Those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter and didn’t see Sunday’s New York Times Magazine may have missed this, so I’ll share it here. What you’re seeing, my friends, is history being made; the staunchly-prohibitionist Times not only published a good, solid, respectful article on the sex worker rights movement, but also featured portraits of 36 real sex workers on the damned cover. And not headless stereotypes dressed in garish clothing, fishnets & sky-high heels leaning into car windows at night, either; real people (including male & trans sex workers) of a variety of body types, dressed in normal clothing. THIS is what prostitutes look like, y’all. Some of you may recognize some of these faces, and if you don’t there’s a key in that link above (where you’ll also find a slideshow featuring portraits of 24 sex workers, including me). Endza Adair (top left in white dress) wrote yesterday’s guest column, Kristen DiAngelo (between Mistress Matisse & me) is the writer/producer of American Courtesans, Savannah Sly (second row, far right) is the president of SWOP-USA…and those are just the ones y’all have heard me mention before. Matisse worked with writer Emily Bazelon since the autumn (and appeared on this radio show with her yesterday), and Savannah organized photo shoots all over the country to create this article; to the Times‘ credit, it invested a lot of time and money in this, and it shows. The sex worker rights movement is on the rise. We’re tired of being relegated to the shadows, tired of being spoken over and misrepresented, tired of being treated as criminals, victims, mindless children or a social disease. The watershed moment is past; though many probably can’t see it yet, all the people who actually think about things instead of believing some scripture without proof now recognize that prohibition in general, and prohibition of private sexual behavior in particular, are evil and destructive to society. Anti-whore laws will die, and decriminalization will come. It won’t happen in the next few years; it may not even happen in my lifetime. But it will happen, and the history books will show 2015-16 as the turning point. And I’m very proud to have played a small part in it.
Posts Tagged ‘Maggie in the Media’
Diary #306
Posted in Diary, Perception, tagged activism, Maggie in the Media on May 10, 2016| 4 Comments »
Diary #300
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, comics, Maggie in the Media, Presents on March 29, 2016| 1 Comment »
I have to admit that it still really tickles me to be mentioned in other people’s books. Last week I received my copy of Brooke Magnanti’s new one, The Turning Tide, and when I started reading I discovered that I’m kindly named in the acknowledgements. Then this past week my copy of Chester Brown’s latest, Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus, arrived, and there was my blurb anchoring the back cover. Yes, I already knew it was going to be there; besides the fact that I was told it would be, I already had an advance copy. But there’s just something extra-nice about holding the actual finished thing in one’s hand. And it reminded me of what I consider to be the best and coolest part of (relative) celebrity: getting to meet, know and become friends with other cool, awesome, creative people. It opens the door to being able to help others, too; my network of connections has on many occasions allowed me to make a phone call or shot out an email to get specialized help for someone who needs it, or to connect two cool, awesome people who haven’t yet met to each other (thereby magnifying the level of coolness and awesomeness in the world). The internet being what it is, I’m friends with a number of people I’ve never met in person, but I’m always excited to have the opportunity to meet them later; Brooke and I are already discussing the possibility of meeting on her next trip to the States, and I have a firm date for my first in-person meeting with Chester: he will be speaking and signing books at 7 PM on Saturday, April 16th, at Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave in Seattle. And I’ve been invited to introduce him to the audience! Besides that, I was able to help his publisher find other people to introduce him in several other cities; see how those connections work? So if you would like to hear Chester speak and get a signed copy of the book, but you’re not in Seattle, consult this tour schedule; he’s appearing in Berkeley, San Francisco & Los Angeles before the 16th, and Toronto, New York City, Washington DC, Winnipeg, Montreal and Chicago after it. And don’t worry; I haven’t forgotten my promise to get working on my own books, and I think I can wedge a few short tours into my schedule once they’re out.
Diary #299
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, Maggie in the Media, Presents on March 22, 2016| 3 Comments »
Unfortunately, the unpleasant things I alluded to last week did not let up as the week continued; if anything, they got even worse, and I’m still not really at liberty to discuss them. Plus, the necessity of discussing taxes with my CPA reared its ugly head, and since it seems they’ve assigned a new girl to the account, I’m going to have to hurt her feelings pretty soon by telling her I’m a whore. On the bright side, I did have a couple of especially-enjoyable sessions, made a new friend, added a few new things to my Amazon wishlist, received my copy of my friend Brooke Magnanti’s new book, and saw the release of a podcast I did a few weeks ago with attorney Mirriam Seddiq. Mirriam was a lot of fun to work with, and though I haven’t listened to the recording yet, I’m told that fun comes through to the listener. That’s really all I have to share for now, but don’t worry; as those who’ve been reading this blog for a while know, things absolutely never stay quiet for long.
Diary #297
Posted in Diary, Music, tagged activism, Maggie in the Media on March 8, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Well, Seattle’s Annual Sexwork Symposium (SASS) was a resounding success! Last Wednesday Savannah Sly and I co-hosted a panel discussion featuring four well-known activists, then on Thursday SWOP held a protest march and afterward a large number of Seattle sex workers participated in a secret project that you’ll just have to wait to learn about (did I ever say I didn’t have a sadistic streak? If so, I lied.) On Friday we had a health fair and in the evening I did karaoke for the first time; I’ll let you imagine what it sounded like for me to perform a duet with Abby May on “You Oughta Know” and with Savannah on “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’“. No, I don’t sing all that well, but for some reason I sound a lot better on “scorned woman” songs. Go figure. Saturday was the sex worker social in the daytime and the Harlot’s Ball in the evening; my outfit was inspired by Barbarella and it’s just too bad nobody took a picture of me in it (what little of it there was) because people kept coming up to me and telling me that in the low-light conditions I looked naked from a distance (oops, am I teasing again? Sorry.) (Not really.) That came in especially handy when I took over the kissing booth for the last half-hour or so (Yep. Still not sorry.) Finally, Sunday evening we had an art & performance night, complete with a silent auction in which one of the items was a dinner date with me; the pic here was taken by Aidan Allgood outside the theater after the show (too bad you can’t see the boots, but you can see my snaky accessory if you look closely). All in all, it was a very full week, and that’s only the parts I can tell you about…yes, I’m teasing-and-denying again, and I’m still not sorry.
Celebrititties
Posted in Diary, Perception, tagged activism, advertising, blogging, Maggie in the Media, screening on March 7, 2016| 5 Comments »
A few days ago, a guy contacted me from my Eros ad, but was reluctant to provide me with the screening info I asked for. I patiently explained to him that sex workers face a number of serious risks in coming to hotels to visit strange men in private, and that screening helps us to stay safe; he replied that there are risks associated with being a client as well, and suggested I might not be the woman in my pictures, or that I might bring along muscle to rob him. Now, my advertising clearly describes who I am, including my book, articles, TV appearances and Twitter feed, but his response made it obvious that he was one of the many clients who don’t bother to read a lady’s ad copy before contacting her; I therefore simply suggested he Google me, since the first 7 pages or so are mostly me. Similarly, a Google image search leaves little doubt that I still look like the pictures on my website and in my ads. Now, I haven’t quite reached the “Don’t you know who I am?” level of celebrity, and it’s possible I never will (and probably better if I don’t). But as hookers go I’m pretty damned well-known, and it’s not exactly difficult to check the statements I make right there in the text of my ad.
Another, kind of arse-backward version of this is when prohibitionists pretend to have “discovered” some very public fact about my life, especially the rather prosaic one that I owned an escort service (which is not only in the bios I give out for writing commissions, speaking engagements, etc but also comes up in nearly every single interview I do). For example, in a recent hate-screed for Logos the prohibitionist arch-fabulist, Melissa Farley, wrote, “We have located 12 people from 8 countries who publicly identify as sex workers or sex worker advocates but who have also sold others for sex or who have been implicated in the management of sex trade businesses in various specific ways…” and included me along with Norma Jean Almodovar, Terri-Jean Bedford, Maxine Doogan and others. Apparently, her editorial “we” weren’t trying very hard; I could double the size of that list off the top of my head. And you know why? Because despite the efforts of prohibitionists to pretend otherwise, there really isn’t some unbridgeable gap between sex workers and management like the chasm between workers and “capitalists” in a Marxist wanking fantasy. A very large fraction of sex workers who’ve been around since before the turn of the century (and the rise of internet advertising) have at some point in their careers played some kind of management role; pretending otherwise can only work if, like my lazy client, the reader doesn’t bother to Google.
As I pointed out a few weeks ago, this isn’t only true for me; alongside my name and words (and often picture) in articles like this one and this one are the names and words (and often pictures) of women I work and socialize with, many of them dear friends like Endza, Mistress Matisse and Savannah Sly, who is now president of SWOP-USA. In fact, I’m now “out” enough that it scares a few of the more timid clients away (though I hardly think it likely I’ll begin to be recognized in public anytime soon); I’m just hoping I can soon get to the point where I don’t have to tell my clients to Google me if they worry about my dearth of reviews.
Diary #294
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged activism, blogging, law, Maggie in the Media, prohibitionist myths, sporting events on February 16, 2016| 1 Comment »
Two weeks ago, I wrote “my friends [and I]…are being quoted in the mainstream media so often now, the week doesn’t pass that one can’t see one or the other of us (and often more than one) in a news article. Our clout has increased so dramatically that at least one news outlet will interview sex workers for any given story involving sex work…” Well, just in case you thought I was exaggerating, here are links to three articles published since that diary entry appeared, and only the first one is for a current event story (debunking Super Bowl “gypsy whores” nonsense, in case you couldn’t guess). It’s in the form of a round table with Violet McLean, Tara Burns, Blanche Almendras, Margaret Corvid and me, and shorter statements from ESPLERP and Kate D’Adamo. The second one was a general article on the Law Street site which not only quoted me, but embedded my Reason video and linked both this blog and my Cato Unbound series. But in a way I liked the third one best, because it wasn’t a debunking or a legal analysis, but just a straightforward piece about one of the mundane aspects of sex work, namely how do we deal with taxes, retirement and other personal finance stuff? Tracy Clark-Flory wrote that one, consulting my pals Mistress Matisse and Savannah Sly besides me (plus Kate D’Adamo and the Tax Domme). In the long run, I think it’s that kind of article – the sort which demonstrates that we’re just people and our work is just work – which is going to do the most for sex worker rights. Debunking can win over well-meaning but ignorant folks who are misled by prohibitionist lies, and legal arguments may sway well-meaning but ignorant lawyers (about which the less said, the better). But articles which normalize us and demystify our trade in the public mind will help to break down the us vs them wall in the public mind which politicians and cops use to justify treating us like criminals and/or imbeciles, and once that happens laws against sex work, like laws against queer sex before them, will be recognized by the majority of the population as the moral abominations they are.
Diary #292
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, blogging, internet, Maggie in the Media, Twitter on February 1, 2016| 7 Comments »
Last week was another busy one, both in sex work and in activism; the interviews I linked appear to have boosted my signal somewhat, as did my picking a fight with a presidential candidate (to which, I’m sorry to say, he failed to respond). That’s just one example of how I’ve been getting bolder on Twitter lately; between suffering fools less patiently than before, to tweeting more risqué pictures, to more openly tweeting links to my escort website and advertising, to more openly referring to my work in real time (in other words, essentially saying “I just had sex for money” or “I’m about to have sex for money right now“), I’ve pretty much opened the throttle on harlotry. And it seems to be having the desired effect; at this rate I should break 10,000 followers by the end of the year, and that will expand my social media reach considerably. When I release my next books (and I’ve been gearing up to work on them again at last) I’ll have a far larger potential audience than I did two years ago, and that means my message that sex workers are complex three-dimensional people (rather than cardboard “victim” cutouts) will be that much louder. Nor am I the only one; my friends Mistress Matisse, Savannah Sly, Tara Burns, Laura Lee and others are being quoted in the mainstream media so often now, the week doesn’t pass that one can’t see one or the other of us (and often more than one) in a news article. Our clout has increased so dramatically that at least one news outlet will interview sex workers for any given story involving sex work (a big change from even three years ago), and anyone foolish enough to start an anti-sex worker hashtag on Twitter will soon find us claiming it for ourselves by, as Matisse put it, “pissing all over it“. Whores aren’t going to stay quiet and roll over for the cops and other busybodies any more; we are coming to claim our rights. And there’s not a damned thing prohibitionists, with all their ridiculous fantasies of “eradicating” us, can do to stop it.
Diary #291
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, blogging, Maggie in the Media on January 26, 2016| 7 Comments »
Another busy week! The early part was all activism, including the interview I wrote about in Friday’s column; this week also saw the publication of an article drawn from another interview I did a few weeks ago, my working on a lengthy e-mail interview which published yesterday, a phone planning session for the documentary project I’ll be starting soon, and some SASS planning with Savannah Sly. Not all my work was unpaid, though; I had a very long gig and several good smaller ones, not to mention a wonderful and memorable get-together with a number of whore friends (and one honorary whore). You’ll probably also be glad to hear that I’ve pulled out of the funk I was in for the past few months (which the more observant among you noted and asked about), and also that I found a lovely herbal concoction which puts me to sleep almost as well as Valium does. That’s all I have to say for now, but since I haven’t published a selfie in a while I’ll give you this one I took a few nights ago, several hours after the departure of a client; I thought I looked rather nice and wanted to try to capture it.
Diary #290
Posted in Current Events, Diary, tagged activism, blogging, cops, Maggie in the Media, Washington (state) on January 19, 2016| 4 Comments »
When last week’s diary column posted, it was caught by a lot of people who had missed the previous Friday’s description of my view of the TRB takedown, and I received an avalanche of support and good wishes. It was very powerful and validating, and at the same time extremely sobering; two more people I met in everyday life told me they had seen me on television, and I began making legal arrangements just in case. Do I really think I’m in any more danger than I was before last week? Not really; as I’ve said before, I’m reasonably certain the FBI has had a file on me for at least three years, and if they really wanted me they would’ve already charged me with half a dozen made-up felonies such as promoting prostitution, pandering, money laundering, conspiracy, resisting arrest and assault on a police officer. But it never hurts to take precautions, just in case. Thaddeus Russell tweeted that he could “feel history turn” because of my actions, and while that may be a bit hyperbolic I do feel that the public view of sex workers is changing, and that I’ve been chosen by Fate or the gods to be a small part of that. My friend Savannah Sly, now president of SWOP-USA, arrived in Seattle yesterday for a visit, and we’re going to be meeting several times this week with some of the hardworking volunteers who do the vital but unglamorous labor of keeping the movement going while crazy radicals like me get all the attention. SWOP Seattle has a big event coming up in just over a month, and in the meantime the Seattle demimonde is in upheaval over the loss of a major advertising venue and the vile threats and propaganda vomited out by “law enforcement authorities”. Aaaaaaand on top of all that I have to work, write and take care of personal commitments. Ah, well; at least I’m sleeping better these days, and with any luck there will also be some downtime with dear friends. After all, even rock stars need to relax.
Diary #289
Posted in Diary, Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, anecdote, cops, escort review sites, Maggie in the Media, Washington (state) on January 12, 2016| 17 Comments »
Last week was so incredibly busy I’m amazed I was able to keep up with everything I had to do. I knew at the beginning that it would be busy work-wise because I had a solid schedule of appointments, but I had no way of knowing that on Wednesday the pigs would barge into the lives of Seattle sex workers, uprooting one of our major advertising venues and shitting all over our reputations to the press. Of course, the excuse was “sex trafficking”; Korean sex workers in the area were denied agency, claimed to be “trafficked”, and a number of their clients, bookers and other associates were arrested. Naturally, nobody has seen any of these supposed “victims” or been allowed to talk to them, but the sheriff of King County nonetheless felt qualified to say that the members of SWOP were “delusional” for saying that advertising boards help us to build communities and screen clients. Because obviously, his magical swine-o-vision allows him to see into our lives despite the fact that he was too afraid to allow us into his press conference. But whatever he hoped to achieve by this ham-fisted attempt to shut us up was a failure; by Wednesday night, over 12 hours before his press conference, I had already appeared on not one but TWO local news broadcasts to give our viewpoint, and the sheriff and other officials were flustered and annoyed by several reporters asking them about us and our concerns. Furthermore, when the conference let out we were waiting, and most of the reporters got statements from us (as I detailed in Friday’s column). We’ve had several emergency meetings since Wednesday (the first mere hours after the seizure, ’cause we don’t work 9-5, y’all) and plenty more conversations via email and text; I think I’ve received as many text messages in the past week as I would in a typical month. As a kind of side-effect of all this, I’m even more out now than I was before; on Saturday my pedicurist told me, “I saw you on TV!” But while I’ve been hailed as a badass in my community for saying “I am a prostitute” on TV while standing in a courthouse full of cops, the truth is that I’m really just plain stubborn. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a bunch of morally-retarded thugs tell me how to conduct my life or what motivations for sex I’m allowed to have, and I’ll be thrice-damned if I sit by and let credulous ignoramuses slander my sisters and endanger all our livelihoods. I may not be able to win against the colossal machine of prohibition, but by Aphrodite I’m going to go down fighting. And even if they crush me, I’m not going to suffer in silence.
Visit my bookstore
This Month
May 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Old Posts
Call me
Become a Blog Patron
If you want to donate but don't want a recurring charge, you can send any amount you like via PayPal to my email address (see below). Be sure to include a note so I can thank you!Contact Maggie
Boring but necessary legal stuff