Belabored Podcast #44: The Work of Sex Work, with Melissa Gira Grant

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis. This week, we are joined by author Melissa Gira Grant, whose new book Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work dismantles the myths surrounding sex work and challenges us to think about sex work in the same framework in which we put other kinds of labor. At the heart is the question: should workers have to love their work in order to be able to demand rights and protections on the job? Michelle also brings us news of a win for labor rights for sex workers in New Zealand; we then take a look at the heated battle over charter schools in New York and nationwide, at the struggle for decent jobs as a local economy moves from manufacturing to care work, and the surprising news that McDonald’s might be raising wages after all. Finally, we wrap up with a look at what happened to the company town. News: Pittsburgh’s Largest Employer Draws Hundreds of Protesters Over Poverty Wages Mayor Peduto steps in to UPMC protests De Blasio and Operator of Charter School Empire Do Battle  Success Academy school chain comes under fire as parents fight ‘zero tolerance’ disciplinary policy Teachers Want More Accountability for Charter Schools Cashing in on Kids McDonald’s Saying Wages Could Rise Michelle: Sex Workers Have Labor Rights Just Like Any Other Employee, Confirms NZ Court New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective Conversation with Melissa Gira Grant about the work of sex work: Excerpt, Playing the Whore by Melissa Gira Grant Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work Melissa Gira Grant’s homepage For Love or Money, by Sarah and Melissa Gira Grant Argh, I Wish I’d Written That! Michelle: Heidi Moore, The Guardian: IBM fires small-town workers for Wall Street numbers. That’s the good part Sarah: Bernadette Hyland, Contributoria: From factory workers to care workers The post Belabored Podcast #44: The Work of Sex Work, with Melissa Gira Grant appeared first on Dissent Magazine.