due to the pandemic, jade is also now more selective when it comes to clients, does not accept last minute bookings and charges a premium for working during this time and potentially interacting with maskless, unvaccinated people.
but werhun says not all sex workers have had the privilege of being able to be as selective or “pivot.”
“since our work is criminalized, our survival is dependent on our relationships to each other and our ability to share information,” she says, adding that strategies like working in groups, sharing bad date experiences, providing references, and screening clients are all methods sex workers use to stay safe. but these boundaries also come at a cost of lost clientele.
“you don’t want to put a client off, but you don’t want to waste your time or put yourself in a vulnerable position either,” says werhun. “but when we are desperate, as many have been during the pandemic, we may be willing to take riskier calls because we simply don’t have the choice.”
what forces sex workers into dangerous situations, she says, is a lethal mix of financial precarity and criminalization, which discourages workers from seeking protection of law enforcement, even if the simple act of selling a sexual service is legal in the eyes of the law.