I'm on this kinky forum type thing. There's a mixture of people there, some professional, some not, and a few people have profiles that link their personal profile to the professional one, so they can maintain a personal account.

I was told by the admin, after 5 years of being on the site, that because my personal profile links to this blog, which then, on the side, links to my professional page, I had to indicate on my personal profile that I was a professional. Never mind that I link to that profile on my page- obviously, if you're a sex worker, you are expected to be marked as one all the time. Either I had to pull my adultwork page off this blog, or I had to be marked as professional on my personal profile.

The reason I maintain a personal profile is because I rarely if ever use forums to meet clients. To acknowledge the professional side of me, I created a profile for that. It doesn't say anywhere I can't link to something personal, like this, that links to my professional pages.

I sincerely doubt it's coincidence after a big uproar that occurred about this event I'm running and advertised (albeit poorly at first) on said forum.

It reminds me that sometimes it feels like being a sex worker means either completely separating both sides of your life, and ne'er the two shall meet, or you aren't really allowed a private life at all. Like being asked details about my work if I'm honest about it at the pub, say, or at a party. I have to be "on" all the time, or pretend both sides of me don't exist. It's infuriating, and depressing, and makes me feel tagged. Marked. Branded.

And not in a sexy way. In a pretty objectified way.