SexWork101.com Launches

Via Audacia Ray:

“Sex Work 101 was inspired by conversations that happened during the Women, Action and the Media 2008 conference held in Cambridge, MA from March 28-30, 2008.

I gave a talk at WAM called Sex Workers and Media Representation (link to see notes for the workshop), and questions during and after the talk made me realize that many people are curious about the sex industry and want to support sex workers in their struggle for rights, but they have no idea where to start. This site is an attempt to fill that gap in public education in an approachable, easy to understand, and engaging way – it’s also the first public education project from Sex Work Awareness, a new non-profit in NYC founded by four $pread staff members. Sex Work 101 is meant to add to public knowledge about sex work and to encourage discussion about the issues sex workers face.

Participate in Sex Work 101! I’m looking for questions non-sex working people want answered and their perceptions of/thoughts about the industry, as well as posts from sex workers who want to share stories about their work (a day in the life, how I got into the industry, reposts from personal blogs, etc)

The official email for the site is ask@sexwork101.com but people can also email me at dacia@wakingvixen.com. I’d also love to hear from people who want to help with the site – writing posts, answering questions, etc.

This project is meant as a public education supplement to Bound, Not Gagged and other sex worker advocacy sites – except on rare occasions, it won’t be used to cover news, it’s primarily meant as a very basic tool for people to dip their toes into the vast world of sex work. It’s meant as a way for sex workers to talk to the public and relate our experiences, not as a way for sex workers to build community and activism together (though it’ll be awesome if that’s a side effect of the project).”