Crazy hours. Chasing dollars. Constantly laying yourself open for strangers. Freelance journalism is pretty similar to prostitution, and I should know -- I've had better careers than you in both. I start every article I write about sex work by outing myself as a former pro because there are so few people in the media with firsthand job experience of the issue. See what I did there? It was a joke about handjobs. Because I used to do them. For money. When I was a prostitute. Anyway, I've asked some current sex workers how the game could be improved. Obviously, I was hoping to interview a real expert on the matter -- someone like Lena Dunham, or Emma Thompson, perhaps, but they were busy.
LISTEN TO SEX WORKERS
I've been drinking in Laura Lee's Dublin tones for half an hour. Even over the phone, she's a tour de force. "I was at this debate about sex work a few years ago in Glasgow and sitting there listening to the lies they were putting out." She was incensed. "I thought, 'You're speaking a load of drivel that has nothing to do with my life or any of the women I've worked with.'" A sex workers' rights activist was born. This is an increasingly vocal community of campaigners.