Welcome!
Come in, have a seat, take a load off. I hope your stay in the wonderful world of other people knowing what’s best for you and your body is a pleasant one. I know many of you are new here – you never dreamed you’d make it in your lifetime. At the same time, I know many of you, particularly the most marginalised, have a passing familiarity with our auspicious locale. As you find your place, I’d like to assure you that any feelings of being gaslit, lied to, shamed for existing, and/or generally endless rage are both perfectly normal and wholeheartedly encouraged. In fact, it would be a little strange if you didn’t have any vaguely homicidal urges at this very important time of transition. But in all seriousness, my role here is a crucial one. I’m here to make sure that you have all the information necessary to the next stage of your life – surviving in a world where you no longer own your own body.
First and foremost, you’ll need to become extremely familiar with the concept of ironic infantilization. You are now in the unenviable position of being both too stupid and childlike to make choices for yourself while simultaneously being responsible for the social wellbeing and survival of everyone around you. If you can’t fathom navigating the world as a walking contradiction, reach out to anyone with an OnlyFans account. They’ll be all too happy to tell you how it feels to be simultaneously a victim of trafficking and a perpetrator of exploitation, as defined by the National Center on Exploitation (NCOSE). You can also ask about SESTA/FOSTA and how facilitation affects you. You’ll also need to prepare yourself for an endless parade of finger-wagging folks, both on and offline, all too happy to point out where you went wrong, why you didn’t vote hard enough, and how you can be better.
Next, you’ll need to take a long, hard look at your social media presence and then possibly delete every trace of yourself just in case. Thanks to a continuous series of attacks on Section 230, from politicians across the political spectrum, the legislative field is ripe for a new flurry of activity aimed at shutting you the hell up. If you thought a virtual world where your emoji use is severely limited was bad, prepare yourself for a world where policy proposals modelled after SISEA and EARN-IT make Twitter and Instagram legally responsible if you share abortion resources in a state (or country) where that’s illegal. You can, of course, ask most sex workers about state-sponsored suppression and surveillance and they’ll be able to give you some helpful tips.
In general, you just have to get used to everything you do and say being monitored at all and any times. If you can think of an aspect of life that could be surveilled, there’s probably a legal precedent for it. Your financial transactions? From individual purchases to renting an apartment to owning a bank account to paying a friend back for brunch – it’s been done. If you’re unsure how to live with or take money from an abortion and/or information provider without implicating yourself, I’m sure any escort friend can explain how it works with a roommate. Reserving a hotel room or AirBnB? That’s out too. Unfortunately, that’s just the way the AI works after more than a decade of inherently biassed learning. Of course, this is par for the course when your very existence is deemed criminal and deviant behaviour. Many of you are not new to this particular experience as you’ve been queer at any point in human history. I know that I, personally, never get tired of hearing all the ways in which I am grooming future generations for a life of immoral deviance as a Black, queer sex worker.
It’s usually at this point in the presentation that someone chimes in to ask how this could happen to them. For those of you who have never considered a world in which you were not the norm in some significant way (see: white women), this transitory period will be especially difficult. You will have to embrace your newfound status of just like other girls – Black and brown girls, queer girls especially the trans ones, disabled girls, fat girls, most girls. Despite Margaret Atwood’s smug, oddly sanctimonious Twitter posts (seriously, who brags at a time like this), we are not living in heretofore unimagined times. Bodily autonomy has always been a privilege afforded to the most select group. Unfortunately, that group has just gotten more exclusive.
As we close out today’s session, I know some of you are still thinking that you’re in the wrong place. You’re not like…them…us. To you, I would say, the right to abortion “could license fundamental rights to illicit drug use, prostitution, and the like.” In closing, whatever you do, just know that you are not alone. At any time you can reach out to your closest sex worker friend, clasp their hand, and ask them what to do next. If you don’t have any sex worker friends in your life, it’s high time you made one.
