Indecent: How I Make it and Fake it as a Girl for Hire by Sarah Katherine Lewis
2006
Weight: 12.8 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving Somewhere
I loved this book. It felt so good to be reading something I loved again. I feel like I have spent far too long just reading books that are okay or worse. It is funny because I picked it up and put it back on the shelf countless times before I actually read it. I do have a fascination with the sex industry, which is why I bought it, but I also have a reasonable bad taste in my mouth for books about it. So often I have picked up a book to learn it was written by someone "undercover" or someone who stripped for a year with the intention of writing a book or someone who has no writing skills what-so-ever or whatever. The shock value is there so the story can be lacking. I thought this book would be more of the same.
It wasn't. Lewis had me hooked when she talked about playing the game Whore as a child and when she worried that she was too chubby for sex work. So often, I have thought about it and thought I am too fat, too unattractive, too old, too whatever. I felt an instant connection. Then she began talking about the confidence it gave her and I was enthralled. I wished I had done it. She went from one job to the next with a desire to learn and a strong work ethic. As the book and her life went on, she seemed to grow increasingly angry and violent minded. I questioned if I would have ever been strong enough for it. I did not feel lied to. I felt comfortable in the place where I could look at sex work as sex work. She did not class it as a magical kingdom where feminists romp naked and feel wonderful about themselves while raking in the money, but she did not make it out to be the evil of the world that must be purged either. She talked about things like confidence and fear, feminism and fuckery, with what seemed like a sincerity I could trust.
I did get to the end of the book and feel like somewhat of a customer though. Was I being the oh-so-dreaded relater? I would be lying if I acted like I never got turned on while reading it, which is bizarre because there was not a lot to be turned on about. The book was full of nasty smelling jizz, sticky environments, and deplorable people. She kept the reader at arms length. She showed us a lot about the sex industry, but she never let us get close to her outside of her work. We do not know what she does for fun, anything about her friends who don't do sex work, that she has a brother until the acknowledgements, what she spends her money on, and why should we? We have come to learn about sex work, after all. She are reminded throughout the book that she will not give out too much information in order to be safe. She tells us each time she starts a new job.
Any who, I loved it and I thank her for being bold enough to do it, write about it, and share it with the world. I think I will seek out this sex and bacon book I am seeing all the reviewers of Indecent rave about.
p.s. Sarah Katherine Lewis, you are right. Hemmingway does suck.
2006
Weight: 12.8 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving Somewhere
I loved this book. It felt so good to be reading something I loved again. I feel like I have spent far too long just reading books that are okay or worse. It is funny because I picked it up and put it back on the shelf countless times before I actually read it. I do have a fascination with the sex industry, which is why I bought it, but I also have a reasonable bad taste in my mouth for books about it. So often I have picked up a book to learn it was written by someone "undercover" or someone who stripped for a year with the intention of writing a book or someone who has no writing skills what-so-ever or whatever. The shock value is there so the story can be lacking. I thought this book would be more of the same.
It wasn't. Lewis had me hooked when she talked about playing the game Whore as a child and when she worried that she was too chubby for sex work. So often, I have thought about it and thought I am too fat, too unattractive, too old, too whatever. I felt an instant connection. Then she began talking about the confidence it gave her and I was enthralled. I wished I had done it. She went from one job to the next with a desire to learn and a strong work ethic. As the book and her life went on, she seemed to grow increasingly angry and violent minded. I questioned if I would have ever been strong enough for it. I did not feel lied to. I felt comfortable in the place where I could look at sex work as sex work. She did not class it as a magical kingdom where feminists romp naked and feel wonderful about themselves while raking in the money, but she did not make it out to be the evil of the world that must be purged either. She talked about things like confidence and fear, feminism and fuckery, with what seemed like a sincerity I could trust.
I did get to the end of the book and feel like somewhat of a customer though. Was I being the oh-so-dreaded relater? I would be lying if I acted like I never got turned on while reading it, which is bizarre because there was not a lot to be turned on about. The book was full of nasty smelling jizz, sticky environments, and deplorable people. She kept the reader at arms length. She showed us a lot about the sex industry, but she never let us get close to her outside of her work. We do not know what she does for fun, anything about her friends who don't do sex work, that she has a brother until the acknowledgements, what she spends her money on, and why should we? We have come to learn about sex work, after all. She are reminded throughout the book that she will not give out too much information in order to be safe. She tells us each time she starts a new job.
Any who, I loved it and I thank her for being bold enough to do it, write about it, and share it with the world. I think I will seek out this sex and bacon book I am seeing all the reviewers of Indecent rave about.
p.s. Sarah Katherine Lewis, you are right. Hemmingway does suck.
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