Rachel Aimee: $pread Magazine

Rachel Aimee is one of the founders and Editors-in-Chief of $pread, a quarterly magazine by and for sex workers and those who support their rights. $pread was founded in the summer of 2004 by Rachel, Rebecca Lynn, and Raven Strega.
Rachel first became involved in the movement for sex workers’ rights while living in London, where she was a member of the International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW). She also blogs at Dive Bar Dancer.
Rachel answered my questions over email. Here’s Rachel…

What are some examples of practical information related to the sex industry that readers can find inside $pread?
Our health column, “The Healthy Hooker,� has covered topics like STDs, using sex toys safely, and condom use for pros. We also have a regular column on sex worker activism, which has focused on things like talking to the media about sex worker issues, and raising money for activist projects. Our advice columnist answers readers’ questions about the business, such as how to deal with competition in the workplace and how to budget and save money. In each issue we also print a list of national and international sex worker resources, so readers can find their local outreach or activist organizations.

What should readers know about sex workers in the U.S.? What issues should they care about and why?
Because of the illegal or semi-legal nature of the industry, sex workers often work in dangerous or exploitative conditions. Sex industry managers get away with charging their workers fees to work, not providing benefits, and hiring and firing workers on a whim.
It’s very difficult to organize around workers’ rights in the sex industry for several reasons: Sex workers move from job to job, and in and out of the industry more than most other types of workers. Many don’t see sex work as permanent—they just want to get in, make money, and get out. Others are ashamed to be in the industry so they don’t want to think about it when they’re not working. And many just don’t want to rock the boat because they enjoy making tax-free money and having flexible schedules. That’s why so many sex industry managers get away with charging their workers fees to work, not providing benefits, and hiring and firing on a whim.
Sex workers who do illegal work have even fewer protections. Prostitutes can’t go to the police if they get beaten up or raped by a client because they risk being arrested themselves. Sex workers are disproportionately victims of violence, and have been the primary targets of serial killers in several cases. Every year on December 17th, sex worker activists across the world hold vigils to mark the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, gathering to mourn and honor the sex workers who were killed that year, and to raise awareness of the violence faced by our community.
In the past few years, the situation has become a lot worse for many sex workers in the U.S. and abroad, because of the Bush administration’s anti-sex work restrictions on NGOs that distribute aid to HIV/AIDS service organizations. These organizations have been forced to sign a pledge condemning prostitution and refusing to work with sex workers or else risk losing all their funding. These restrictions also apply to international organizations that receive USAID money, so sex workers across the globe have effectively been cut off by organizations that had previously been providing them with services and assisting them in working safely.

One of the goals of $pread is to illuminate stereotypes that are often associated with the sex work industry. Can you describe some of the most common stereotypes?
When most people think of sex workers they think in extremes: Either exploited trafficking victims or glamorous high-class call girls. I think this is because people find it hard to imagine that anyone would do sex work just to survive or get by, that no one would choose it unless it’s making them really rich.
In fact, sex workers choose to go into the industry for all sorts of reasons: Because they don’t have legal working documents, because there aren’t that many other well paying jobs for people without college degrees, because flexible working hours are convenient for activists, students, and single moms, etc. There’s no one type of person who chooses to do sex work, and one of our main goals at $pread is to shed light on the diversity of sex workers’ experiences, from the good to the bad to the truly mundane.
One of the reasons why people have such stereotyped views of sex workers is because they think they don’t know any sex workers. Because of the stigma, a lot of sex workers feel the need to keep their jobs secret from everyone they know, so people don’t realize when the ‘real’ people in their lives are actually sex workers.
At $pread, we’re always annoyed when people ask how we reach out to “real sex workers.� They don’t realize that most of us are sex workers ourselves because they can’t comprehend that sex workers could be smart or together enough to create a magazine!

Where does $pread stand on sex workers below the age of 18?
$pread doesn’t take positions on any issue. Our mission is to provide a forum for sex workers to speak for themselves, and we encourage a wide range of opinions. As far as I’m aware, we have not had anyone under the age of 18 approach us wanting to write for us, but if they did we would certainly be open to printing whatever they had to say about their experiences.
We don’t make an effort to reach out to sex workers who are under the age of 18 for legal reasons. We print a disclaimer in the magazine saying that $pread is intended for people 18 years and older, to protect ourselves. It’s a shame because underage sex workers need resources and community as much as, if not more than, sex workers who are over 18.

What types of sex work are legal in the U.S. and what types are illegal?
That’s a really difficult question to answer because, even in technically legal professions like stripping, peep show work, and domination, the line between what’s legal and what’s not legal is really blurry. Often workers don’t even know exactly how much they can legally get away with. For example, the amount of grinding you can do during a lap dance, whether or not you can penetrate yourself during a peep show performance, or what body parts a customer can touch. Strippers have got in trouble just for agreeing to perform certain sex acts, whether or not they actually intended to follow through.
Managers often don’t do a good job of explaining the laws to their workers, so it can be confusing having to negotiate keeping the customer happy, establishing your own personal boundaries, and trying to figure out what’s actually legal.
Also, laws vary immensely from state to state. But straight-up prostitution is illegal everywhere in the U.S. apart from certain counties in Nevada.
It has been documented that militaries around the world have had special sex work arrangements for male soldiers throughout history. Do you know of any special sex work arrangements in Iraq? And how does $pread feel about such arrangements?
I haven’t heard of any specific sex work arrangements for soldiers in Iraq, but I imagine many soldiers visit sex workers wherever they are stationed.
At $pread, we try to solicit submissions from global sex workers as much as possible, but it can be difficult to make contact with sex workers in other countries, so we often don’t have as much coverage of international issues as we’d like, and we haven’t managed to make contact with any sex workers in Iraq. I guess the closest we’ve come is a creative writing piece by an American stripper about her encounter with a customer who had just returned from fighting in Iraq.
As I mentioned before, $pread doesn’t take positions on any issue, so we don’t have a collective stance on soldiers visiting sex workers in Iraq. That’s not to say that our staff don’t have our own opinions—some of us are very opinionated!—but it goes against our mission to promote our own opinions through the magazine.

What inspired you to get involved in advocacy for sex workers’ rights?
I came to it from a perspective of being interested in feminist discussions around sex work, reading a lot of books about the implications of sex work for feminism, and then becoming involved in the industry myself and realizing that a lot of what I’d been reading and thinking about before was completely irrelevant to the lives of most sex workers.
That’s why I wanted to start a magazine by and for sex workers, because I was tired of other people talking about sex workers and I wanted to create a forum for us to speak for ourselves, about our issues, not the issues that other people create around us.

How do your family and friends feel about your work?
My family is really supportive of $pread. My parents have been subscribers since before the first issue came out! My friends are also supportive, although most of my friends these days are current or former sex workers themselves so sometimes I find myself forgetting how to talk to ‘regular’ people!

From your global experiences, are sex workers viewed differently in Scotland, the U.K., and in the U.S.?
In my experience of living in the U.K. and the U.S., I haven’t noticed much of a difference in people’s attitudes towards sex workers, but that may be because the only place I’ve lived in the U.S. is New York City. I imagine attitudes are probably very different in some of the more conservative states.
Certainly the laws are less oppressive in the U.K. Prostitution is not technically illegal, so private escorts can work without much hassle. But from what I hear, there are still a lot of crackdowns on street workers. Although I have to say I’ve become a lot more involved in sex worker activism since I moved to New York, so I’m more familiar with U.S. issues than U.K. ones now. For more info on U.K. sex worker issues, contact the International Union of Sex Workers. I used to go to their meetings when I lived in London and they’re a really inspiring and active group.

Is there anything you would like to add?
One of our ongoing goals at $pread is to donate 15% of our print run to sex workers who can’t afford to subscribe to the magazine. However, since we’re an all-volunteer organization and we barely scrape together the money to cover our printing costs, we often can’t afford the mailing costs of sending out boxes of free magazines to outreach organizations. We’re currently looking into a more long-term source of funding for our outreach efforts, but in the meantime, any donations are very much appreciated and will help us send this valuable resource to sex workers. For more information, please see our website.