The interesting story of the "hooker teacher"

Excerpts from a fascinating column at Salon:

I have two master's degrees, five years' experience in the nonprofit sector and three years' experience teaching -- and I cannot get a job. Why? Just google me. I'm the "Hooker Teacher" -- at least that's what I've come to be called ever since Sept. 27, 2010, when I found myself on the cover of the New York Post...

Indeed, earlier that month, I'd written an Op-Ed on the Huffington Post that criticized the recent censoring of the adult services section of Craigslist and came clean about my own sex-worker past. Because I was arguing that sex workers shouldn't be ashamed to speak for themselves, I signed my name to it. The New York Post wasn't interested in my politics, however; its interest seemed only in cooking up shock that an elementary school teacher would dare admit such a shady history...

Eight months after the story broke, I am jobless. I cannot get hired. And even my biggest supporters ask me privately: "But seriously, what were you thinking?" The answer is complicated. I was being idealistic. I was being provocative. I was naive. I picked a fight that I thought I could win -- and I was wrong...

Another reason I didn't think my story would be shocking is because, well, my story isn't shocking. Whereas some women's road to sex work entails coercion and last-ditch survival, for me, this wasn't the case. The product of a working-class home -- the first in her family to go to college, let alone study abroad -- my working as a stripper began as a means to an end. Prior to stripping, I'd worked in fast food. I'd worked in retail. I even spent one summer delivering singing telegrams. I was used to long hours, unreasonable bosses and very little pay; stripping -- at least at first -- was the ideal job...

As an advocate, I had long ago realized the media generally treats current and former sex workers in one of two ways: We are portrayed as victims, looked down upon and felt sorry for, too stupid to realize our own victimization; or else we are made out to be villains -- dirty, cheap and willing to do anything to satisfy our greed. For years, I'd fought these gross stereotypes. Now I found myself on the receiving end of it...

I'm not a monster, or a moron. I'm a human being, and -- like everyone else -- I've made mistakes. In the community where I grew up, girls didn't become writers and teachers; they became strippers. I worked hard to earn my degrees. Of my sex work past, I have no regrets. Why, hadn't I done exactly what critics of prostitution would have wanted? I had exited the sex industry to become a "productive" member of society. And yet no one seemed to accept that I might not be ashamed of my past. That I might, on the contrary, be proud of it...

Now, I send out rafts of résumés, and I can't find work. Whether that's partly the economy, I can't say, but these days it seems my most important former occupation is the one not on my résumé. Despite all I've lost, though, I refuse to let this defeat me. I know there would be something worse than living with the consequences of speaking my truth: living in silence. Let's hope potential employers take note: I didn't lose my job for being a hooker. I lost my job for being a writer.

Much more at the link.

Photo credit: Elizabeth Weinberg