Axel Slade

We've finally made it to the day where porn goes mainstream. It was a slow but sure process; half-naked women in music videos existed far before this time... but if you told me ago Beyonce would be singing about it? I definitely wouldn't have believed you.
Now, more than ever before, women have reclaimed the derogatory titles primarily used as a tactic of shame, and created our own definition for sexual liberation. There are no boundaries for a woman who knows her worth! Whether it's choosing to speak out against years of patriarchy with the #MeToo movement, starting an OnlyFans to pay off your student loans or getting freaky with strangers (safely) because you feel like it - we all can benefit from the normalization of sex work.
With that being said, sexual liberation is not exclusive to promiscuous woman. It is not relevant to what she does but what she has the freedom to choose. Many women carry the burden of believing her value is based solely on a man's perception of a "good woman" when truthfully, the value she places in herself actually stems from either a lifetime of insecurity or the positive effects of enforcing self-love.
There is an alarming number of people on social media finding entertainment from harassing sex workers to out them to their families or simply to perpetuate the stigma further by making frivolous assumptions, like sex workers not paying taxes or saying that these women aren't formally educated and without skill other than the ones associated with content creation. People seem to find difficultly believing a woman who chooses to sell her body is worthy of respect, and rather that, after being openly sexual, she no longer possesses the qualities of a good woman. Those are ignorant assumptions, to say the least.
Tracing back to the common language often used for prostitution, "selling your body", is one of the oldest professions. If you really think about the work involved with large multi-national, multi million dollar corporations and the of it's minimum wage workers - does that not count as selling your body? Your labour? Time? Energy? The term is antiquated, misogynistic and based in the archaic expectation that women are to be shamed for profiting off their sexualities freely, the way men have always done. The interesting thing about women and being expected to suppress their natural instincts is that we expect the opposite from men, even as .
There is something to be said about the way people raise their chil***n to be cautious around conversations about sex. While I see why a parent wouldn't want to express inappropriate language to young chil***n too soon, we forget that human sexuality also involves consent. For as long as the books date back, has existed, in every country and at every age. These despicable acts are reality and cause deep trauma to its . I tend to believe if we centered more conversations with knowledge around our very impressionable chil***n - they'd be able to better grasp the concept of consent from a young age. More often than not, the stigma behind human sexuality prevents parents from having necessary discussions that will inevitably impact their chil***n's lives. It's important not that we center these lessons around sex, but around the wonderful human body and our changing experiences with age.
There is also something to be said about the way men have profited off the image of hypersexualized women in the media; their movies, music videos, video games, etc. all seem to value the half-naked aesthetic but ironically, the minute a woman chooses to display her sexuality, she's put in a box we don't believe she could exist outside of. As women, we are multidimensional works of art. We are incredible chefs, teachers, engineers, writers, actresses, mothers, and the list goes on... Sometimes, on top of that, we are also sex workers, maybe sexually promiscuous, or possibly just openly comfortable with discussions around human anatomy. The world has taught us to subconsciously stigmatize female sexuality, when there's so much more power in acknowledging and shifting the narrative. We only have freedom to gain.
As women, we deserve pleasure. We deserve the freedom to exist. We deserve the power to say no. We deserve the ability to say yes. We deserve the choice to express our sexuality. We deserve the right to look in the mirror and feel the sincerest form of self-love and confidence. We deserve respect. No matter who you are or what kind of person you might be - your voice carries power. Let it be your true voice, based on your increasing knowledge and not the influence from years of conditioning. It is my hope that the normalization of sex work will ultimately force us to take a greater look at the women we know and love. Yes, she is more than her body but that body is also a great part of her existence. What she chooses to do with it should be completely, entirely, and without question, up to her.