HELLO FROM THE VOID!
This is my first episode in over a year. I promised in spring of 2023 that I'd return in the fall. But in the fall, we collectively began to witness an unbridled holocaust in Palestine. I was frozen with grief for many months, and stopped producing all content; I was speechless, and hopeless. While I'm still filled with a profound grief and rage, a lot has changed for me since then. I've found strength and solidarity in my anti-zionist queer sex worker community, and a community of fellow anti-zionist Jews. Today's episode features a conversation with myself and queer, anti-zionist Jewish educators Ayelet Cartolina and Jessie & Elana from the Making Mensches Podcast.

One last thing: in June of 2023, Meta deleted my Stripper's Guide Instagram account in a wave of overnight deletions of thousands of sex workers' accounts across the world. It is so important to me to be able to stay connected to you! If you want information and tools for navigating anti-sex worker and anti-femme stigma in the world and in your relationships, please consider subscribing to my free blog on Substack! You can still find me on Instagram, but please don't let that fickle place be our only avenue of connection.

A Stripper's Guide pod is taking a little breaky-break for now, but I am very active on Substack, and I'm making a documentary.

This is the season finale, hosted by Leilah and her friend Erica Sosa, who writes about fat femmes, desirability politics, and erotic autonomy on her Substack. 

Today we are geeking out because we get to speak with someone who inspires us both a lot.

Aubrey Gordon is an author, columnist, and the cohost of Maintenance Phase, a podcast that debunks the diet industry. She was featured in a 2023 documentary, Your Fat Friend, whose name is based on the title of Aubrey's column, Yr Fat Friend.

In this episode, we talk about some parallels between anti-fat stigma and anti-sex worker stigma (and their differences), and how it feels when someone who used to be one of us won't claim us.

Aubrey's links & stuff:

• Maintenance Phase Podcast (available wherever you stream)
• Books: "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and "What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat"
• Social Media: Twitter, Instagram
• Your Fat Friend  Documentary

It's just a fact: lots of sex workers are moms, and lots of moms are sex workers. In this 2-part Mothers Day Special, we hear directly from different sex working moms who offer up some hard-won wisdom about parenting while living under society's microscope. This episode features sex workin' moms Roxy Hartless and Mina!

Links:

• Roxy Hartless: Instagram & TikTok
• Life After MLM Podcast episode featuring Leilah
• Valley Latini on A Stripper’s Guide Podcast : 
  • Two Stripper/Pop Singers Walk into a Bar  (ep. 1.2)
  • From Stripper to Full-Time Musician  (ep. 4.13)

It's just a fact: lots of sex workers are moms, and lots of moms are sex workers. In this 2-part Mothers Day Special, we hear directly from different sex working moms who offer up some hard-won wisdom about parenting while living under society's microscope.

Today's featured guests: 

• Elle Stanger - certified sex educator, parent,  host of They Talk Sex Podcast, and sex worker since 2009.  Follow them on Instagram & Twitter 
• Kristen Thomas - certified breathwork facilitator, founder of Bad Bitches do Breath Work, mom, and sex worker of 16 years. Follow her on Instagram

Whether or not you're familiar with the concept of a "gold star lesbian", we're here to discuss why it's time to let that term die. Come hang out with me and my high school friend, Frankie, for a conversation about how "gold star lesbianism" is anti-femme, anti-trans, and anti-sex worker. 

• Frankie's art gallery
• Frankie's Instagram

Hi! We have some special announcements today! 

Bad news first:
due to scheduling conflicts, Ataraxxxia isn't able to continue here on this podcast, BUT you haven't seen the last of her! She remains super dedicated to uplifting and de-stigmatizing sex work in Latin America. She will always be a friend of this show, and she will likely appear as a guest again sometime in the future. We love you, Ata!! Follow her on Instagram here.

Updates to the show:
For now, we'll be releasing episodes every two weeks while Leilah searches for grants, sponsorship, and any other funding that may be available to this podcast. We aren't going anywhere; we're just taking a slight step back while we figure out how to take some big leaps forward.

Calling queer, femme, or sex working filmmakers & podcasters!
If you have experience producing podcasts or documentaries, and you're interested in helping out or possibly collaborating with A Stripper's Guide on some exciting new projects, email us at [email protected]

JOIN LEILAH'S NEWSLETTER for updates on both A Stripper's Guide and news about her music (live shows, new releases, & more)

Support the show

Today is an ADHD-riddled hot girl ride through some sexy and nuanced ideas! Leilah interviews her super cool friend, and friend of le pod, Erica Sosa (We love you Sose!) Sosa is a pole dancer, sex worker, and fat Puerto Rican femme. Her Substack and her social media are a love letter to fat femmes, including herself.

Erica Sosa's Instagram & Twitter

CW: violence against sex workers and femmes.
From intimate partner violence to mass murder, sex workers aren't the only people who suffer the consequences of anti-sex worker bias. On March 16, 2021, a white man walked into three separate massage parlors and murdered eight people. Most of those killed, and all of those targeted, were Asian women. This episode explores the connection between anti-sex worker violence and violence against ALL femmes and women.

Click here to read A Stripper's Guide Blog on Substack

Related episodes:

• No Feminism Without Asian Sex Workers (featuring Dr. Connie Wun)
• What Does it Mean to Decriminalize Sex Work? (feat. Ariella Moscowitz of Decriminalize Sex Work)
• Are You a Good Girl or a Bad Girl? (a conversation about femme identity with Dr. Rhea Ashley Hoskin)

Also mentioned in this episode: Red Canary Song

Support the show

Inside a patriarchy, many femmes and women, both sex working and non, face common relationship issues. In this episode, Leilah talks about why.

Hey, it's me, Leilah. I started a blog! Subscribe to my Substack (subscriptions start at FREE) for a growing collection of essays, stories, and educational content about the fight for sex workers’ and femmes’ rights to life, love, and freedom.

Click here to read my first post, “She Was a Stripper. Her Boyfriend Didn’t Like That.”

For Erica Sosa's blog, click here!

Thank you so much for your continued support & enthusiasm for A Stripper’s Guide! Please don’t be a stranger — we always wanna hear from you, whether it’s in the comments on any of our other platforms, or ratings & reviews of A Stripper’s Guide Podcast.

With my love & gratitude,

Leilah (& Team)

Support the show

When you watch a rom-com or a sitcom, who do you normally see as the romantic lead? You’re probably picturing a slim, slightly curvy, probably white or racially ambiguous cis woman with everything “just right.” More than likely, your mind did not drift to someone fat, Black, Brown, or queer. So how do we combat this? By embracing everything society wants us to be ashamed of. This way, we practice revolutionary resistance to the patriarchal idea of who deserves love, softness, kindness, and respect. 

Check out Erica's blog, Revolutionary Hotness, which dives into removing shame from her relationship to her body and celebrating herself as a fat femme.  Also, find her on Instagram here! 

Support the show