11-A : Sarah Patteron: Sex Work

Last October, I was sharing a modest office studio space in Bushwick with one of my favorite organizations, the Persist Health Project. One day, the Executive Director of Persist, Sarah Patterson, and I got coffee and vegan deli sandwiches and sat in our little white room for almost two hours talking about sex work. We challenged ourselves to ask both: Why Are People Into Hiring Sex Workers, and Why Are People Into Doing Sex Work (the later question being not as much about personal sexual desire so much as it is about examining what motivates people to do sexual labor).

This week’s episode, Side A, focuses on why people enjoy watching porn, going to strip clubs, and hiring private service providers.

Discussed: Is it cheating to go to a strip club? Is there such a thing as porn addiction? If sex work was legalized, would it still turn us on? Why are some kinds of sex work legal and some not? How does whorephobia and sex worker stigma become internalized and...