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A review by dee_dee_reads
We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival by Natalie West
This book was equal parts enlightening and infuriating. It is not meant to be marathoned, instead, it requires time and careful consideration.
Sex work has been historically frowned upon and so the traumas that sex workers are exposed to are not addressed with the care that they deserve. This book invites us into the world of the sex worker as each deal with the hows and the whys of their work as well as the ways in which they deal with and navigate the abuses that they face in their line of work. Even as I write this I'm consciously checking that I am not contributing to the biases that non-sex workers have had ingrained into our psyche where it's a 'given' that abuse is part and parcel with the occupation. Being a police officer means that you run the risk of getting shot in the line of duty, that doesn't mean that a downed officer is brushed aside as collateral damage/par for the course. No, there is outcry, investigations and repercussions.
The decision to work in the sex industry, whether through choice or necessity, does not negate your humanity, your right to raise children, your ownership of your body, your agency in decision making. Watching each of these narrators find ways to survive in a world that doesn't care about them broke my heart.
Ugh. I need to read this again...slower.
Sex work has been historically frowned upon and so the traumas that sex workers are exposed to are not addressed with the care that they deserve. This book invites us into the world of the sex worker as each deal with the hows and the whys of their work as well as the ways in which they deal with and navigate the abuses that they face in their line of work. Even as I write this I'm consciously checking that I am not contributing to the biases that non-sex workers have had ingrained into our psyche where it's a 'given' that abuse is part and parcel with the occupation. Being a police officer means that you run the risk of getting shot in the line of duty, that doesn't mean that a downed officer is brushed aside as collateral damage/par for the course. No, there is outcry, investigations and repercussions.
The decision to work in the sex industry, whether through choice or necessity, does not negate your humanity, your right to raise children, your ownership of your body, your agency in decision making. Watching each of these narrators find ways to survive in a world that doesn't care about them broke my heart.
Ugh. I need to read this again...slower.