SWAP Hamilton's Media Library Archive
The Jelena Vermilion fonds, colloquially known as the Sex Worker Media Library archive, represents another of SWAP Hamilton’s partnerships. The physical collection of books, magazines, ephemera, and other media is under the care of the Hamilton Public Library in their Local History and Archives, and is currently available to the public, including for academic research. This partnership is significant in that it builds a trusting, respectful relationship between sex workers and those who oversee their stories—another step towards destigmatization, and a practical tool against pressures to marginalize sex workers’ information.
“The archive aims to safeguard information, narratives, and histories of sex work/ers and to be a repository of media produced by/for and about the industry and those who labour in it.” (Jelena Vermilion, emailed correspondence, 2025)
Much of the Jelena Vermilion fonds’ contents are produced by and for sex workers. In a media landscape with a long history of excluding sex workers’ voices, independent art and small-press publications are valuable tools for sharing information that would otherwise go unseen. Newsletters, plays and drama scripts, podcasts, and zines in particular — media with fewer barriers to produce — are used to circumvent taboos around sex workers’ lived experiences, covering a range of topics and serving a range of goals.
Consiousness raising
Small-press media uses humour, art, and personal narrative to alert the wider community of issues affecting sex workers, share perspectives that would otherwise go unheard, and motivate action. Sex workers discuss issues such as how stigma and criminalization make their jobs less safe; the dehumanization of sex workers in the criminal justice system; the impact of policy changes, and more.
Zine cover of Sex Work Power: Notes and reflections for sex workers and their allies - #JusticeforMoka, released by Maggie’s Toronto Sex Workers’ Action Project. The creator discusses the contributions of BIPOC queer and trans sex workers to many social movements; racial injustice in sex work; and how the criminalization of sex work disproportionately harms racialized workers. The zine is dedicated to Moka Dawkins, a Black and Indigenous trans woman who was incarcerated for four years after stabbing a client in self-defense. Dawkins, while imprisoned, successfully advocated for policies to protect the safety and freedom of expression for trans inmates, and upon her release started a career in humanitarian community activism.
Cover of A Survivor: Alisha Walker. This zine is a collection of writings and artwork created by Alisha Walker, who was sentenced to fifteen years in prison after stabbing a client in self-defense in 2014. The zine, collated over a series of visits to Walker in prison and published by fellow members of the Support Ho(s)e collective, directs readers to take action by writing letters to their representatives, signing a petition for her freedom, and keeping attention on her case. Alisha Walker was released from prison in 2020.
Political theory and discussion
Historically, progressive groups have had contentious relationships with sex work/ers; some activists wish to avoid the stigma of association, while others believe sex work to be directly oppositional to their own goals. Sex workers may be excluded from discussions on gender-based oppression, queer liberation, class injustice, immigration reform, and more. Regardless of whether their presence is welcome in activist circles, sex workers continually contribute their insights, support, and labour to progressive causes.
Cover of Grin and Bare It All: Against Liberal Conceptions of Sex Work, written by Luna Celeste.
Transcript cover of the Underbelli Podcast Episode 3: A Whore’s Dialogue: On the History & Racism of Anti-Trafficking, by Isidore and Erma VIP
Cover of Don’t Hate My Heels, 2018. This zine features writings by an anonymous leftist sex workers, navigating the complicated dynamics of labour, exploitation, and gender performance. In one essay, the author discusses their alienating experiences in anarchist spaces as a sex worker in hyper-femme work attire. Another essay recounts being judged by a radical friend for having received luxury items from clients.
Keeping each other safe
With the low cost of printing and dissemination, zines are an important tool for sharing crucial intra-community information, such as advice for navigating the industry, safe sex resources, cautionary tales about exploitative workplaces, and lists of “bad dates”—clients who are known threats to workers’ safety.
Zine cover of Safer Sex Work: A Guide for Reducing Harm & Maximizing Health in the Sex Industry.
Cover of the BC Coalition of Experiential Communities’ Trade Secrets for sex industry workers, a guide intended to advise sex workers on best practices and inform industry standards; believing “that standards or regulations should come from within the industry and not outside of it”.
Community building and celebration
Above all else, art is used to bring people together. Sex workers’ journalism, poetry, publications, and productions create platforms for community building: spaces—physical, intellectual, and creative—where audiences can engage and connect, stigma-free.
Cover of P.O.N.Y. (Prostitutes Of New York) Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1990. In this issue can be found articles on the HIV crisis, endorsements for cranberry supplements and condoms, cautionary tales about exploitative workplaces and sex worker-unfriendly hotels, book recommendations, contact information for adjacent organizations, and a section on community updates titled “Pony Tales”.
Cover of gendertrash issue #4, spring 1995. This issue featured interviews with sex workers and former sex workers, as interviewed by editor and former sex worker Mirha-Soleil Ross. Learn more about gendertrash here.
2024 program cover for Bimbos in Space, a sci-fi theatre production celebrating sex workers’ culture, discourse, and labour, while critiquing FOSTA-SESTA for its impacts on their safety and livelihoods.
The media in the Jelena Vermilion fonds testifies to the fact that, despite social, political, and economic efforts to marginalize sex work/ers, they do—and always have—led full and creative lives, made crucial contributions to social progress and culture, and existed as friends and neighbours in our communities.