“Challenging dominant narratives, interrupting objectification, and queer creativity: Queer sex worker art in Los Angeles” 

Published in the Journal of Lesbian Studies

Authored by Wei Si Nic Yiu, Lauren Levitt, Kim Ye, Kimberly Fuentes, and Ashley Madness.

This research paper co-authored by Kim Ye with support from SWOPLA, draws on queer of color critique and uses mixed methods including participant observation, interviews, visual and textual analysis, and photovoice to interrogate sex workers’ queer creative practices. The paper highlights the creative products of contemporary sex-working artists in Los Angeles as they utilize queer creativity to thwart hegemonic readings of sex work. The photovoice methodology utilized in this publication allows sex workers to counteract objectification by telling their own stories. The sex workers and their creative products featured in this article demonstrate how “queer is a praxis of sex and gender disruption, rather than a simple identity category signaling non-heterosexuality, challenging homonormativity in addition to heteronormativity.