#swbooks — Public Fediverse posts

«The Missing Anthology: Stories from Singapore's Sex Workers»

👤 Editors: Vanessa Ho, Raksha Mahtani, Nor
🗓 2025-03-09
🆔 ISBN: 978-981-94-1956-2
📔 Editorial: Faction Press 🛒 https://www.faction.press/shop/p/the-missing-anthology-stories-from-singapores-sex-workers

> Sex workers in Singapore — and most places around the world — tend to be dehumanised, glamourised or sensationalised by the public and media alike. Rarely do mainstream narratives centre sex workers’ voices and agency. The Missing Anthology presents fifteen bold new voices from sex workers, whose writings resist society’s simplistic assumptions about sex work. In these works, authors recount their lived experiences, share their struggles and triumphs, and imagine different futures for the sex industry.

> Born from an open call and writing workshops organised by Project X — the only non-profit organisation in Singapore that provides social, emotional, and health services to people in the sex industry — these pieces daringly experiment with form, genre, and perspective. In these pages, you’ll find two “chickens” discussing their dreams while blowing up a condom; pieces on the dynamics of domme-ing and servicing second-hand hearts; essays on the importance of activism and its obstacles; short fiction exploring fantasies of violent liberation; tender letters to loved ones and younger selves that reflect on their journeys and how far they’ve come.

> ‘The Missing Anthology’ re-centres sex workers’ voices from the margins, bringing them into the conversation about an industry often treated as illicit and taboo. By doing so, it aims to address issues of inequality, social and economic mobility, stigmatization, and safety that are fuelled by misconceptions about sex workers and their profession.

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Psssst… yeah, very much recommended. ^~

Nonfiction? Southeast Asia told by those in southeast Asia? Sex work told by sex workers?
Nonfiction talk on sex work in Southeast Asia by actual sex workers in Southeast Asia? Hell yeah~!

It's not often at all you find this combination. ;3

#SWBooks #SexWork #ProjectX #Singapore #Anthology #March2025 #Book #Books #Bookstodon

«Not Your Rescue Project: Migrant sex workers fighting for justice»

👤 Chanelle Gallant 👤 Elene Lam
🗓 2024-11-12
📔 Haymarket Books 🛒 https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2258-not-your-rescue-project
🌐 Website: https://www.notyourrescueprojectbook.com

> A landmark abolitionist primer on migration, sex work, policing, and the “anti-trafficking industry”—and a powerful argument about who is really leading the way toward justice: migrant sex workers themselves.

> In this impassioned corrective to decades of misguided, carceral approaches to migration and sex work, long-time organizers Chanelle Gallant and Elene Lam deftly expose the harms of criminalization in the name of “anti-trafficking” and lift up migrant sex workers’ organizing in the US, Canada, and elsewhere. In doing so, they make the compelling case that the only effective response to the needs of migrant sex workers must be led by migrants in the sex trade, as they fight for rights, safety, and autonomy.

> Gallant and Lam illustrate how this movement is taking aim at the root causes of violence and abuse: the white supremacist securitization of borders, the criminalization of both migration and sex work, the patriarchial devaluation of women’s labor, and forced displacement due to climate disaster, war, and poverty—all fueled by racial capitalism.

> An indispensable exploration of the relationship between migration and sex work—and the underlying societal conditions they reflect—Not Your Rescue Project is a thorough indictment of the anti-trafficking industry as an engine of criminalization and state violence, and an instructive account of the emancipatory politics already being practiced by migrant sex workers in their organizing. Throughout, Gallant and Lam place migrant sex workers at the center of struggles against border imperialism, carceral states, and capitalism—dispelling a range of poisonous myths and paving the way for deeper alliances across movements with the shared goal of dismantling and abolishing carceralism in all its forms.

#SWBooks #SexWork #Migration #Policing #RescueIndustry #Abolition #AntiTrafficking #Colonialism #Intersectionality #NotYourRescueProject #Book #Books #Bookstodon #November2024

«Whoring Art: a Red Light Anthology»

🆔 ISBN: 9-789-08-3453-22-4
🗓️ 21st May 2026
👥 Edited: HXSSY
📔 Editorial: @spookstad 🛒 https://spookstad.boo/
[🔍 Search for the title, although it'll be towards the top for a while]

> What happens when sex workers are in charge of their own image, labor laws, work places, and community spaces?

> Sex work everywhere is facing erasure from public life. In Amsterdam’s infamous Red Light District – De Wallen – the combined forces of gentrification, repression, hetero-cis sexism, and stigma are threatening its future. But sex workers have risen up, reclaiming the unconstrained genius and militancy of whores as the key to social transformation.

> This book brings together the voices of sex workers, queer and trans cultural workers, and Amsterdam’s squatting movement, to offer a radical vision of whoring liberated. Whoring Art: A Red Light Anthology is an abundant reimagination of sex work in the city.

> Edited by HXSSY, a former Red Light-based queer sex worker-centered collective led by Mercy St. J, Adanya Dunn, and Anna Torres.

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I think this one speaks for itself. ^~

Amsterdam's Red Light District gets talked about far and wide (often with a fair amount if poison) 'cept by those actually working there. As usual for sex work.

The book is just published — literally release date was three days ago, the website hasn't updated the “preorder” label yet even — so I can't add any sort of review, but I can confidently advance this is a much-needed reframing~

#SWBooks #SexWork #DeWallen #Amsterdam #RedLightDistrict #Anthology #NonFiction #HXSSY #Book #Books #Bookstodon #May2026

«Transactional Intercourse»

👤 Editor: Jack Parker
🗓️ April 27th 2026
🆔 ISBN: 978-17-38495-56-6
🛒 Physical: https://www.jackviolet.store/product/order-transactional-intercourse
🛒 PDF: https://www.jackviolet.store/product/transactional-intercourse-pdf
🛒 EBook (?): https://jackparker.gumroad.com/l/transactionalinter

> Transactional Intercourse is an anthology of trans and intersex sex workers' writing, serving as a snapshot of our experiences in our own words. It includes essays and personal narratives from 30 sex workers who either sell sex directly to clients or make porn, across the sex and gender spectrum.

> I'm tired of looking for stories from trans and intersex sex workers and finding far more instances of people speaking over us than instances where we get to speak for ourselves. I'm angry that when I do find documentaries or writing where we are featured and get the chance to express our thoughts, those involved have frequently gone unpaid and been treated poorly in the process of sharing. I'm devastated that we're so often gawked at or framed as dangerous deviants by people who gain money and notoriety from broadcasting the details of our trauma and ridiculing our joy. We deserve better, and I hope the anthology Transactional Intercourse can be a part of that!

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💙❤️🤍❤️💙
✨ It's here! 🔥
💛💜💛💜💛

Well, it's been for four days, but today is the book recommendation one. 😅
Nevermind tho, let's get to the point: this absolute jewel of a book. 💎

The work is about as self-describing as it can get: a compilation of life stories and reflections of trans and intersex people in the sex trade. ❣️

All three represent collectives that tend to remain on the sidelines and even actively silenced — never mind their intersection…

This book puts the focus right where it belongs: on the people living at these intersections, on their own voices.

It includes both the good, the bad and the ugly — because even among a relatively limited population, sex work experiences are all over the place, and none actually deserves being left out.

Of course, due to practical limitations, there are certainly going to be some that couldn't make it in —no matter how comprehensive it were, there'd always be— but nevertheless, one thing is certain:
You'll hardly find a comparable collection anywhere. 💞

#SexWork #Trans #Intersex #Anthology #SWBooks #TransActionalInterCourse #LGBTIQ #LGBTI #LGBTQI #Book #Books #NonFiction #Bookstodon #April2026

📕 «Working Guys: A Transmasculine Sex Worker Anthology»

👤 Editor: Jack Parker
🗓️ September 2024
🆔 ISBN: 978-17-38495-54-2
🌐 https://workingguys.carrd.co
🛒 Paperback: https://mxjackparker.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-paperback-of-working-guys-a-transmasculine-sex-worker-anthology
🛒 Ebook: https://jackparker.gumroad.com/l/workingguys

> While we are slowly seeing more accounts about the experiences of sex workers being shared, there are large gaps in the representation.

> Working Guys is a collection of essays, personal narratives and interviews about the lives of transmasculine sex workers, in our own words. Joyful, traumatic, or somewhere in between, this book preserves nuance and highlights a range of experiences. From selling sex under a female persona to taking advantage of the rise in popularity of trans men in porn, the pieces within provide a snapshot of moments in various transmasculine sex workers' lives.

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🏳️‍⚧️ We're still pretty close to Trans Day of Visibility.
☂️ And it's “Sex Work Book Friday” or something [yes, I've made that up, but I intend to keep it going].
🌟 So, this book is a PERFECT match. 💖❤️‍🔥

Trans people don't get their voices heard often enough.
That usually goes double for trans men.
Sex workers have as much or worse troubles themselves.

So it readily raises the question… What happens with transmasculine sex workers..?

“Wait, is there such a thing.?!”
Oh, yes there is!
Unsurprisingly though, they're on the deep end of the “ignored” spectrum, as their mere existence tends to make EVERY take on sex work from EVERY side shake pretty badly…
So yeah, one doesn't heard much about them.

I'm not gonna spoil you the fun. ^~
The book is exactly what is says on the tin — and its value ought to be more than self-evident.
Plus, it's really just 5£ (.epub), and waaay better than any beer you might buy instead. ;P

#SWBooks #SexWork #Anthology #Trans #TransMen #TransMasc #Book #Books #Bookstodon #September2024