Fleshbot interviews GoAskAlex

Naomi Leroy spoke with Alex about life, porn, fanny packs – and her legacy as a disabled Sex Worker and Sex Educator. Read the full interview on Fleshbot.

“You may be surprised to know that many sex workers are living with disabilities and limitations (both mental and physical). Almost every sex worker I know has dealt with chronic health/mental health setbacks. The fact that sex work has a ‘low barrier for entry’ means that it is more accessible for people with disabilities than many other professions. Unfortunately the idea of sex work being a ‘low barrier for entry’ career has been conflated with it being an ‘undesirable’ line of work, which couldn’t be any further from the truth.

You don’t need to look far to find a sex worker living with a disability. Unfortunately due to societal stigma, not everyone is comfortable sharing this side of themselves (this applies to everyone, not just sex workers!). Until we as a society can destigmatize mental health and disabilities, I don’t know that we can expect to see more representation. At the same time, representation is a key factor in ending the stigma, and something that we all need to prioritise. We need to see more diversity in pornography; we need to see underrepresented bodies. Unfortunately the majority of disabled bodies in pornography are used to perpetuate harmful stereotypes and fetishes. This isn’t only true for disabled bodies; we need to see diversity of gender, race, and size, without fetishizing or tokenizing the performer.”