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Or, Class is in Session
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Reader,
I’ve read 2 books about prostitution this year - 2 more than I would in any given year - and finishing the second one made me think about how much class figures into the way the lives of workers are written about; especially when the work is stigmatised.
The first book I read - Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights by Juno Mac and Molly Smith - is written by sex workers in a way that expanded my view of sex and labour. In a world where Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022, directed by Sophie Hyde) is one of the few sympathetic portrayals of sex work, it was refreshing to hear from sex workers, and not about them through the refraction of their clients or people studying them.
The second book I read - Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women by Alexa Albert - features the author living in a brothel. As a person with a social science background, this level of observation was appealing to me. I wish I could remember where I learned about it from because it would be good to see its framing. Albert has the sort of middle (upper?) class background that means she struggles to wrap her mind round the working class lives of these women. Considering this is framed as an academic-influenced text, it’s almost impressive how thin it is on references and how loaded with judgement it is, even as Albert performs an engagement with the lives of the prostitutes she’s around.
I wonder if Brothel would have been published if Albert didn’t have Ivy League bona fides because Revolting Prostitutes is so well researched, rooted in a labour-centric ethic, and liberatingly unconcerned with the world of the monogamy-pilled world of civilians in comparison. And I LOVE it. Books from larger publishers travel farther, and I think there’s then some responsibility on us (me) as readers to find books that are rooted in a certain politic and which honour the experience of those in the class under examination.
Class privileges certain ideas - a hierarchy of labour, a notion of sex workers as angling for rescue, the primacy of the nuclear family - that prostitution often unsettles. These two books are a bit of an extreme look at this but when one considers how many books either exoticise those without college degrees (even though most people in the world do not have tertiary education) or are full of people who travel and take holidays, I think the reason they stand out is that it’s stark, not because it’s on display.
Something for me to do, I feel, is to look into what working class media means. What does it mean to read fiction that centres those who work, who are not from working class backgrounds, who don’t seek to distance themselves from their class? As for non-fiction, I think the nature of the publishing industry means that classed people will be over-represented outside of memoirs, for instance, but I’ll be on the lookout for more work. Once one sees (saw?) how much class impacts writing, it can’t be unseen.
Please send me suggestions of good working class writing!
Quick news/ things that may be of interest:
This Sunday: this month’s meeting of the Queer Times Book Club. Sign up here
Kulture Klub, African film screenings at The Space, Amee Arcade, Nairobi twice a month (next screening on 28th October)
Treat someone you like (me, for instance, I have a Switch) to the Tiny Bookshop Game (which is also on Discord)
Subscribe to my WhatsApp channel for texts I find while I spend time online
Add me to your New York Times Crossword leaderboard!
If you’re in the Global North and would be open to engaging in the North-South solidarity that is sharing a library card, please email or message me so we can figure things out. Thank you!
Join us for these Laps & Livres meet ups this month (sign up here, feel free to reach out for more information via lapsandlivres@proton.me)
Film folks: The Japan Foundation has newly launched the JFF Theater online streaming platform
A bunch of (mostly American) short stories if that’s your jam
Software resources for audiobook management. Especially Audible-centric, including organization and removing DRM from Audible files
A thread for folks looking to support Usikimye’s work
The Queer Liberation Library 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️, which is free to join here
Digital Library of Korean Literature, which is free to join here
How to Write Alt Text and Image Descriptions for the visually impaired
Links to Reading Lists, Free Books, Book Recs, Book-related Items, and Calls for Submissions in this document (most recent links at the top)
Since Elon seems to want (some of) us gone, I’m trying to post more often on Bluesky. Follow me there if you’re on it!
You can send me books, postcards, letters, and assorted items via PO Box 102439, Jamia Posta 00101, Nairobi, Kenya (I write back!)
I have finished the following books since I last wrote to you: Loved One: A Novel by Aisha Muharrar (e-book and audiobook narrated by Emma Ladji), Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women by Alexa Albert (e-book) and Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur (e-book and audiobook narrated by Sirena Riley). I’m primarily using Storygraph now (passively updating Goodreads as I read most e-books on Kindle via the library) and I hope to get back to making videos soon.
As ever, please write back to me and tell me what books you’re reading or looking forward to reading — it’s always a great time talking about books.
Thank you for reading 🙂
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Enjoy the week ahead and have a lovely time reading. Talk to you soon!