People who exchange sex for money are portrayed variously as victims of human trafficking, rape, racism, colonial violence and child abuse, as proud heroines who explore terrains of agency and autonomy while providing humane services or as the darkly iconic figures in the misogynist porn fantasies that flicker on a billion late night computer screens.
Sometimes they are portrayed as workers in need of labour solidarity and employment standards protections. It is difficult to know how to begin, and how to sort out the contending versions of truth.
Part of the problem, of course, is that far more is written and said about sex trade workers than by them. They have been literally studied to death by academics, bureaucrats and social workers, but their own voices are too often absent from public debates.
As women, as young people of all genders, as trans people, as people of colour and sex trade workers, they are often consigned to silence. This is an important book, full of pungent, sometimes triumphant verse and often troubling images. Anyone who wants to participate in the ongoing policy discussions about sex trade work in Canada and anyone who values honest, well crafted writing should own a copy. Tom Sandborn lives and writes in Vancouver.
He welcomes feedback and story tips at tos65 telus.
