Woman who added ‘Sex Work’ as experience on LinkedIn says she received awful, hateful messages

New Delhi: A woman on LinkedIn mentioning ‘sex work’ on her public LinkedIn profile has sparked a buzz on the Microsoft-owned social networking platform. The woman named Arielle Egozi has mentioned in her LinkedIn profile that she is self-employed from September 2020 to the present, doing sex work. Egozi is a founding member of sex tech, an inclusive community for sex-positive women aiming to bring a positive change to the sex tech industry. 

On LinkedIn, Egozi has more than 9,000 followers. She also recently shared a post explaining why she added ‘sex work’ to her LinkedIn profile. The post, though viral on the internet, is receiving both praise and hatred for the courage she has shown.

So far, her LinkedIn post has received more than 9,000 reactions and close to 1600 comments. The post has been shared by more than 100 users on LinkedIn. In the comments section, many users congratulated her for doing what empowers her the most. 

She said in her post that she left an in-house job with fancy benefits for sex work, adding, “I had just enough saved from selling and engaging my image that I could ask myself if I was happy. I wasn't. Yeah, the few grand I'd stashed up over time helped, but the biggest reason I could walk away is because sex work shows me what my power can do when I own it intentionally. I charge exorbitant amounts."

Egozi further explained that she doesn’t have any problem taking rejections from those that don't want to pay it, because she charge what emotional labour is required right into the fee. 

“I set and hold boundaries, and engage only in ways that are safe, playful, and abundant for me. I don't waste my time with anything less. I stopped pitching and negotiating. I have nothing to prove. I've done the work up front to make my value evident,” she added.

Meanwhile, she also raised the question,  "Why is this different than any other client work?" Further explaining, "The answer I come to, again and again, is that it isn't. So it's now up on my linkedin. Because not only is my new standard for incoming creative clients that they be at least half as respectful, generous, and grateful as the John Does online - but that anyone who I partner with celebrates and accepts every experience as one i will inevitably bring with me into a project. They don't have to understand it, but they better respect the hell out of it.