Writing

  • Modern Whore book cover

    Modern Whore: A Memoir

    MODERN WHORE is a striking memoir by Andrea Werhun and Nicole Bazuin that documents Andrea's sex work career in lush photography and powerful words—in all its slippery, sexy, silly and sometimes heartbreaking glory.

    This series of stories and portraits investigate the many ways we imagine—and mistake—the modern whore. It's Playboy if the Playmates were in charge.

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  • Literal Bimbos zine cover

    Literal Bimbos: Love for Sale

    LITERAL BIMBOS is a DIY e-zine made by and for current and former sex workers in Toronto with writing that spans across genre: memoir, fiction, poetry, comics, media critique, advice, and interview.

    Visually delightful and intellectually stimulating, these pages will leave you feeling warm and seen. 

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Essays

  • Let’s loosen our puritanical bylaws so a new generation of strip clubs can flourish

    THE GLOBE & MAIL   |   JULY 7, 2023

    BY ANDREA WERHUN

     

    Only five strip clubs remain in “Toronto the Good.” Soon, it will be four.

    The storied Filmores Gentlemen’s Club and Hotel on Dundas Street East was recently sold to condo developers for $31.5-million, with the adjoining parking lot sold for an additional $20-million. If Howard Adams, the owner of Filmores, wanted to move the strip club to a new location, under the current Adult Entertainment Establishment zoning bylaws he cannot.

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  • Bad faith evictions trample on our human right to housing

    THE GLOBE & MAIL   |   MARCH 16, 2024 

    BY ANDREA WERHUN

     

    You might not know it based on the current crisis, but housing is a human right in Canada.

    In 2019, the federal Liberal government enshrined the right to adequate housing in the National Housing Strategy Act. Canada is also a signatory to the U.N.-backed International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognizes housing as a human right in which parties must ensure the security of tenure for all citizens. Forced evictions are a prima facie violation of the covenant.

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  • Sex Worker Storytelling: Beyond Decriminalization

    SHE DOES THE CITY   |   MAY 25, 2022

    BY ANDREA WERHUN

     

    To tell sex worker stories, we need sex work decriminalized – but is that enough?

    The global sex workers’ rights movement has done an excellent job of putting the full decriminalization of our labour at the forefront of our demands for equality and human rights. Organizations like Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, International Human Rights Watch, and UNAIDS, all support the full decriminalization of sex work as an essential starting point for reducing harm and tackling injustice around the world. 

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  • Canada’s moralistic sex work laws are ineffective and dangerous

    THE GLOBE & MAIL   |   SEPT. 25, 2023

    BY ANDREA WERHUN

     

    Canada’s moralistic sex work laws are ineffective and dangerous.

    On a cool, spring day in March of 2021, the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform (CASWLR) launched a court case at the Ontario Superior Court to challenge several sex work-related criminal offences, arguing that they violated sex workers’ constitutional rights to life, liberty, and security as protected by the Canadian Charter.

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