SW & LOVE

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)

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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

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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)

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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! 

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Dr. Rhea Ashley Hoskin is blazing trails in the field of Femme Theory, which aims to center and include femme narratives and experiences in all realms. From conservative communities to feminist and queer communities, why is it that so many femmes know what it’s like to feel somehow both underestimated and overlooked, and at the same time behaviorally policed? Why is it that so many femmes, from sex workers and food servers to teachers and corporate professionals, know what it’s like to be sexually harassed at work, at home, and out in the street? Dr. Hoskin and I ponder these questions and more.

• Find more of Dr. Hoskin on Instagram, Twitter, and her website
• Find Leilah on Instagram
• Can femme be theory? Exploring the epistemological and methodological possibilities of femme - Dr. Hoskin’s article mentioned in this episodes )
• Queer Femme Erasure - another Stripper's Guide episode you may like

Ataraxxxia habla con ASTRASEX, un sindicato que lucha para los derechos laborales y humanos de les trabajadores sexuales en Colombia. Acompañanos en esta conversación en donde compartimos nuestros puntos de vista y una vez más hablamos de lo que nadie habla.

• Encuentra a ASTRASEX en Instagram y Twitter
• Sigue a Ataraxxxia en Instagram

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