PLEASE STOP SAYING "CONFINED TO A WHEELCHAIR!" I mean christ it doesn't even make sense! Most of you use shoes to help you get places - are you confined to your shoes?! No. Your shoes give you a level of mobility you wouldn't have without them. THAT IS ALSO WHAT A WHEELCHAIR DOES
Follow
Click to Follow MissLoreleiLee
Lorelei Lee
@MissLoreleiLee
writer, performer, SW organizer, etc 18+
venmo @ Lorelei-Lee
cashapp $LoreleiLee
they/them
Inquiries: info@loreleilee.work
representation:
venmo @ Lorelei-Lee
cashapp $LoreleiLee
they/them
Inquiries: info@loreleilee.work
representation: Lorelei Lee’s Tweets
Mainstream films are all like: stalking is romance! Relationships should be hard! She says she hates you because she loves you! He's just mean because he's broken, fix him, it's romance!
And people are still like: Stop porn from teaching unhealthy relationships to the youth!
I paid off my student loans with good old fashioned anal and gangbangs but young people today just don't appreciate the value of hard work
I have no memory of a policy reversal like this EVER happening before in response to community outrage and grief. This is absolutely stunning
Quote Tweet
As many, many SW scholars and activists have been telling you - the roots of the 21st century "feminist" anti-trafficking trafficking movement are in the religious Purity movements of the late 19th century and are utterly intertwined with scientific racism and eugenics. 1/?
Quote Tweet
This whole idea of criminalizing people for transporting women over state lines for any “immoral purpose” is, incredibly, 108 years older than SESTA/FOSTA—it’s from the 1910 White-Slave Traffic Act: law.cornell.edu/wex/mann_act
I swear 90 percent of these "wellness" recommendations are things you can only do if you are already well
Dear civilians,
Please, please, PLEASE, I am begging you. We do not need any more civilian documentaries about s/x w/rk. We just don't. Please, take your "complicated" feelings about the industry to therapy and give your movie money to actual s/x w/rk/rs
People have a lot to say about s3x workers using drugs to work & working to get drugs, but needing a job in order to get the drugs you need to do that job is literally just American capitalism
Just came out as non-binary to my family and they are being so supportive 😭😭😭
That & know the difference between decrim and legalization is because of the hours of work put in by educating the show's producers. She is a blessing to this movement❤ t.co/ya5NR79Hsd
This Tweet is unavailable.
I swear it will never get old for you people to use "porn star" as a synonym for "trashy" or "failure," and all I can think is it's so obvious you've never actually met a porn star before
It's really cool that everyone's watching #HowToBuildaSexRoom on but meanwhile sx workers & adult businesses can't even take payments without their accounts getting shut down so buy yr toys while you can but don't look for an expert to show you how to use them
People who say poor people are lazy have obviously never spent the whole day taking public transit & waiting in the soul sucking social services office only to be told you don't have the right paperwork
Someone decided to manufacture a "nut milk" and call it "JOI." Who wants to tell them? 😂
Beloved wh0res, I remember vividly the feeling that because I had done SW I was not worthy of love. I've now been with my partner for over 13 years, & he has fed me pedialyte and soup after long shoot days, and loved me better than I ever knew possible. You too deserve this❤️
Imagine having enough money to house or feed millions of people ...and building a space ship
People always want to know if sex workers are "happy," but the question is not just absurd (are doctors happy? are baseball players happy?), it is also entirely irrelevant to our fight for justice
When we say you need to hire SWs to write, research, study, do public speaking about SW it's not some arbitrary ban on civilians (as if we had that power) it's because SWs are denied these opportunities again & again & again in favor of less "controversial" so-called "experts"
Every time criminalization increases, there is a lot of fear and a lot of desire for information that will make people "safe." Please, please remember that there is no such thing as perfect safety, there is only harm reduction. Relatedly, if you are arrested, it is not your fault
STOP FRAMING HARM REDUCTION FOR S3X WORKERS AS IN OPPOSITION TO PROTECTING PEOPLE FROM TRAFFICKING
Recreating a thread I inadvertently deleted of links to SW harm reductions guides (in no particular order), please add to this and share!
Carol Leigh gave her whole life to people in the sex trades, and never stopped learning, growing, and questioning her own analyses. She was the rare icon who also made herself a student of younger activists. She gave me so much, and I'll hold her in my heart always 💔✊️☂️
It is truly amazing how people can hear you're a s3x worker one time and never, ever forget it but hear your pronouns 50 times and never, ever remember them
Before you comment any further on OF please read all of this. Thank you
I'm really looking for disability theory books that conceptualize acceptance of living in a chronically ill body on its own terms - not as a battle, but as a whole and complex being. Can we seek medical care without thinking of our bodies as broken?
I truly cannot believe this is real and actually happening, but here is some big news. I could not be more grateful for my amazing agent and for Jenny Xu at HMH and you guys this whole thing is just wild😭😭😭
The following media includes potentially sensitive content. Change settings
View
a question for s/x wrkrs only: what pice of writing/youtube video/documentary/podcast (esp a specific episode) do you point civilians toward to better understand our lives, industries, culture, stigmas, and/or relationships?
It's 4am and I'm thinking about how FOSTA makes it much harder for people in the s/3/x trades to even access information about abortion in a post-Roe world, much less an actual abortion
I know some people will be disappointed to hear this, but I don't ID w "s3x positivity" or "body positivity." For me, s3x & body neutrality (or ambivalence tbh) make more sense as guiding principles. I need room to feel positive, negative, in between, neither, both, everything
Just a reminder that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a critical race theorist & radical who argued for economic redistribution & universal access to basic resources & against capitalism
Good morning beloved SWs! I know we did this a few years ago, but I think it's time again: what have you learned from doing sx wrk that you value and/or use in other contexts?
Replying to
Cis white women who previously felt secure enough to look benevolently on trans people, sex workers, BIPOC, have not had to develop strategies for living under state surveillance, criminalization, and exclusion - the experience is new to them so they believe it's unique to them
Last month, I got what I was certain was a spam call. Instead, it was this. I'm still utterly floored. Incredibly grateful and honored to finally be able to share the news
Quote Tweet
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2021 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant! Learn more about their artful and essential forthcoming books and read excerpts from their work on our website: buff.ly/3wtu5Nr
I see a lot of SWs shutting down or stepping away from Twitter accounts. Just want to share a harm reduction tactic in case it's relevant to you: don't shut your account down entirely & keep control of your handle to prevent others from using it to impersonate you
beloved sex workers, please, please, please lets try to keep each other alive
I've been too sick and too sad and too overwhelmed to talk about OF, but am just here to say that I am so damn tired of this shit
I now have long covid, but I've had similar symptoms, & a diagnosis common to long covid patients (POTS), for years. I've done chronic pain therapy, chronic illness therapy, CBT, DBT, etc etc - no amount of therapy has fixed my tachycardia, fatigue, pain - what HAS worked is meds
having some heavy feels today about inequity. redistributing cash (or trying to) is one of the most difficult parts of my work while also being one of the most important. Half of it is just poor people passing money & labor back & forth. This is, obviously, not redistribution.
A short thing I want to say to sex workers and survivors about EARN IT is that we still have a lot of fight to fight. We are nowhere near the end on this bill. The time is now to support each other as a community with a diversity of lived experiences
I am so goddamn tired of people in the s/3x trades getting kicked off platforms. Like, you say you want ppl to stop trading s/3x so you take away our ability to get/save money & to talk to each other online? As if being broke & alone isn't why we started hustling in the 1st place
Today seems like a good day to re up this harm reduction guide
This use of "victim" language has been (imo) an intentional tactic by white-cis-hetero supremacists who know how it confuses people naive to the issue - this is the danger of the "both sides" approach - it undermines power analysis & makes audiences think there is no truth
Quote Tweet
Replying to @melissagira
Some of those white feminists turned to anti-sex trafficking activism, taking their own exaggerated feelings of victimhood (their response to internal critique) and building a movement that still centered themselves
I know I've said this before, but school-style English grammar & punctuation isn't "correct," it's a gate used to exclude. Learn it by necessity - to get into the rooms where power is held - but outside of that language is alive - constantly changing, & different everywhere
Happy valentine's day to the intentionally single, to poly folks, to best friends as committed to each other as any couple, to promiscuity for pleasure alone, to chosen family love, single parent love, love separated by visa processes, to folks separated by death or incarceration
The times publishing the CK op-ed with the inflammatory and racist word "p*mp" in the headline is just proof of the popularity of white supremacist politics on both the right and the left
You can stop DMing me asking if you can give me money. You can just give me money.
I don't know who needs to hear this, but I recently co-founded a coalition that is very intentionally a non-productive organization. We are coming from a disability justice perspective and in some sense this is about making our small coalition accessible to us, but it is also
Calls to abolish the sex industry have been and continue to be driven by white supremacist ideology. Beloved SWs, stay safe out there❤ vice.com/en/article/n7b
Replying to
I mean I really think it's that abled people don't even know how to use a wheelchair! Or a cane. Or crutches. You only find them confining because you don't have the skills!
in case you didn't already know: all tech companies see SW as a proxy for trafficking and are actively creating apps, data scraping tools, algorithms, etc to seek SWs out, to mine our posts & ads for "patterns" that will help "detect" info they'll use to "solve" trafficking
Replying to
The point here is that we've inherited a model of "non-profit" work that made it impossible for impacted people to lead the ways that work was done. You aren't a better person if you work for free, you just have more of our country's misallocated & unfairly distributed resources
Replying to
Literally the reason you know about any of this is because of sx professionals but go ahead and enjoy the privilege of consuming knowledge & products created by people who are largely excluded from legal economies #howtobuildasexroom
Replying to
These tactics always increase when less-marginalized groups (e.g. white cis women) are threatened similarly to more marginalized (e.g. trans people) - the less marginalized start to take steps to separate themselves from the more marginalized to keep what status they had
Chronic illness babes: what non-medical thing do you do for yourself when you're having a rough day or after a procedure?
Abled vaccinated people, please just wear your damn masks. It does not hurt you to do this. You may be 96% protected from serious illness and hospitalization, but everywhere you go there are disabled and chronically ill people who don't have that benefit. Just wear your masks.
Hi it's me your neurodivergent friend you haven't heard from in 3 months, here to text you a 2000 word update & then disappear again as soon as you reply
Men in my DMs like "goddess I want to worship you" meanwhile my venmo info is right there in my profile 🙄
I am a sex trafficking survivor, and speaks for me. She is one of the great voices of our movement. Tomorrow is International Day to End Violence Against S3x Workers. That includes the violence of "End Demand." Please read every word of this:
I started sworking at 19 and while I literally was "groomed" into it or whatever by my 27 year old boyfriend, I simultaneously faced all the conditions stated below, along with what I now know was Ehlers Danlos syndrome + CPTSD making straight jobs un-survivable. There's layers! twitter.com/prolepeach/sta
This Tweet is unavailable.
Oh were you having trouble remembering my pronouns? That's cool let me just remind you real quick #femmeisaqueerword #picklekittenjewelry etsy.com/shop/PickleKit
read image description
ALT
I don't know who needs to hear this but dealing with your ableism now will exponentially improve your experience of aging
Replying to
Being poor is time consuming, expensive, and arduous and requires navigating systems designed to punish you for being poor. Meanwhile middle class people barely know that these systems exist
I hope that while everyone is working on restricting opioid access someone is also working on finding another pain medication that actually works
I once dated a straight guy who said, "It's so easy to date straight women. All you have to do is be slightly less shitty than the last straight guy they dated." And I keep wondering if that is how the Democrats feel right now
I know there's this archaic tradition that says tips are a reward for good service, but we all know by now that tips are actually about making up for shitty wages. We all know that service workers survive or not based on tips
Advice from a cybersecurity expert (not me): now is a very bad time to share financial or other private information with twitter the company. Do not trust their privacy protections to function right now. Treat every feature here as though you risk exposure of any shared info
Honestly the way people talk to each other on this platform is the worst. This is like the party I really wish I hadn't gone to & I keep trying to make it worth it when really I should just go home
OK beloveds, today 3 street-based s/xwrkers need groceries including my dear friend, a disabled single mom & organizer of color who spends every day hustling up supplies 4 wrkers. They only need $150, I know we can get there! Please RT!
cashapp $LoreleiLee
venmo: @ Lorelei-Lee
I think of all the myths about porn performers, the myth that we aren't as smart as other people is both the most bizarre & furthest from reality
First pandemic flight. First flight using mobility aids. First time in an airport transport chair. I am very happy I decided to just bring all the damn pillows.
The MA Joint Committee on the Judiciary will hear 2 SW bills today - a decrim bill to repeal "common nightwalking" and give amnesty to SWs who are victims of crimes from and a client-criminalization/Nordic model bill. You can watch live here: malegislature.gov/Events/Hearing
Three-ish months ago, I was in a small medical bldg (in a northeastern US city) that had two single-stall bathrooms, marked "male" & "female." Beloveds, I was tired. I didn't want to say anything. I just wanted to pee. But -
Decided to share this: it took 25 years, dozens of doctors, a cascade of other illnesses, and two major surgeries for me to finally be diagnosed with and treated for endometriosis. The system is broken. It's not in your head. You deserve actual care & treatment for your pain.
"Whether or not they were actually sex workers or self-identified under that label, we know that as massage workers, they were subjected to sexualized violence stemming from the hatred of sex workers, Asian women, working class people, and immigrants." docs.google.com/document/d/1_Q
My therapist, trying to teach me to honor my desires: What's something you want?
Me: wealth redistribution
Therapist: okay, but that might take a while. Something attainable
Me: to be a better person
Therapist: *head in hands* okay, let's take a step back
A reminder that:
You do not have to spend time with people who make you feel bad
There is no right way to have a holiday
Chosen family is real family
Being alone can also be wonderful
Finding what soothes, heals, comforts, or brings you joy might take time, please keep going
Just got the call that my wheelchair was approved!!!!! Eternal gratitude for healthcare providers who work endlessly fighting a terrible system to increase access for their patients❤️❤️❤️
Shout out to everyone writing, writing, writing your secret, unread projects❤
At a training for repro organizers, & I were asked how to minimize power imbalance between volunteers when some have more resources & therefore time to volunteer, lead projects, etc. Simultaneously, Blunt & I said: "Pay them"
Replying to
SW HARM REDUCTION *IS* PROTECTING PEOPLE FROM TRAFFICKING
Trauma experts: trauma makes survivors lose their ability to judge people so they don't trust trauma experts
Me: statements like that are why I don't trust trauma experts
What I'm thinking about this morning is how the requirement to portray oneself as a depleted victim to access benefits through NGOs & gov agencies is reversed in SW where we get more by pretending to need nothing financially - & how this relates to "empowerment" discourse
We all know that "wellness" is just a euphemism for selling self-obsession as a moral good, right?
literally took 20 years of therapy to realize my summer depression comes from years of being told that not wanting to play outside like everyone else is a personality flaw rather than, say, the result of a painful genetic disorder and a love of books
2022: a nurse forgot to take out my IV before I was discharge and I forgot to remind her, so I went home, watched a basic-nursing-skills video, and took it out myself. Heading into this year feeling like a badass
Beloveds, I'm absolutely devastated to share that my beloved friend & movement member Jaylanee has been evicted with her kids & needs emergency aid. They need to be out in 24 hours & it's freezing. I'm heartbroken. Please donate if you can & PLEASE RT❤️
Replying to
The person at the front said casually, "oh yeah, a customer said something to us." My jaw literally dropped - ONE customer - I said: that was me! Another employee said, "oh yeah we took the signs down that afternoon. You had a good point." I was like, THANK YOU SO MUCH 😮
People are always acting like SWs are stupid. Meanwhile we agilely switch between our friends' multiple, context-dependent and frequently-changing names while civilians are still stuck on the idea that only one name is "real"
90% of my friends are wh0r3s and can I just say, these bitches are smart as hell. If I'm looking for an inciteful analysis or explanation or answer to any question I will ask a wh0re Every. Single. Time.
Replying to
I'm no Beyonce but our professional skills do overlap
Replying to
"Homeless ppl have untreated mental illness"
Uh huh. So does your mom. Your boss. Your best friend. Your elected rep.
If you think you can keep proximity between yourself and ppl w untreated mental illness using housed status as a proxy, I have news for you
Replying to
For me, a very relevant takeaway of this history is that abortion cannot be separated from other reproductive justice issues, which include immigration, white supremacist domestic policing, wage & labor equity, and yes - s/3x work along w other anti-queer forms of criminalization
Replying to
Just to be clear you guys, as I said to friends when I first saw the above tweet: I'm too traumatized by past closures to feel like I can trust any statement like this. And yet! Even for a company to make this kind of statement is unprecedented in my 20 years of doing this work.
Replying to
We end up with: no woman should be treated like a s/3x worker/trans person so s/3x workers & trans people must not be women. Instead of: none of us should be subjugated, and by centering the most impacted we will be pushing for equity for all of us
Holy shit what ppl say abt their opposition to L.A.'s bill to house unhoused in unsold hotel rooms is SO wildly, explicitly classist & ableist my jaw just dropped. Please. Trust a s/x wrkr: hanging out in hotels w only rich ppl will not keep you, yr kids, or yr property safe 🙄
Replying to
when FOSTA passed, members of & other SW activists said, you can't rely on vaguely worded laws not to broadly target behavior you think is constitutionally protected just because the CURRENT DOJ says they won't use it that way
Replying to
Civilians: imagine if at any moment yr bank account could be closed or paycheck withheld. How would you attain financial stability?