An Insider’s Podcast Tries to Humanize Sex Workers

Parker Westwood is trying to bring sex work out of the shadows with a new podcast that lays bare her industry, asking dancers, dominatrix and strippers what it’s like to swap sex services for money.

In a series of intimate interviews, Westwood delves deep and shatters taboos to unveil the humans in her mostly hidden world.

From life in lockdown, stripping for a living to sex with a disability: the host and her guests simply tell it like it is.

It’s not their usual media image.

“We’re either villainized or over sensationalized,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “The more we can seek to understand one another, the better off we’ll be.”

Westwood, aged 32, launched the now bi-weekly podcast in January after navigating how to sell sex safely in the pandemic in her home town of Detroit.

The result – ‘A Sex Worker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ – has drawn listeners from as far afield as Australia to Chile.

For the uninitiated, the interviews humanize sex workers.

For insiders, Westwood offers guests a stage to recount their experiences free of sanction and in their own words.

“This is why our stories are so powerful because they don’t get told often,” she said. “We’re so used to operating in the shadows.”

Many sex workers are critical of how mainstream media paints their industry, be it running photos that out them or stories that conflate their job with sex trafficking.

Westwood – an activist for decriminalization – said sex workers often prefer to stay hidden, whether from other employers, family or the broader public.

ALGORITHM = SEX

She also worries about censorship due to U.S. laws governing sex work online – websites can get in trouble for hosting third-party content that flouts the rules – so is careful about even the keywords that describe each episode.

“The algorithm is against me so my philosophy is just keep putting it out there, try not to get censored and people will find it,” she said.

A self-described queer, full-service sex worker, Westwood had wanted to showcase the whole gamut of experiences but says the pandemic has put some street-based sex workers off limits.

“It changed the whole way I had envisioned…the podcast would go down,” she said. People who don’t have access to Zoom or a smartphone or whatever – I’m not getting those interviews right now.”

But her show – its name is a nod to Douglas Adams’ science fiction classic ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ – sets out to show that sex workers collectively hold the answer to life, the universe and everything.

“Sex workers have a legacy of speaking truth and being the ones to demand justice,” she said. “Our struggles are so indicative of the world’s struggles.”

This article was produced by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Visit them at https://news.trust.org/

Tags:

You May Also Like

Advertisement for black toilet paper.

A Brazilian Fancy Black Toilet Paper Infuriates Black Community

A Brazilian manufacturer has been blasted for appropriating the black empowerment slogan – “Black ...

The "confused" lady is a character from a 2004 soap opera who kidnapped a baby and killed some people | Image: Twitter/Reproduction.

Trying to Understand Brazilians? Start by Their Memes

You have probably already stumbled upon a Brazilian meme on one of your internet ...

Street protests in Brazil

To Compete with the Right in Brazil, the Left Will Have to Adopt the Right’s Populist Tactics

In the wake of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s historic decision to ...

Local initiatives have emerged during the pandemic in the favelas | Gabriel Loiola

How a Favela in Rio Is Dealing with Mental Health Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic

Empty streets, full minds. The fear of the new coronavirus occupies the thoughts of ...

A Brazilian woman on her job

Brazil President Softens Pension Reform Bill to Get Congress’s Approval

A new version of Brazil’s unpopular pension reform bill presented this week would require ...

Brazil's education system is highly stratified, favoring the elite over the general public

Despite Challenges, Brazil Strives for Success in Its Education Goals

Perhaps nothing better characterizes the recent trend in the Brazilian education system than Bolsonaro’s ...