Bookmark this! The war on sex work – and five other stories for your weekend

The interviewer asked me what my dream job was.

Without thinking, I blurted out: “A mum.”

She looked at me for what felt like a month – after all, I had spent the previous 30 minutes talking about racism and sexism – and asked me to explain. 

I grew up with one foot in Italy and the other in Morocco. In both cultures, motherhood is seen as a natural step in a woman’s life. Yet, wanting to be a mother never stopped me dreaming of making the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Which makes sense if, like me, you’re the daughter of immigrant parents who you feel have made huge sacrifices for you. 

So dichotomies have played a big role in my upbringing, and I’ve learned to navigate them to my advantage. Why choose? Do both. 

I know this sounds naive. But I’m only able to dream of doing both because of all the work feminists have done before me. So my hope for International Women’s Day is that my generation’s dream will be the next generation’s reality.

To help us work toward that dream, here are six must-read stories.

Sex work, legislation and consent: it’s complicated I picked this article by Lorelei Lee because it captures so well the unease and nuance surrounding discussions about sex work. You don’t need to have anything obvious in common with Lee – a US American queer porn actress – to appreciate how cogently she makes the case that sex workers’ perspectives should be listened to. First and foremost for their own safety but also so they don’t continue to uncomfortably and resentfully stand apart from society. It’s a long personal essay, but how could it not be with topics that span from sex work, class and law to the state, feminism, power and the value of community? It brilliantly distills how legislation around sex work will remain mired in contradictions if stories about "why" people do sex work don’t rewrite the current narrative where sex work is either empowering or shameful. (Carmen, member support manager) n+1: ‘Cash/consent: the war on sex work’ (reading time: 19 minutes)

Fuck your gender norms: how western colonisation brought unwanted binaries to Igbo culture All around the globe, there are and have been lots of communities and societies that allow for gender non-conforming cultures. Like the Igbo culture in Nigeria. But western colonisation is the reason they have a more rigid gender system. Before this, women were able to be entrepreneurs and providers. They were able to safeguard the lineage of their families by continuing their father’s name. They held powerful titles and positions that enabled them to make changes in their village. This article proves in its own way that gender and western colonialism are heavily entrenched. And more importantly, colonisation is a structure, a dominant narrative that is linked to some of the hardest questions of our current time. It is a deep wound that, to this day, still needs to be healed. (Yahya, member support at De Correspondent) Gal-dem: ‘Fuck your gender norms: how western colonisation brought unwanted binaries to Igbo culture’ (reading time: 10 minutes)

A mother is a woman eternally divided The writing in this essay makes me want to use all my favourite adjectives: stunning, incredible, brilliant. Maybe I’m not the best person to recommend it, since I can’t quite tell you what the piece is about. It is, I guess, an intensely thought-provoking rumination on the way motherhood simultaneously interrupts and sharpens the creative impetus. Still, there is so much more to Claudia Dey’s revelatory writing here. Perhaps you can tell me what you found to be at the heart of this dense, yet truly expansive essay without needing to read it three times, like I have. Read it. (OluTimehin, Othering correspondent) The Paris Review: ‘Mothers as makers of death’ (reading time: 10 minutes)

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