After three weeks of interviewing, writing, re-writing, frustration, and re-writing again, my article about student sex workers is finally finished and in print. It ran in The New Hampshire (TNH) on Tuesday and I’m so happy with it. I’m really surprised that it was put on the front page, seeing as it’s not a news story, but I’m very glad that it was considering how much work went into it.
It then continued onto page four and was accompanied by an amazing picture made by Justin, the former executive editor of TNH. I love how it turned out and I think it really captures an important aspect of the story, showing that these girls are not only strippers, but they are students too and that both are part of their identities.
I’ve never worked as hard on a story as I did for this one and usually once an article is published I usually forget about it and move onto the next one. This one is different though and I keep checking back to the site to read the comments people have been posting. At first I was very happy with them because there was a big range of responses. Some people thought it was great and commended the girls I wrote about while others bashed them and put them down. Some people commented on the writing itself, calling it poorly written, while others said I did a good job. I also received text messages and tweets complimenting the article, as well as people I barely know approaching me in person to tell me that they liked it.
Today I checked back on the website though and saw two comments that really bothered me, even though I know that I shouldn’t let them. One said that I made sex workers look even worse and that I only furthered the stereotype, which is not true at all. The person also said that I chose the worst two people to interview, which I don’t believe is true either. I brushed this comment off though because it’s not a big deal. The next comment though was awful and said that my article hurt her and made her cry. She said that she’s been sexually harassed and that my article “hurts women” and “has no place on the front page of TNH”. She said that TNH should think about what messages we put out there.
At first this comment hurt me because I don’t want my writing to hurt anyone so badly where it makes them cry. The more I thought about it though, I became less sad and more angry. It’s not fair of that girl to say that my article made her think of her past and the things that happened to her. Yes, I’m sorry that it happened to her, but that doesn’t mean she can blame my article for all this stuff. I’m not making men or women look bad. I wrote about two girls who wanted their story out there and if they’re comfortable with what’s being said, then what’s the problem? Also, I think TNH should be able to put any message we want out there. For the record though, the only message of this article is that more college girls are turning to sex work as a way to pay for college and that these girls are still normal college students.
Anyways, I’m not going to let these comments bother me because I worked hard on this article and I’m very proud of it. I never put so much into a story and I even had Justin help me work through drafts of it, which normally doesn’t happen. I’m thankful for all of the comments on this story though because if people are talking about it (good or bad) it means I’m doing something right. As Oscar Wilde said, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
