Some of the best blogs are by folks who just let you eavesdrop on their day, including “Teacher Lady” who blogs at Sex Ed in Higher Ed:
“This semester, I had another former sex worker come talk to my [college] class. Let’s call her Lauren. She was very different from Kiki. Polished. Articulate. Totally mini-van-driving soccer-mom looking young woman. Currently wrapping up her master’s degree in epidemiology. In order to work her way through an expensive private college, she was a call girl for two years. She was neither ashamed nor apologetic. Actually, she was more interested in educating my students about sex workers in other countries in the world. Lauren was also very knowledgeable about the difference between making sex work legal and ‘decriminalizing’ it. Then she spoke about sex workers’ unions and told us that in countries where sex workers are unionized and have health benefits, rates of HIV/AIDS and other STIs (in the entire population, not just among sex workers) are significantly lower than countries where sex workers are not unionized.
“And guess what? My (female) students hated her. After she left, the room became a sea of waving hands. A quote: ‘She was not at all ashamed of herself! And she’s crazy if she thinks she’s going to get me to feel sorry for her!’ Luckily, for me, another student raised her hand. ‘I don’t think Lauren was trying to get us to feel sorry for her; I think she was just trying to explain that sex workers need insurance just like anybody else.’ Then another (very dear) student said quietly, ‘I guess if she would have seemed more embarrassed or said she was sorry, I might have been able to like her. But she just wasn’t sorry at all!’ That was the consensus – at least from the female students – the men were conspicuously quiet.”