MEMOIRIST & MUSE
A celebration of writing by & about SEX WORKERS.
A trove, a hive, a cocoon.
BOOK (-1919) . BLOG (2014-)
“The library made me a Whore,” I like to say when describing my discovery of the anonymously-published Madeleine: An Autobiography.
Reading Madeleine in 2013 introduced me to discourse about the adult industry and its history in colonized North America. I took my first job as an escort the following year.
Then, four years after that, we witnessed history repeat its moronic self with the end of Backpage and beginning of SESTA/FOSTA, events which drastically changed the online landscape for full-service sex workers to the detriment of the safety of both consensual adult sex workers and trafficking victims.
Eerily similar to bills like SESTA/FOSTA and the more recent EARNIT, the 1910 Mann Act shuttered red light districts across the U.S. in Madeleine’s time with misdirected, paternalistic, stigma-based initiatives that did more harm than good. If only, if only policy-makers would look to history. If only they’d listen to sex workers.
(Spoiler alert! We’ve got the answer! We’ve had it for years!)
Published in 1919, “This life story of a prostitute,” reads the inner cover, “was the subject of a famous law case involving issues of obscenity, freedom of speech, and ‘white slavery.’ Self-educated and successful, Madeleine offers an eloquent, vivid account of brothel life in the 1890s.”
BLOG (2014-) . BOOK (-1919)
WHAT I DO
To amplify sex-working storytellers and support them in their creative processes, I hold both generative and interactive spaces and share resources and research materials.
I also offer my professional editing, copywriting, and coaching services to sex workers on a sliding scale basis.
To serve those among us who are focused on meeting more basic needs, I engage in local outreach, support, and other forms of harm reduction.
WRITE WITH ME!
Are you both a sex worker & a writer?
Join our creative community!
Twitter: @swerwrites Bluesky: @madeleineblair.bsky.social
.
ARCHIVES
A resource for informational reading about erotic labor.
.
CONSULTING
Editing. Copywriting commissions. Creative coaching.
.
OUTREACH
Hi, neighbor. Everyone deserves care and respect. Everyone deserves justice.
.
MY CREATIVE PROJECTS
AUDIOBOOK
It’s been a long-time dream of mine to produce a collaborative, SW-voiced audiobook for Madeleine: An Autobiography.
ADAPTATIONS
What’s the plural form of “opus”?
LIFE AS ART
When I’m not crafting my story or helping someone else craft theirs, I prioritize spending time with my loved ones. I especially like to be outdoors, preferably near, on, or in water. (I’m obsessed with stand-up paddleboarding!)
I am an easily-distracted bibliophile, complete foodie (who hosts a movie-themed supper club), absinthe enthusiast, tone-deaf music lover, and proud caretaker of a kitty cat named after Margo St. James.
BOOK (-1919) . BLOG (2014-)
Support my work!
.
Madeleine Blair is an editor, memoirist, sex workers’ rights activist & professional companion based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Madeleine Blair 