sex work

Portrait shot of Councillor Pete Fry next to wide photo of City Hall
5 min 0 845

Motion to support Vancouver’s sex workers faces dramatic reduction

Peak Web June 15, 2026

By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer Content warning: mentions of disappearance, murder, and serial killer Robert Pickton. At the Standing Committee on City Finance and Services on May 20, Vancouver Green Party councillor Pete Fry introduced a motion aiming to uphold “the City’s responsibility to maintain adequate, community-connected capacity to support sex worker safety.” Fry included a call to reinstate a second sex work social planner, after the role was slashed to only one active position earlier this year. The motion passed with amendments, which eliminated this commitment. The Peak corresponded with Fry, WISH Drop-In Centre Society, and the City of…

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Illustration of a phone with the OnlyFans logo.
6 min 0 1445

Sex work has never been for women

Peak Web February 11, 2025

By: AC, SFU Student Content warning: brief mention of child exploitation and descriptions of sex work. As society becomes more accepting of sex-positive narratives, it simultaneously created a new landscape of sex work for young girls. Platforms like OnlyFans have…

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Woman lying on a bed, wearing lingerie
4 min 0 1980

Sex workers need legal protection

Peak Web March 12, 2024

By: Hailey Miller, Staff Writer Content warning: mentions of sex trafficking and sexual violence.  Sex workers should be treated professionally, and are worthy of respect. Canadian legislation is very behind in properly recognizing sex workers. The criminalization of sex work…

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This is a photo from the 2011 Slut Walks in the United Kingdom. Protestors are holding a large banner that reads “We Demand Sex Worker’s Rights,” in red font.
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By Us, For Us reports pressing circumstances faced by BC sex workers

Peak Web May 16, 2023

By: Eden Chipperfield, News Writer The By Us, For Us project surveyed over 200 sex workers across Metro Vancouver and Southern Vancouver Island; it highlights essential topics like the COVID-19 pandemic, the criminalization of sex work, the ongoing overdose crisis,…

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This is a photo of two people kissing each other through the face masks they are wearing.
3 min 0 2516

The effects of COVID-19 on sex workers

Peak Web February 22, 2023

By: Natalie Cooke, News Writer Ahmed Al-Rawi, an SFU Communication professor, recently published a study outlining the effects of COVID-19 on sex workers, including their stigmatization in society and representations on social media. He said in an interview with The…

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3 min 0 2315

The OnlyFans explicit content ban further stigmatizes sex work, despite reversal

Features September 17, 2021

by Victoria Lopatka, Staff Writer OnlyFans is a subscription-based platform with “130 million registered users and over 2 million creators.” Users pay for subscriptions that give them access to creators’ photos and videos. Though OnlyFans is not explicitly for sexual…

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7 min 0 3595

The Good, the Alright, and the Just Plain Bad of sex work in media

EIC February 7, 2018

By: Victoria Lopatka Sex work has been featured openly in the media since at least the 1950s, but we haven’t necessarily gotten better at portraying it in the last seventy or so years. Some shows and movies still feed into…

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14 min 1 4923

The double life lived by student sex workers

EIC May 24, 2016

As Ava* embarks on the first semester of her master’s program, she is relieved that the admissions committee at her graduate school didn’t find out about one of her part-time jobs. The University of Calgary environmental sciences student dabbled in…

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