00:00How many people watch porn?
00:02How many people have been to a strip club?
00:04You know, we all crave sex, we all pay attention to sex,
00:07but we don't want to speak about it or praise it.
00:10Sex work is a consensual exchange of sexual activity for compensation.
00:15It's one of the oldest professions in the entire world.
00:19Sex work is diverse, sex work is dynamic,
00:21sex work is a large collection of services.
00:25Anything online, like a webcam.
00:27Strippers, pictures of your body.
00:29It can be escorting.
00:31Pornography.
00:31Being a dominatrix.
00:33Anything that involves a fetish or a kink.
00:35When you're on a magazine covering your bathing suit,
00:37that's sex work.
00:37You're selling sex, you're selling your body,
00:39but it's not judged in the same way as when a woman of color does it
00:43or when trans women do it.
00:45When trans women do it, it is seen as such an absurd, like how dare you?
00:50So I do think depending on your identity,
00:52people will approach your sex work differently.
00:55I think that people feel like sex workers
00:59don't deserve to be spoken about, don't deserve respect, don't deserve love.
01:04Sex work is a job, like any other job.
01:08At the end of the day, you have to use your body for something,
01:10even if it's a 9 to 5, even if it's being a construction worker, singer, dancer,
01:14whatever you do, you're using your body in some way.
01:16So sex work does not have to involve having sex with someone.
01:19I'm Mistress Marley.
01:20I am a dominatrix in New York City specializing in financial domination.
01:26Fendom is a fetish that some people have where they like to be controlled
01:29by having their wallets controlled or told what to do with their money.
01:34These people are called pay pigs, and it's like a whole world that's on Twitter.
01:38I think people are getting to be more accepting, but there's still a stigma,
01:41there's still a bias, there's still a belief that prohibits a lot of people,
01:45especially in black and brown communities, around sex workers
01:48and what they feel and how they think about it.
01:51Sex work needs to be normalized because there are so many girls out there
01:54that want to get into sex work, but they don't know where to start
01:57or they don't feel like they'll be safe.
01:58Sex work can be safe work, but I think that comes with the decriminalization of sex work.
02:04I think that comes with allowing for sex workers to publicly advocate for their rights
02:09where they don't have to work in the dark, work in the shadows.
02:12Providing these avenues for women to go have these STD screenings, these STI screenings.
02:17Workshops, panels, those types of conversations need to be had,
02:20and that education needs to come from them.
02:23There are a lot of professions and a lot of industries
02:25in which you're allowed to really express yourself sexually,
02:29where you're allowed to sell your body in a way that you aren't when it comes to sex.
02:33That's when people are like, how dare you? How dare you use your power for you?
02:36How dare you use your sexuality for you rather than for us?
02:40Talking about sex work is something that's very important to me
02:42and it's something that's very close to my heart, so it's nothing I never hide.
02:46My family members know about it. My close friends know about it.
02:48I've even had co-workers that I've told about it.
02:50I guess I just would like people to know that sex workers aren't what they think you are.
02:55They're your friends. They're your families.
02:57Sex workers are closer to you than you think.
