Melissa Petro

Melissa Petro

Bio

Melissa Petro is a former sex worker and "hooker teacher" who has written about the industry for HuffingtonPost, Salon, and others. She is also the founder of Becoming Writers, which provides free and low cost memoir-writing workshops and mentoring to writers of all backgrounds and experiences. More info at http://becomingwriters.wordpress.com. 

Melissa Petro Articles

At a certain point in my adulthood, I stopped trying to force friendships that just didn’t work.

How To Break Up With Your Best Friend 

How do you break up with a best friend?

Read...

Let's Not Be Friends: On Female Friendship

Sure, "friends forever" sounds nice. In theory. But sometimes it's better that two people just not be friends.

Read...
To the individuals, families and communities affected by the tragedy in Orlando: the pain and fear you feel right now is real. Image: Thinkstock.

Becoming Bride: On Orlando, Hatred, And Privilege

Hate hurts us all, but we don’t all receive it with the same systemic intensity. Those of us with the privilege to do so need to push against the borders of what is “permissible” in this society. We need challenge the idea of “normal” — rather than conform to it — so that all of us can live more closely to our truths.

Read...

Sex Work Isn't Consensual Or Exploitative—It Can Be Both

It's time to talk substantively and honestly about how sex work isn't any one thing.

Read...

Abstinence-Based Sex Ed Doesn’t Work: Duh

Teaching sex ed the right way doesn’t have to be weird or hard.

Read...
If you have your wedding at a restaurant, the food is the star. Image: Thinkstock.

Becoming Bride: 5 Ways To Simplify The Wedding Planning Process

Engagements being the universally stressful occasions that they are, what this has meant is that I’m constantly pushing my fiancé to make wedding-related decisions, and he is constantly having to ask me (nicely and less-nicely) to give it a rest. It all came to a head this past weekend.

Read...
The woman, the myth, the wax. Courtesy of Flickr.com

Hillary Clinton Has Better Things To Worry About Than Her Pantsuits

Would Sheryl Sandberg be able to get away with leaning in while donning Zuckerberg's signature v-neck T-shirt and jeans? History says no.

Read...
Sex work is not a crime.

Jeremy Corbyn And The Decriminalization Of Sex Work

“If you believe in the decriminalisation of sex work,” Ian Dunt rightfully points out, “you will instantly come under a sustained and highly emotive attack on your morality and your identity.” In this vein, when a man comes out in favor of sex worker’s rights, he becomes “a betrayer of women, a gender Judas encouraging violence against them.”

Read...
I'll just get a new one.

Your Bike Is Stolen, And It's OK: Signs You've Changed Social Class

The other day my friend on Facebook had made a remark about how there are people who have multiple income streams and travel abroad constantly and drive cars and eat at restaurants every week and then talk about class privilege like they don't have it and in my mind I was like, Oh. Yeah. She’s right. In the past six months or so, my life has dramatically changed.

Read...

May Is Masturbation Month And I'm The 2%

You may have heard the old joke that 98% of people masturbate, and the other two percent are lying.

Read...