, in more places, and with more impact. We need those voices desperately. Help us support Sex Work Awareness by making a $20 donation, for which you will receive our lovely NYC Sex Blogger Calendar. (I'm December -->)

Your entire donation goes directly to SWA because of the generous sponsors who covered the entire cost of producing the calendar.

NYC Sex Bloggers Calendar - $20 (US)

NYC Sex Bloggers Calendar - $20 (Canada)

NYC Sex Bloggers Calendar - $20 (Overseas)

All calendar photos by Stacie Joy .

Sex Blogger Calendar Officially Launched!

Elizabeth — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:17:03 -0800

And support Sex Work Awareness with your purchase!

It's official: The 2009 Sex Blogger Calendar has officially launched! And if success can be measured by crowd size, we had a spectacularly successful launch party on Friday. And I understand that in just a few hours we raised nearly $2000 for Sex Work Awareness.

My only regret about the party? So many wonderful people and not nearly enough time -- or space! -- to talk to so many of them. I especially regret that, while I was called to join in a group photo with Candida Royale - a woman whose work I have admired for years - that I never had a chance to say more than a brief hello. In addition to being a pioneer in woman-produced porn, Candida and her companies, Femme Productions and Natural Contours, helped sponsor the calendar. And I don't think I even said "thank you" in person! How did I let that happen?!? Click here to read more about the party, the sponsors and the calendar.

Pin-up Bloggers!

Elizabeth — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:44:06 -0700

A dozen of your favorite New York City sex bloggers and sex educators are joining together to support Sex Work Awareness, a non-profit whose mission statement says it all:

We believe that all sex workers have a right to self-determination; to choose how we make a living and what we do with our bodies.

We aim to empower our diverse community by building the capacity of sex worker-serving and sex worker member-based institutions as well as the skills and resources of sex workers themselves.

We also conduct research about sex workers and the sex industry in order to better understand it, develop public education initiatives, and advocate for the rights of sex workers.

The theme is burlesque. The poses will be sexy. And who will be posing? Take a look, below the fold!

Sex Work 101

Elizabeth — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:08:23 -0700

a public education project from Sex Work Awareness

More intelligent talk on sex work...

Elizabeth — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:40:58 -0700

Thursday night I was at a reception in honor of the launch of a new nonprofit organization called "Sex Work Awareness." Formed by the amazing folks at $pread Magazine, SWANK, and PONY it promises to make truly important contributions to sex work advocacy, research and community organizing. I think they're definitely an organization to watch!

And tomorrow I'll be on a panel at the Left Forum with one of Sex Work Awareness's founders, the seemingly indefatigable Audacia Ray. Also on the panel are some other sex worker advocates I admire deeply: Ignacio Rivera and Amber Hollibaugh also of Queers for Economic Justice and the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, and Antonia Levy from the Graduate Center at CUNY. Here's the panel info: