The Traded Sex

From the Ivy Donegal Encyclopedia of Opinionated Knowledge, I proudly present The Traded Sex, a series examining Vancouver’s sex industry, the legalities of the sex trade and their personal ramifications, and the untimely closure of the MAP Van, it’s impact, and what you can do to save it.

Please bare in mind that I am not a lawyer, or a legal expert of any kind. I am not a representative for sex trade workers, or workers who work with sex trade workers, or any group of people, anywhere. I am an opinionated person with a blog where I talk about boys and puppies. I also happen to work, in one of my jobs, with survival sex workers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and have an uncanny memory for facts presented in lectures heard two years ago in my Psychology of Human Sexuality class, among other relevant material. If you feel that parts of this series are incorrect or misleading, please inform me of such and I will do my best to correct them.

Also, I happen to be sick. So the original majesty of this series has died, a little bit, along with my lymph glands. Articles are less edited and complete than they normally are, and I would be sorry, except I need to go vomit, and that's taking up most of my attention.

You may now read on…

The Traded Sex - Working With Women In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

The Traded Sex - What’s Legal, What’s Not, and What It All Means

The Traded Sex - The Decriminalization Debate, and why yelling with your fingers in your ears isn’t solving any problems

The Traded Sex - The Map Van: how saving one small ambulance can save the world

The Traded Sex- Save the Map Van: what you can do

Future Articles:
The Traded Sex - When Universal Health Care is Not Universal
The Traded Sex: ‘Whores,’ ‘Prostitutes,’ and sometimes even ‘People’

Also of Interest:
Ode to the Cookie Man
Watching the Little Girls Dance
Prework Ramble


“One of my favourite girls at work is currently on methadone and told me today that she is no longer working - she is trying to get her act together and is considering going into rehab. This thrills me to no end - I know that her odds of staying clean are slim, and that addiction is cyclical in nature, but having the willpower to consider ending that cycle...Huge.

This girl is nineteen - she is one of the youngest women to use our centre. People are quick to note how a traumatic street life can age people, but the reverse is also true. When you are living day-to-day and in the throws of addiction or violence, you don't meet your developmental milestones in the way that regular children and young adults do; you can remain stuck, a time capsule of your former self.

To me, this girl is barely thirteen - she is negotiating life the way that your average middle schooler would, and trying to make the best of it. You don't become a heroin addicted sex trade worker overnight - the average age of entry into the sex trade is fourteen, and I think perhaps she was ahead of the curb.

I am amazed by her optimism and strength - I hope things work out. She could have an amazing life.”