Getting Honest On LinkedIn – One Sex Worker’s Story

When the Pandemic hit, virtually every single industry was impacted negatively in some way. There were mass layoffs across the board, a trend that proved true for the advertising industry as much as it did any other industry. Brooklyn-based creative Arielle Egozi was one of those casualties. Their agency experienced numerous layoffs, and like countless others, Egozi was forced to course-correct and focus on other ways to make a living. Enter: the world's oldest profession.

Egozi, who in addition to working at a creative agency also has extensive experience in the world of sextech. For those unfamiliar, "sextech" is an industry that develops technologies that hope to enhance, change, and evolve peoples' sexual experiences, and is understandably an industry rooted in fundamental sex positivity. With this as her base, Egozi shifted her focus to include sex work and decided to list it as one of her professions on LinkedIn. In doing so, they immediately - and accidentally - became the face of a movement they never intended to start. In an interview with VICE, Egozi said, “I was sure that this would get more attention than most of my LinkedIn posts because it’s a bit controversial.” Continuing, “I expected it to get like seven comments. But I’ve almost been turned into a face of some movement that I never meant to start.”

There's another aspect to the pandemic besides just "finding other ways to make money and survive" that makes this even more compelling. When the world burned down in 2020, with it burned down all the supposed rules and regulations about how the world at large "should" operate. There is no rule book and as long as you're not hurting others, you don't owe anyone an explanation of how you exist. We saw this sentiment take hold with "The Great Resignation." People realized there are a multitude of ways that we can navigate this life, and because of that, we should also know our worth. One person who decidedly knows their worth is Arielle. In her now-famous post on LinkedIn, Egozi said they will “charge exorbitant amounts” and that they have “no problem taking rejections from those who can’t pay it." Their empowered sense of self-worth, coupled with their deep roots in the sextech world made LinkedIn the logical platform for them because it allows people to connect more directly and to learn about what sex work really is. "If you talk to a sex worker, they can help you understand your boundaries, how to set up contractual agreements, how to value yourself at work, set rates, and be clear in your communication."

Egozi also sees the bigger picture, which is the fundamental hypocrisy that we view sex work in this country and the world. "If I said I have 20 million Instagram followers, that might make people really proud. But if I say that I am in the top 5 percent on the world’s biggest adult-content platform, which I have been, they might look at me funny, but it’s the same tactics and creativity that go into it."

Though it has been a largely positive experience, Egozi has faced the expected backlash of people who fear what they don't understand because of an often Christo-fascist society that tells them sex should be shameful. People hurled every insult they could think of ranging from the judgemental to the hateful.

But the haters weren't the only unexpected setback from her LinkedIn post. “A big reason behind why I made the post was to make clear that I want this to be known as a part of what I bring to the table so that I can be more comfortable. But when it blew up, it felt like things were happening to me, rather than for or because of me. There were some 75 pieces of press coverage that got my story and pronouns wrong, used photos of me, my family, and friends from my Facebook account, without my permission. It was all over the internet.”

Egozi addressed the backlash in a follow-up post after their initial post went viral, writing, "the messages of support mean everything. the messages of confusion and people patting themselves on the back for not freaking out make me laugh. the messages that are hateful and awful and spewing shame I don’t read. the messages that are interested in creative partnership I’ll respond to.

my intention here was to bring all my pieces into the room. it was to hold myself accountable in celebration of the choices I’ve made, the decisions that make me who I am and make my work what it is. ...it was to make space for myself."

They closed their follow-up post with words that more or less summarize how we should all go about life in general: "I owe no one anything, certainly not any definitions. ... I’m not okay with anyone being treated like shit. If you want the privilege to project onto me, pay me. otherwise, shut up. I don’t need to be the face of any of this — folks been out here since the beginning of humanity hustling and healing. if you don’t know any sex workers, it’s either because you haven’t earned the trust for them to tell you, or because your friends are kinda boring."

We should all be a little bit more like Arielle Egozi: proud of who we are, in touch with our bodies, and operating from a place of fundamental open-mindedness and acceptance. Also, in case there was any confusion whatsoever as to my personal stance, this writer firmly believes in the full legalization of all sex work and supports providing basic protections for all workers of every industry. For more information and resources on sex, worker protections head over to the Sex Workers Outreach Project.

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