The Honest Courtesan

What do you do when a nasty case of hating your fellow human being’s life and/or career choices breaks out?  I’ll talk about the latest information on identifying Whorephobia, including symptoms, treatments, and even prevention.  Together, we can eradicate whorephobia in our lifetime.

What is Whorephobia?

“Fear of whores”. That fear can manifest in various forms, including social and political rejection of a fellow, otherwise harmless human being, negative projection of one’s own life experiences onto another person’s (typically the Whore in question) experiences, and in severe cases, frothing at the mouth via Internet-based rants and feverishly campaigning for extreme punishment and prohibition of Whores and Whore-adjacent peoples, places, and objects.

Symptoms of Whorephobia

Overall, whorephobia is a collection of various bigotries, prejudices, and misunderstandings that spread between the heart and the brain.

Whorephobia of the heart usually presents as emotional appeals to support criminalization of whores and their trade by highlighting outliers of exploitation and degradation and portraying it as standard.  The afflicted solely regard female sex workers as victims, with their self-worth expressed only through their sexual activity.  This infection then spreads to the brain, which ceases to function with logic and reason, demonstrated by the fact that most of the afflicted will then suggest forces previously identified (by the afflicted) victims be forcibly entered into the criminal justice system… For their own good and/or For The Children, regardless of whether or not children are involved in any way, shape, or form in persecutions of individual whores.  Even when trafficked children are involved, jail/incarceration will be presented as a positive; when children of whores are involved, being removed from their mother’s presence is also presented as a positive, regardless of her parenting ability.

The symptoms of Whorephobia of the heart also include such nervous ticks as Bible-thumping, informing whores about their own lives to the amused disgust of the whores themselves, leaving angry and hateful replies on individual whores’ blogs, leaving “but I’m just concerned about you so that’s why I’m recommending that you be properly reigned in…with non-sexy cuffs” replies on individual whores’ blogs, genuinely well-meaning but horribly misguided lecturing on morals/ethics/the soul/etc, Punditing in the New York Times, quoting Kate Millet, Melissa Farley, Gail Dines, Gloria Steinem, Kat Banyard or, especially in cases concerning transgender persons in or out of sex work, Julie Burchill, Suzanne Moore, and Julie Bindel; celebrity cases are found posing in pictures with Somaly Mam or associating with highly suspect organizations more interested in PR and photo ops than any positive, meaningful work.

Random Punditing about sex work, while a moderate symptom, can worsen with time, fame, and delusions of grandeur.  If you or any casual observer notices a swelling of your head, consult your nearest professional whore  immediately to dispel any notions of why your half-congealed ideas probably have no bearing on hers/his/x’s reality.

Whorephobia of the brain often affects those who, while possibly well-meaning, will nonetheless support their local law enforcement agencies prosecution of sex work, sex workers, and their clients.  Their symptoms usually include a shrugging of their shoulders and a reedy-voiced statement of, “it’s wrong because it is against the law” and or accepting nonsensical numbers regarding trafficking out of hand to appear as an informed citizen.  The afflicted can often be talked into taking large doses of Reality™, which includes active ingredients such as reminding the afflicted, “remember when being gay/interracially married/non-Christian/divorced/getting an abortion/associating with the wrong political party, etc. was against the law too?” and “you support decriminalizing drugs, which many people consider to be just as dangerous as sex work, so wtf?” and “sexual liberation of women must start with supporting sex workers”.  Also included in this group are people who are concerned with exploitation in labour as a whole but, not understanding how much control a Whore has over the transaction and how much more she could obtain if certain laws were removed or relaxed that prevent such a possibility, assume that she (still, always a she) is but another exploited body.

Other afflicted persons with Whorephobia of the brain include malicious people who profit greatly from widespread outbreaks of Whorephobia.  The afflicted include, but are in no way limited to:  district/states attorneys, politicians, rapists, law enforcement agents, thieves, unscrupulous “journalists”, and real and not-imagined traffickers/pimps.  Please note, a single afflicted can be many of those aforementioned personages and so extreme caution must be used in their presence when attempting to administer Reality™.  Such cases will need intravenous doses of Reality™ several times a week and a complete removal of financial incentive to keep their ethics and morality in a constant state of infirmity.

Extremely severe cases will require physical therapy.  No, not that kind.

Causes of Whorephobia

Generally, the causes of Whorephobia are being unintentionally or willfully ignorant of the reality of whores or only acknowledging the extremes of what you consider whoredom.  Second-hand knowledge gained from sources that continuously tell you that whores themselves cannot be trusted with an honest account of their own lives should be avoided like the plague.  A nasty, ratty, ignorant plague.  Common vectors are feminism, religion, sensationalist media, liberalism, and conservatism.  If you are interacting with one of these common vectors but are only showing mild symptoms of Whorephobia (the occasional abashed giggle at “dead whore” jokes, for example), please consult a professional right away.  We don’t bite, unless you’re into that.

Treatment of Whorephobia

There is a cure!  Truly, we live in a fabulous age.  Social media has allowed us to connect to people we might otherwise have passed our entire lives without knowing.  Use it wisely.  Blogs, Twitter accounts, Tumblrs, podcasts, and many other platforms are used by whores to express their thoughts on all sorts of topics, including their job.  Indeed, some professionals note improvement in this epidemic of Whorephobia, as many of the worldwide afflicted are questioning the validity of punishing people, especially female and often marginalized peoples, for their choices, regardless of the prime motivation.  The undiluted doses of Reality™ administered via social media and ethical journalism are largely to credit for this break in treatment.  For the foreseeable future, this treatment will continue.

For the historically minded, researching famous whores of times gone past has helped identify and respect the humanity of present-day whores.  The library has large doses of Reality™.

For the hands-on learner, actually booking a session or talking to sex workers can give you the proper doses of Reality™.  The afflicted are strongly cautioned against asking questions that demonstrate undiluted Whorephobia such as, “What’s your real name?” or “You were probably molested all the time, right?” or statements such as, “But you’re so smart! Why are you doing this?” This will not only cause your Whorephobia to aggressively relapse via a slap to the face, but may also, is cases with escorts and companions, cause your deposit to be forfeited, the session ended, and you being blacklisted as a Time Waster.  Even if this is an individual whore’s reality, the disease of Whorephobia will make you hallucinate this as a strike against her dignity as a human.  Merely listen, do not apply pressure or prejudices, and accept what is presented.

Sadly, however, some cases of Whorephobia are terminal but are likely few in number.  Some may leave with grace and dignity while other cases will thrash and scream whilst in death throes.

Life After Whorephobia

Congratulations on surviving what is often a very pernicious and persistent disease.  Keeping Whorephobia at bay requires constant vigilance on your part.  If you want to help administer Reality™ to other seemingly afflicted in your everyday life, become a vocal ally!  Stick up for sex workers’ rights and realities, no matter how distasteful and uncomfortable it makes you personally and remind others of that fact as well.  Especially in comment threads on articles that so often double as a veritable sanitarium of the afflicted Whorephobics.

If you are extremely motivated and have time to spare, become involved with a local sex worker rights organization that is led by sex workers themselves.  If you also have money or resources to spare, then donate to them.  Eradicating Whorephobia can be difficult, frustrating, time-consuming, expensive, and even dangerous work, but activists soldier on nonetheless.

Let’s make Whorephobia a thing of the past!