Table of Contents
Body Autonomy: Decolonizing Sex Work & Drug Use
In an era where the privileged embrace psychedelics and sex positivity, marginalized communities face violence and health inequities. “Body Autonomy: Decolonizing Sex Work and Drug Use” features 17 essays. Advocates, sex workers, and scholars critique American neocolonial policies. They explore the ideological wars on body autonomy and link War on Drugs tactics to laws that criminalize sex work. This collection advocates for the right to body autonomy, linking erotic labor and psychoactive substance use to the harms of policing and incarceration.
The book highlights the sacred aspects of erotic labor and advocates for decolonial views on substances. “Body Autonomy” promotes healing-centered harm reduction, offering a vision beyond punishment and inequity. It imagines a future focused on pleasure, urging a shift from criminalization to compassion. This vision aims to expand our views on survival, healing, and liberation.
About the author
Justice Rivera
Justice Rivera (she/they; ella/elle) is a writer, social justice consultant, harm reductionist, and pleasure activist based in San Juan, PR, and Seattle, WA. Justice’s work embraces harm reduction, anti-oppression, and healing justice principles. Through various forms, she aims to dismantle carceral and punitive approaches to race, gender, and bodily autonomy. Justice has provided direct services, leadership, and capacity-building support to those in the sex trade, trafficking survivors, and drug users in Denver, Washington DC, Seattle, and nationally. She is currently a Partner at Reframe Health and Justice, a QPOC-led harm reduction consulting firm. This anthology was partly assembled during her 2019 Open Society Foundation Soros Justice Media Fellowship. When not working, Justice enjoys travelling, cooking, volunteering, and spending time with her cat, friends, and family.