The Other Professionals: Men and Transwomen in Sex Work

Posted at 7:17 PM May 06, 2008

Sex Worker Rant runs on Tuesdays and is written by Renegade Evolution, a sex worker, sexual mercenary, and all around fan of “The Sexy” living somewhere near our nation’s capital. Quirky might as well be her middle name.

I find it interesting when looking around at information pertaining to sex workers: blogs, books, outreach organizations, prohibition groups, you name it, the focus is, without fail, on the cisgendered women. [editor's note: "cisgender" is a term that applies to people whose gender presentation matches their biological sex; it is used to destabilize the idea of "normal" gender/sex presentation and diffuse the idea of transgender as the opposite of "normal"] They are forever and always the focus of any and every debate about sex work.

And I find myself wondering why. After all, there are other people involved in any and every aspect of the biz. Porn, stripping, prostitution, professional BDSM? Sure enough, the performers and workers in these industries are not all women. There are men and transwomen involved too, yet we rarely ever hear about them. We really only hear of men as consumers or directors, strip club owners and pimps. What about the other men in the biz we never hear about? At least not in a big media way. What about the transwomen? No "Dateline" specials on them. Which surprises me. I mean, aren't they sex workers too? Don't they require advocacy, support, exit strategies if wanted, aren't they worthy of attention too?

Transwomen are likely to face violence in life, let alone in sex work. Male sex workers more or less face many of the same slings and arrows that their female counterparts do. From stereotyping to STD's to, why yes, rape - I figure as a sex worker and a sex workers rights advocate, it's about time some attention is paid to the other professionals. They are, after all, my sisters and brothers via career and all. They are, like me, sex workers.

One doesn't need to look far to see the chaos faced by transwomen in the sex business. In fact, it's my humble opinion that of marginalized people in an already marginalized profession, transwomen are the most marginalized and discounted. And men? Well no one ever seems to spend too much time or effort on or show concern for the men. Most people assume that the average dude would love to get naked and fuck for money. Only, as Ernest Greene, a long time vet of the porn industry explains, it's not really like that. Not at all.

So I suppose that it is my feeling that if one is going to claim to be interested in sex work, sex workers, and what goes on with them, if they want to claim to be an ally or an advocate, they need to start looking at the lives, words, trials and tribulations of sex workers, and not just the ciswomen ones. Transwomen and men are sex workers too, and they deserve some attention. They are out there, they are talking, and the first and most important thing we can do? We can listen.

Please do.

Read Renegade Evolution's blog here.

Be Social!

previous entry: The Glorious Technology of Child Porn

next entry: "Tomorrow I'm fucking your lights out."

Name:	Email Address:
URL:	Remember Me? YesNo
Say It! (you may use HTML tags for style)