Today, or sometime around today, is an anniversary that I felt in my body before the why came to mind. Around this time, in 2010, a good friend of mine took her own life. She was 27 years old.
friendship
issues
Want to know what it’s like to live on food stamps? Ask the 46 million Americans who do it everyday, not as a “challenge” or for publicity but because they can’t afford food.
issues
“Broke” is a relative term. Certainly, I could have a lot less. I could have not just paid my bills. I could have not just gotten my hair colored -- at Bumble and Bumble, no less.
family drama
And I think I'm all right with that.
sex
In the age of the Internet, especially, when everything may be recorded and nothing is forgotten, I think it’s time that we, as a society, broaden the spectrum of who constitutes a good employee.
abortion
A couple years ago, on my commute to work, I was met by a poster featuring a glum-faced woman staring blankly at me, “I thought life would be like the way it was before,” it read. Then: “Abortion changes you.” No, it didn’t, I remember thinking at the time. Speak for yourself.
coming out
Whereas I realize better than most the costs of turning your life and your very identity into a political statement, I also know that it is sometimes our secrets that make us sick, more so than whatever it is that we’re hiding.
job
Erica Jong recently commented on the phenomenon of not paying writers for content, which she seems to think is getting worse. "Authors are blogging everywhere for free,” she said, “and it’s not a good development. They are starving.”
craigslist
Even before scandal drew my sex work history to light, in my daily life, my coming clean -- or not -- had always been an issue.
class
Ann Romney’s remarks about “women out there who don’t have a choice” perfectly captures certain rich people’s deep-seated beliefs about class -- namely, that class inequity is a positive thing, and that there's something noble about poverty.
entertainment
Growing up, I never saw myself represented in media. I still don’t.
apologies
A fauxpology is the opposite of a sincere, thoughtful apology. It is not caring that you’ve upset someone, not acknowledging their feelings as valid and legitimate. It’s saving one’s own ass.
entertainment
Following the publication of her story, Marie Calloway -- a college student originally from Nevada, self-described as “introverted and sensitive,” 18 at the time the story had been lived -- found herself the center of a media attention that was largely negative and loudly debating whether or not Marie Calloway and the likes of her deserved any attention at all.
creepers
Being sexually available and making men feel good about themselves is work, and I don’t have to do it for free.
anger
In cardio-kickboxing the other night, I sidekicked the woman next to me full strength in the head. I didn't do it on purpose, but I wasn't sorry it happened.
melissa petro
Had you asked me a year ago if I would have considered writing for Penthouse, let alone taking pictures, I would have feigned insult.
moms
I can’t comprehend how hard it was for my mom to think of her daughter selling sex, given what a misunderstood industry it is.
enthusiastic consent
Melissa Petro says Yes! Yes! Yes! to sex. (Or, a Portrait of a Relationship After a Major Sex Scandal).
beauracracy
What happens to "bad teachers?" After the New York Post made my sex work past front-page news, I spent 30 weeks finding out.
