Towards a Sex Work Informed LENS

Written By Soleil Merroir

What does this mean in a clinical or professional setting? How would you know if you had it in yourself, your work, or your organization?

Well the easiest litmus is would a diverse community of sex workers (diverse in all areas of identities and types of work) feel welcome, safe, supported and resourced in your presence or your organization? Would they want to give their time and energy to support it’s growth?

Try this brief self-assessment:

  1. Does the language I use in my marketing and personal or organizational materials mention sex workers? What words does it use for them and are they words based in bias and whorephobia (ie: never using prostitute, ho, whore, etc.)?

  2. Does my framework for my work include sex worker histories, stories and experiences? How did sex workers relate to my field of work historically (ie: respected elders vs. test subjects)?

  3. Did sex workers/ community groups give me any feedback on my offerings and the usefulness of them? Did I listen to my community’s needs first?

  4. What would it look like if my target market was sex workers? How would my language shift?

  5. Who benefits most from my work? If it’s primarily capitalistic in nature, how do i incorporate mutual aid and community well-being into my revenue model?

  6. Does my sex work perspective center the most marginalized voices? How do I directly account for the impact of whorearchy, racism, transphobia, homophobia and ableism in my work or organization?

  7. Does folks of every socioeconomic class have the potential to access my services? What resources do i offer those outside of accessibility to my services?

And for Sex Therapists specifically:

  1. Do my offerings of literature, techniques, resources etc include content, writings and skills taught by sex workers?

  2. Do my theoretical frameworks name the impact of sex workers in their creation and development?

  3. Does my BDSM specific work incorporate the perspectives, knowledge and experiences of sex workers, current and past?

  4. Would I call a sex worker my colleague? Am I vulnerable in professional spaces about my appreciation and/or consumption of adult media and erotic artists?

  5. Do I know the difference between sex surrogacy and sex work experiences? Would I recommend the use either for a client healing tool?

  6. Do I know the difference between sex work and trafficking, and the impact of the conflation of the two?

Soleil Merroir