Everyone here has undoubtably already heard of Melissa Petro, the NYC Teacher who blogged about her experiences as a Craigslist call girl a couple of months ago. Marie Claire magazine has published an excerpt of an interview with her they are running in their January issue. Melissa comes across as intelligent, articulate and unashamed about her time in the sex industry.
She reminds me very much of the many intelligent, articulate and unashamed women who post regularly here on Eccie. I truly hope she is able to continue her career as an educator, if not in NYC then somewhere else where she can work to make a difference in children's lives.
I am not entirely certain I am personally quite ready to say that I think it is a good idea for working teachers to actively participate in the sex industry (while teaching), but after meeting some of the women in this industry who participate willingly and with full knowledge of the possible ramifications I can certainly say that there should be no reason whatsoever that a person who has at one point worked in the sex trade should be treated as a pariah for the rest of their professional careers (or as a pariah while they are participating in the industry).
At one point in my life I made the egregious mistake in assuming that most women in this industry felt some personal element of shame in the fact that they were in the sex industry. A very wise young woman helped me understand that I was projecting my own feelings of personal guilt onto someone else, someone who did not share my feelings. She helped me understand that many of the women in the industry are not there because they have no other choices in life, they are there many times because it affords them the opportunity to better their own lives or the lives of their family (as in it pays for schooling for themselves or perhaps their children) in a way that a McJob would never allow. It is a lesson I wished that I had learned earlier.
I hope the people who are judging Ms. Petro are able to learn the same lesson.
http://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity...sive-interview
I look forward to reading the article / interview in it's entirety.