One of the few habits I've been able to maintain in my life is trying to do as many of those little things a day as I can. I'd like to think it has some big chain-effect of goodness, but I really don't know. What I do know is that every time I do something nice for a stranger, I feel a little bit better about where…

I was all, "Make me cry, ya right"

^^Compatible women here, guaranteed.^^

Off topic: I was going to ask how you did that with your screen name (ie. not having one), but I suspect it's some top secret bit of cleverness. It's bugging me to an irrational degree that I can't figure it out! Begrudgingly, I admit I'm a little impressed. Harumph.

"I know you're all here to learn and shit, but the commenter was being totally dismissive and disrespectful to others."

I can see how that would suck. A lot.

I think it's too bad the direction parts of the discussion took — it probably made it a not terribly welcoming atmosphere for sex-workers to join in.

Likewise :)

I get the sense that in a lot of political races there's a 'front-wo/man', who never knows about the dirty tricks stuff, and then there's the team & party behind them. I assume it's done intentionally, to insulate the candidate and shield them from any criticism. I would guess that most candidates — unless they're re…

It's tricky here in Canada, because one of the main parties — and the oldest extant party — is the capital "L" Liberal party. Fiscally, they're relatively conservative, and socially they're pretty centrist (for Canada). Mostly, they're just 'establishment' — like any group that becomes accustomed to power (they were…

Yeah, reading back I seem to have gotten off your original point, which, if I understand correctly, was just a refutation of the idea that we can ever realistically avoid, as people, being commodified. And on that, I think I agree with you (operating on no sleep & lots of coffee at the moment, so it's hard to think…

In my exchanges with her she didn't seem like a troll at all, and I 'recommended' those posts (and only those posts) because she was engaging with me in meaningful dialogue. I don't know if those are the ones you mean, or if people were also recommending the other, more vitriolic posts.

"...just read this entire thread..."

"...disparity in the regular workforce [...] because women are valued sexually above all else"

I can't speak to sylphide's privilege, or claim to fully understand her argument (and the fault there, as far as I know, lies with my knowledge-base, and not her reasoning), but I think she raised some interesting points on the issue of consent in female sex-work.

Ah - when you said 'read Tits & Sass' I assumed it was a book. I'll definitely check it out, thanks! It's what I find to be the single most exciting thing about the Internet — the way it allows people who might otherwise be stigmatized, isolated, and oppressed to organize!

Thanks :) I hadn't been keeping up with the rest of the conversation, as I'd been busy thinking about & responding to your posts — I think maybe I was picking up on your anger from the other posts, which is why I got defensive (I don't mean telepathically or anything, I just mean the tone of your writing seemed to…

That was totally one of my starting points for thinking about this issue, and stripped of context I think you're right. I've sold my body, my health, my mind, and my passion to countless employers. But with regard to women's sex-work, I think you'd agree it's a far more complicated matter. Context is key.

Not to worry, I absolutely will do (and have done, to some extent) more research on my own. The first* thing that got me interested in the subject was hearing & reading a couple interviews with members of a sex-worker advocacy group in Montreal called Stella, and subsequently going to their website to learn more. I…

I always think education & engagement should be a major part of solving any problem. I'm not being flippant or dismissive when I say that I think it's massively important that we educate young girls and young boys about this stuff (not sex-work specifically, but gender issues in general). I guess my concern is that…