Sex Workers Use A Hierarchy To Prove They’re Better Than Other Sex Workers

A blogger who goes by the name “The Resident Hooker” wrote a post on Feministing entitled “Sex Worker Hierarchy Sucks,” and it got us to thinking. Do some sex workers think they’re better than others? In her post, The Resident Hooker writes, “It does not serve any of us (sex workers) to call rank. A call girl who makes $5,000 an hour is no more or less a sex worker than a trans woman who gives blow jobs for $20 in Brooklyn.” We agree wholeheartedly, but wanted to learn a bit more about why some sex workers consider their work to be better than others.

Sex worker hierarchy. Rebecca Leib entered a conversation for Vice about sex workers and a sort of secret hierarchy with a few friends she had. Each one of these friends, roughly 30+, had all done some sort of work in the sex industry.

Sex worker hierarchy. “The more people I talked to, the more I realized that there wasn’t one consistent metric to decide which jobs in the industry were ‘better’ than others,” Leib wrote. She said she still discovered that there was a “pervasive sense that some jobs were ‘worse,’ and many sex workers looked down on others with ‘lesser’ jobs.”

Sex worker hierarchy. Leib discovered this hierarchy wasn’t based on money. “If anything,” she wrote, “the highest earners were often looked down upon as the least valued part of the community.” Fame didn’t seem to factor into it either.

Sex worker hierarchy. Leib, after speaking with industry professionals, that they saw two hierarchies separating the sex industry. “One organized by the degree of physical contact with clients, and the other by how enjoyable they were,” she wrote.

Sex worker hierarchy. Are those sex workers who don’t actually have to touch or have sex with their clients better than those who do? Melinda Chateauvert, author or “Sex Workers Unite!,” told Leib some people worked as pro-dominatrixes or dancers “because they don’t have sex, give blow jobs, or exchange body fluids."

Sex worker hierarchy. The point of contention, again, is touch. “They feel superior to those who do,” Chateauvert said to Leib. “They use contact as a meter.” Leib found that many people echoed this sentiment. Leib said she found strippers who didn’t consider stripping to be sex work because they didn’t have to touch anyone.

Sex worker hierarchy. Leib spoke with Gina DePalma, an escort and adult film actress, who has seen this hierarchy played out first hand. “Dancers thought of prostitutes as lower than them and would look down their nose at dancers who left the club for money with clients,” DePalma told Leib.

Sex worker hierarchy. DePalma continued, “They walked around naked for dollars and grinder on guys crotches for 20s,” along with a host of other things, “yet some thought they were better than the call girl or stripper who goes to the guy’s room."

Sex worker hierarchy. Leib then found another layer of nuance to this hierarchy, that of legality. Leib spoke with a cam girl who explained the ridiculous double standard of the adult film industry vs. prostitution. “Men frequently believe that prostitutes are filthy and desperate—but they praise [adult film] stars. It’s as thought the computer screen shields them from the reality that they are both women who sell sex."

Sex worker hierarchy. Does the hierarchy really matter if you enjoy what you do for a living? Leib addressed this point with Hilary Holiday, an escort based in Minneapolis. “I love what I do,” she told Leib.

Sex worker hierarchy. “I’m very choosy as to who I will spend time with and require copious amounts of respect,” Holiday continued. “I turn most away. I make a good six-figure income and trade options with the savings I’ve built."

Sex worker hierarchy. Freedom seems to have a place at the table when it comes to this hierarchy as well. Those who can afford to pay their bills and have money left over have more wiggle room and would theoretically be seen as “better” than those who don’t fully enjoy what they do and aren’t compensated enough to get by.

Sex worker hierarchy. To circle back to a point The Resident Hooker made, it doesn’t serve anyone to tear people down. “As a community of folk with the sole purpose is to satisfy people’s desire to connect with another person (or people), it’s important that we are able to recognize the contributions that all of us are making to that cause — in addition to our pockets,” she said.

Sex worker hierarchy. At the center of this conversation is judgment overall. Those who enjoy what they do and keep to themselves don’t have much time to judge others. At the end of the day, these sex workers —no matter what they do or what they get paid to do it— are human beings just trying to make a living.

Sex worker hierarchy. What do you think? Do you think the sex worker hierarchy is problematic? Have you ever thought about it before? Let us know your opinions in the comments section below.