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Selling sex in an online world
You go onto almost any trans subreddit or Twitter profile and invariably you come across some form of trans sex work in short order. Once you know how to read the signs an OnlyFans profile or other online sex profile is easy to spot. Attractive, young, cute in that cannot put my finger on it sort of way, and often desperate both for cost of living expenses and funds for medication/surgery. Their looks and exoticised body become the current through which they make a living, any semblance of self lost on the photographs and desires of others. When we talk about the morality of sex work and sexual exploitation much of the conversation rightly revolves around choice, modern slavery, and male desire; yet, if the only way trans women can earn a decent living is through OnlyFans then what ethical stance is appropriate.
I have always been sex positive, and I fall on the side of sex worker rights. This is not to diminish the horrors of sexual slavery and sexual abuse, and there is a definite line between enjoying sex work and being exploited. I doubt many trans women transition to become sex workers or to sell their bodies to strangers. It is a curious juxtaposition between the desire to be yourself and the need to survive in a world that is often geared towards oppressing trans identities. There have been desperate moments in the past where I have been tempted to do some form of sex work, yet due…
