Member-only story
It is a dozen years since I started blogging (where has the time gone?) and my initial motivation was not primarily writing smut. It was rather to explore issues to do with sex work and sex workers’ rights, something to which I remain deeply committed even through I don’t write much about it anymore. The reason for that is that there are others much better placed than me to make the arguments than me, not least sex workers themselves. Allyship is often about knowing when to shut up.
It is, therefore, with a degree of reluctance that I post again. But a recent case in Birmingham has highlighted that the stigmatisation of sex workers is still a live issue. Last week, at a disciplinary hearing, a primary school teacher in Birmingham was banned from the profession for a period of at least five years. Not because she was no good at teaching, not because she was a safeguarding risk, not because she was dishonest, not because of anything to do with her performance at work. She was banned because she did sex work in her free time and this was held to bring the teaching profession into disrepute. In the words of the findings of the hearing
“I am particularly mindful of the finding of a teacher acting in a way that indicated that they were seeking to sell sexual services in this case and the very negative impact that such a finding may have on the reputation of the profession. “ [1]
The reporting has been predictable lurid with headlines about her being a “£1,600 a night escort” and similar. Comments I have seen on social…
