I spent a night posing as a sex worker on the streets of Calgary.
It took me ten years to get the words out. And then another ten years of editing to finally capture the raw terror and the hollow hopelessness of that night. Even with two undercover officers watching my back, I felt the weight of a world most people choose to ignore.
The young women standing next to me didn’t have a safety net. This story is for them, a testament to the guts and humanity they show in the face of a desperate trade.
On January 2nd, I got the news. Deep into caregiving for my husband as he battles an incurable disease, a time where hope often feels like a distant memory, this email cast light into the gloom of exhaustion.
My story is published today as a Featured Story on Spillwords.com
We talk a lot about “transparency” and “exploitation” in the news lately, but we rarely look at the human cost right in front of us. I wrote this to show you what that cost looks like.
Please read and share.
Dare Boldly 
I just read that ‚story‘, Louise. I‘ve heard and read similar experiences and they all are so, so sad, young women (girls really) giving away their bodies, youth, innocence (at least part of it) for money, only to receive nightmares, life-long shame, illnesses, loss of trust and much more in return. I would never judge any street worker, and the money certainly is, for most of them, super tempting, but I fear for their souls. Their being under the skin must be scarred, burnt, they must feel unloved, worthless, hide under a thick outer layer…
And you (on a lighter note) must have had a beautiful body at 43; I doubt I would have attracted any male gaze at that age (for money) 😉
Louise, you are one of my ‘unsung’ heroes. You don’t hang your achievements on a big bell to ring your awesomeness but you’re ‘deep’ as we say. And I love you for that.
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Oh Kiki, thank you.
I worked with those young women and boys for three years. They were funny, smart, gutsy, kind, caring and so much more. For most of them, running to the street was not ‘a choice’. It was the lack of a better choice.
For some, the enticement came through a grooming from a boy/man they thought was, their friend, boyfriend. He would work on her for months until he knew he had her primed to turn that first trick — and once turned, there was no going back.
Tragic and sad and so very ugly.
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