In an unstable economy, I found freedom and security in sex work | Psyche Ideas

Emerging from university, with an education for which I put myself into debt that I ll likely never repay, I found myself among the ashes of an economy that no longer existed. I have written on the relationship between mass unemployment and sex work. Now that we re all in a world where millions of jobs have suddenly disappeared and people are wondering what they did it all for, I m experiencing a solemn gladness that I quit the game years ago. The pandemic has certainly hurt my income and altered the way that I need to work, but the bubonic plague didn t wipe out whores, and neither will this. You see, a life lived at the margins brings a certain resilience. When everyone else begins to lose their mind, you were already there. Now, watching swathes of middle-class women experiencing real economic uncertainty for the first time, I m waiting for their revelatory moment: what do you do when there is no work, you have bills to pay and no time to wait, and there s one job that will give you cash today?

Given the choices I had that day, continuing to work for a low wage and no job security would have driven me crazy. I chose the shortest route to freedom. There is a relationship between mental health and sex work, but it s more of a cluster than a straight line, bound together by the realities of capitalism. I found myself in mad circumstances, and I crafted an escape route.

via psyche.co

There’s probably a way to go long on prostitution. Probably the porn industry. Condom manufacturers? Dismal science indeed.