A group of sex bloggers from the New York City area got together recently to produce a calendar as a fundraising effort for the newly formed not for profit, Sex Worker Awareness.
The calendar promises to be a fun and sexy send up of the classic pin up calendar. I haven’t seen the final version but having met several of the bloggers in real life and being a long time reader of several of the blogs included, I know I’ll be happy to have their smiling faces (and assorted other body parts) looking back at me in 2009. Lord knows it will be a happy change from the “Bush Countdown” calendar currently staring me down every morning.
Wanting to know more I got in touch with Tess, one of the featured bloggers and organizers of the calendar.
How did the idea for the Sex Blogger calendar come about?
I blame Twitter. Going through my several times a day ritual of catching up with the people I follow I saw one from Monk, a Seattle based blogger and rope master/purveyor, saying he was posing for a hot blogger calendar. There had been some tension in the NYC blogger scene in prior months and I was tired of focusing on the negative. It was time to move on and do something that would bring together the talented, sexy and sex positive writers I am lucky enough to know. My slight exhibitionist streak and the thought of being in a room surrounded by scantily clad women had nothing at all to do with it.
When I think of bloggers I guess I think of two kinds, those who blog because they'd like to get more exposure and be out there in some way; and those who blog because they're happiest communicating through multiple layers of technology. What can you tell us about the bloggers who posed for the calendar?
There is always the blogger who writes in an effort to get that elusive book deal and the fame or infamy that goes along with it. I think most of the group I've assembled for the calendar writes because they have important things to say and have found this medium an effective way of getting the message out.
Audacia Ray, Jamye Waxman, and Rachel Kramer Bussel are feminists who don't believe they have to negate their femininity to be progressive. All of us have something to say and we have found that people relate to it; be it my struggles at fifty with marriage, family and life and my dark erotica or Twanna's documenting of her life and relationships as a 30-something single woman in New York City. While I am aware of the ways the technology of blogging and the internet can shield you from having to have real life experiences, those multiple layers can make you insular, I don't think any of the women in this calendar has fallen victim to that. Each one is unique and vital and has something to say.
Blogging has allowed each of us to get our message out there, even if that message is as simple as complaining about the dumb ass who cut me off today or as universal and complex as coming to terms with our mortality and or showing people that you can have an amazing and rich sex life at any age.
It seems like calendars are a popular way of raising money and awareness for causes. Firefighters, flight attendants, Spanish mothers, long shore fishermen have all put their unique mark on calendars. What do you think a NYC sex blogger calendar says about the people in it? Do you think there's a unified statement?
I hope it is a unified statement. Even in our group, there are those whose thoughts on sex work have evolved and changed. As sex-positive women lucky enough to have a platform for our voices to be heard, we need to inform and empower our community. Sometimes people feel as though they are too insignificant to make much difference and so they don't even try. When you formed a group, even a small group, like the twelve of us who posed, you find you really can make something wonderful happen. But it wouldn't have happened without support of our sponsors who contributed funds and products and the web of bloggers who picked up our project and reposted it and linked to it, showing that our community is not just local to NYC but expands across the country and crosses borders.
Do you have a favorite month?
I don't think I can pick a favorite. We did a group shot which I really love because you can see all of us, women ranging from our early twenties to fifty, being flirty and sexy and silly. I think it also displays the sense of camaraderie I felt from the very inception of this project to the end. My favorite month is October because Halloween is my all time favorite holiday. I'm not 100% sure which of our bloggers gets to be Ms. October. Looks like I'll have to buy a copy to find out.
Where can people learn more about the Sex Work Awareness Project? And where can they buy the calendar?
The place to go would be Sex Work 101, a site meant to add to public knowledge about sex work and to encourage discussion about the issues sex workers face.
Sex Work Awareness believes that all sex workers have a right to self-determination; to choose how we make a living and what we do with our bodies.
Sex Work Awareness aims to empower our diverse community by building the capacity of sex worker-serving and sex worker member-based institutions as well as the skills and resources of sex workers themselves.
Sex Work Awareness also conducts research about sex workers and the sex industry in order to better understand it, develops public education initiatives, and advocates for the rights of sex workers.
To buy calendars, and remember all profits go to benefit Sex Work Awareness plus you just might win one of the many great products contributed by our sponsors (your purchase automatically enters you in the raffle of the week), please visit NYC Sex Blogger Calendar.
