Another week, another trash documentary about sex workers where none of us actually got consulted. I'm so bloody tired of being a plot device instead of a person.
These shows always hit the same beats. Tragic backstory. Drugs. Rescue fantasy. Zero actual nuance about why someone might choose this work. I've lost count of how many times I've watched some middle-class documentary filmmaker decide they understand my entire lived experience after a few interviews with people who aren't even active workers.
The worst part is how these narratives get weaponized. Suddenly everyone's an expert. My mam's cousin's friend saw a documentary and now knows exactly how my entire professional world operates. Never mind that I'm paying my bills, supporting myself, and making strategic choices about my labour.
Sex work isn't a monolith. We're not all desperate. We're not all victims. Some of us are just pragmatic professionals who understand exactly what we're doing. But that doesn't make good television, does it?
Shocking, I know. Complex human beings doing complex human things.