you a kind of independence? yes. and safety? the internet was the age of the independent sex worker. because what happened is we had time between a person wanting to see us and us seeing them and being able to check it out. we had safety. we could negotiate it where we want it, how we want it. and there were women saying yes, i can do this, i want to do this, and these are my terms. it was huge. in the early days of the internet personal websites like kristen s were the only option for sex workers looking to take their business online. but in 2004 a new site called backpage.com made online sex work accessible to anyone with an internet connection. what did backpage do for the world of sex work? it leveled the playing field. backpage was a posting site where somebody who had no resources, who needed to make
who attacked her. i lay there in the rape unit of uc davis medical center, and the police came and took my statement. then they told me that if i wanted to report that i would go to jail for prostitution. that s when kristen began searching for another way. in what ways did your life change after that? i wanted to do it on my terms. i wanted to do it the way i wanted to do it. i wanted to see only the people i wanted to see if i sxi wanted to do it in a way where i never got hurt again. almost as an answer to her prayers a new technology emerged. and with it a way to sell sex that was both safer and far more lucrative. the internet was the age of the independent sex worker. we didn t need anybody else.
who s on top of who, who s better than this one. in the ideal world what would the sex trade look like? sex work is decriminalized and sex workers would have the ability to work wherever safely and consensually. in addition to having brothels across the 50 states. with a little bit of work it certainly could be a phenomenal template that we could use for the rest of the country. ultimately both alice and kristen want the same thing. for sex work to be seen as legitimate work. but not all those fighting for change see it that way. we can t allow an industry that s violent and exploitative to continue expanding.
to be that way. as head of the sex workers outreach project in sacramento, kristen deangelo works closely with women in the sex trade and helped monroe get out. but she s more than an advocate. every one of us remembers our first time. it s almost like there s this line that you step over. kristen first crossed that line into sex work when she was just 17. like me she grew up in sacramento. but while i was in school, she was learning to support herself through sex work. i could sustain life. i could have my own place. i could pay my own bills. i could do everything i needed to do. since then she s worked in almost every aspect of the sex industry. what is sex work? when we talk about sex work, we re talking about strippers, we re talking about porn stars,
when he snatched my hair back. you know in the movies when people strangle you you die? well, i m here to tell you that s a lie. you don t die most of the time. you come back and you breathe again and you re in that same hell that you left. and he did that over and over and over. and then something happened. that time when i woke up i laid there limp and i didn t move. i knew just to make like i was dead. and he began dragging me down the back steps. he took kristen to his car, opened the trunk, and disappeared back inside. that s when she seized her moment to get away. kristen escaped. but when she tried to press charges, she realized that in the eyes of the law she was just as much a criminal as the man