[āA month into the pandemic, the Philadelphia Police Department announced they would delay the arrests and detainments of people caught for nonviolent offenses, including prostitution. Amid increased risk for many workers, the virus also made plain what we already knew, already dreamed up: the police could simply stop arresting people. Theyāre not going to, of courseāat least not for any sustained periodābut they could.
I read an interview Fran Lebowitz gave to Aperture in 1994, in which she described her friend, the artist David Wojnarowicz, who died of AIDS in 1992. Asked if he was political, Lebowitz answered, āVery. Very. Although not always in a direct way ā¦ But his basic take on things was an adversarial relationship between him and institutions, or himself and authority, and thatās a totally political way to look at life. You know, he hated cops. Not this cop, or that cop. Cops.ā The interviewer clarifies, āBecause of what they represented?ā and Lebowitz answers, āBecause theyāre cops.ā
Wojnarowicz sold sex as a teenager to survive. He raged against a state that had the blood of his loved ones on its hands, a state that would soon have his blood, as well. After his diagnosis, he told us, with everything he made, āfags and dykes and junkies are expendable in this country.ā Fags and dykes and junkies and whoresācriminals, each and every one of us.
I often think about what brought me here. There are plenty of other things I could do to make money, and plenty of practical and impractical reasons Iāve chosen sex work: lower time commitment than a straight job; insatiable curiosity about the sexual proclivities of others; inherited neuroses I have yet to work out in therapy. Lately, though, Iāve started to think I became a whore because I wanted to align myself with criminality, and in doing so, to solidify my societal position as materially anti-state.
I say āalign myself with criminalityā and not ābecome a criminalā because one cannot become a criminal, one can only be labeled a criminal by the state. And it is exceedingly unlikely that I will ever be labeled a criminal, because of my white womanhood and relative wealth and privilege. When police see me, they see innocence. They have historically committed, after all, their most heinous acts in the name of protecting women who look like me. Nonetheless, I disalign myself with them. I want decriminalization, but I never, ever want police on our side.ā]
sonya aragon, from whores at the end of the world, from we too: stories on sex work and survival, edited by natalie west
