It’s a common misconception that people would never willingly choose sex work, mostly because they don’t see it as work. Either it’s a last resort, or it’s trafficking. Similar to tools used in anti-trans rhetoric, providers often encounter the blanket assumption that people who choose sex work only do so because they experienced childhood sexual abuse or other traumatic abuse in adulthood.  Funny enough, those things did happen, but I didn’t choose sex work out of the pain of those experiences. I chose it from a place of power. When I first started asking around about sex work, I was in the middle of a season of restructuring. Life had been rough for the few years preceding.  Not feeling valued by my family, loved ones, or society at large left me feeling defeated. No matter how much I applied, branded, or upskilled, there was no sustainable work. None of my…

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