This page is the interview compendium to “Hailing Hellions,” a Q&A series where I interview sex workers (or ex-sex workers) who have modeled for me and my non-profit Sex Positivity* book project.
*The longer title being Sex Positivity versus Sex Coercion, or Gothic Communism: Liberating Sex Work under Capitalism through Iconoclastic Art (2023). Part of an overarching movement that connects sex positivity to what I call “Gothic (gay-anarcho) Communism,” Sex Positivity essentially provides a hybrid; i.e., one established between academic (Gothic, queer, game and Marxist) theories, and wherein applied theory towards universal liberation is achieved by challenging Capitalist Realism (the inability to imagine a world beyond Capitalism) at a grassroots level. To it, Gothic Communism specifically occurs through direct mutual worker action and informed intersectional solidarity relayed through Gothic poetics: BDSM, monsters, and kink, but specifically what I call “ludo-Gothic BDSM.” If you’re curious about the book and want to know more, the first four volumes (and additional information) are available for free (the series is non-profit) on my website’s 1-page promo.
CW: BDSM, Gothic content and theatrics (e.g., rape play and death theatre), as well as sex worker abuse and bigotry of various kinds (variable per interview)
(artist: Nyx)
About the Series: Like the book series it attaches to, “Hailing Hellions” aims to educate and critique; i.e., by raising awareness towards sex worker rights, but also gender-non-conformity through Gothic counterculture. This extends to gender identity (e.g., trans, enby or intersex) but also orientation and performance; i.e., BDSM and sex positivity through various Gothic theatrical roles that invite things beyond vanilla, heteronormative (thus conservative, reactionary and harmful) sexuality. I would consider this to be things like mommy dommes and consent-non-consent, breeding fantasies and heavy metal (e.g., Satanic material and the Gothic at large). Also, these questions are broader insofar as they cover wide praxial/poetic ideas and concepts. Regarding these, the opinions of the subject and myself are not identical, but often overlap through us collaborating together to raise awareness.
So whereas the Sex Workers page compiles all the sex workers I’ve ever drawn and reviewed, at large, and the Acknowledgements page celebrates those sex workers involved specifically with Sex Positivity as a whole (regardless of role size), “Hailing Hellions” is specifically meant for models who I’ve interviewed after working together on Sex Positivity (usually one of my muses). It is a subset of my book series’ larger promotion materials.
SFW interviews: The same interviews will post identically on my old SFW blog except they will have no nudity (or even really bikini shots because Blogger is censoring those, too).
(artists: Persephone van der Waard and Cuwu)
How the series works; i.e., what it does: Generally I write a list of questions—i.e., ones asking the model about what sex positivity means to them when fighting for universal liberation (or working with those who fight in that manner), and various other subjects tied to the Sex Positivity project; e.g., rights for GNC people and other marginalized groups, anti-police action, and political activism tied to sex work in some shape or form—which the model(s) then answer and send back to me to feature on here. It’s as much an opportunity for them to talk about themselves and who they are as people, versus merely being reduced to sex objects and professions first, people second; i.e., a pedagogy of the oppressed we contribute towards from different walks of life. So while sex work has different degrees of privilege and oppression per worker (and historically tokenizes for the state, like anything else), our goal when developing Gothic (gay-anarcho) Communism is to intersect for solidarity against our oppressors: to walk away from Omelas together!
What it doesn’t do: Debate fascists/white moderates; i.e., people who deliberately apologize for the state; e.g., Zionists, white supremacists, pro-police advocates (ACAB) and other such individuals tied to systemic abuse acting in open aggression or bad faith. It’s one thing to be politically jaded and fall back on certain belief systems that, in my opinion, generate widespread harm by turning away from systemic resolutions (e.g., libertarians); it’s another to actively run interference/do work for the state (traitors—be those of class, culture, and/or race). Our aim is to combat such persons; i.e., by raising emotional/Gothic intelligence and class, culture and race awareness (what Marx calls “consciousness”) through our creative successes* engendering those aforementioned factors. Commonly this is through our labor manifesting as art (which porn is), but such political activism (and its dialectical-material tangents) also extend to interviews; i.e., the social component of art, wherein sex workers talk about who or what has systemically harmed them (e.g., cops, or those acting like cops, thus pimping sex workers [or sexualized workers, in some shape or form] for the state/profit). A voice is a voice, and these are our stories.
*Re: mutual consent, informed consumption/consent, sex-positive de facto education, descriptive sexuality and cultural appreciation pushing towards universal liberation; i.e., by having the whore’s revenge against profit and the state: by reversing abjection through ludo-Gothic BDSM enacting it (and the other main Gothic theories: hauntology, cryptonymy and chronotopes). This happens through a deliberate reclamation of demonizing language that, once reclaimed in dualistic opposition during liminal expression, humanizes whores in light of said half-real (on and offstage) language’s misuse by state proponents; i.e., pimps (actual or de facto), who antagonize nature as monstrous-feminine before putting it cheaply to work; e.g., Medusa and Hippolyta (to use two classic examples from ancient state apologia: the Gorgon and the Amazon).
Our chief aim: To reverse abjection, thus profit and the state, while pushing towards universal liberation and post-scarcity under Gothic Communism. This happens through reclaimed pre-capitalist language; re: the Wisdom of the Ancients (a cultural understanding of the imaginary past) made through workers recultivating the Superstructure (social factors; e.g., art, philosophy and politics), thus reclaiming the Base (material conditions/the means of production) by camping the canon. By comparison, abjection leads to unironic war and rape as a business, which go hand-in-hand with profit since Antiquity into neoliberal Capitalism. Relayed through the ancient languages of the state (sex and force)—and barring hunter/gatherer societies before money and settlements existed—prostitution is the oldest form of labor, therefore labor exploitation and struggle against said exploitation’s fear and dogma; i.e., when whores appeared, so did pimps trying to control them. Commonly depicted nowadays in black/white, us-versus-them, cop/criminal (abject) language told in popular stories—e.g., Ellen Ripley versus the Alien Queen, or TERFs punching down against a trans scapegoat during Pax Americana (more privileged witches policing less privileged witches)—we whores punch up against our oppressors kettling us on the same Aegis. As such, I want to interview those functioning legitimately as the Medusa—not as an easy victim to attack (and tokenize/triangulate against different groups during divide and conquer), but as a complicated liberator who fights back, mid-persecution, in the present space and time; i.e., anyone pegged as “other” by cops through modular canards like “criminal,” “black,” “witch,” “alien,” “chaotic,” and/or “whore,” “rabble,” etc, which standard-to-token proponents of the state, eager to assimilate, attack with extreme prejudice. Liberation and exploitation share the same space, thus virgin/whore aesthetic through the Gothic mode. The way out of the Labyrinth is inside it, subverting the monomythic violence that regularly occurs between fiction and non-fiction alike.
The Models
Harmony Corrupted: One of my cover models, Harmony is very left-leaning and fights incredibly hard to raise awareness towards sex worker rights.
Moxxy Sting: One of my muses, Moxxy is a self-identified libertarian/classical liberation, but still holds various views I agree with (e.g., the state is easily corruptible, making it difficult to develop Communism through state mechanisms; i.e., state action serves state interests/rights). She’s outspoken about sex worker rights and wants them to be treated like people, not chattel.
About the Interviewer
(artists: Persephone van der Waard and Cuwu)
Persephone van der Waard is the author of the multi-volume, non-profit book series, Sex Positivity—its art director, sole invigilator, illustrator and primary editor (the other co-writer/co-editor being Bay Ryan). Persephone has her independent PhD in Gothic poetics and ludo-Gothic BDSM (focusing on partially on Metroidvania), and is a MtF trans woman, anti-fascist, atheist/Satanist, poly/pan kinkster, erotic artist/pornographer and anarcho-Communist with two partners. Including multiple playmates/friends and collaborators, Persephone and her many muses work/play together on Sex Positivity and on her artwork at large as a sex-positive force. That being said, she still occasionally writes reviews, Gothic analyses, and interviews for fun on her old blog (and makes YouTube videos talking about politics). To purchase illustrated or written material from Persephone (thus support the work she does), please refer to her commissions page for more information. Any money Persephone earns through commissions goes towards helping sex workers through the Sex Positivity project; i.e., by paying costs and funding shoots, therefore raising awareness. Likewise, Persephone accepts donations for the project, which you can send directly to her PayPal, Ko-Fi, Patreon or CashApp. Every bit helps!