“Packaged with political purpose…both tasteful and titillating.”
—Radheyan Simonpillai, NOW Magazine
“Hilarious and charming.”
—Patricia Kozicka, The Guardian
“A love letter to sex workers and the art and glory of the hustle.”
—Noelle Perdue, Xtra
“Modern Whore is for the daring heart in all of us. This is not just a sex worker’s story, it is the work of an artist, of partnership, of sisterhood, of where storytelling becomes the body and the body becomes the story. The romance in this memoir isn’t literal, it’s unapologetic. This is about advocacy. It’s about choice. Andrea Werhun pulls you in with her cabaret-esque personality, full of wit and wisdom, championed by Nicole Bazuin’s keen understanding of the moment. It is a privilege to witness someone dance their way into their authentic self, saying: this is where it hurts, this is where it feels good, and this is where it matters. In parts a whore’s victory guide, but it is also a fierce reminder of why we create.”
—Téa Mutonji, author of Shut Up You’re Pretty
“Delightful and righteous, Andrea Werhun spits in the face of tyrants and single-handedly unpacks the body/mind conundrum for girls. Proving that there is no story without the body, Modern Whore is a CanLit shakedown.”
—Tamara Faith Berger, author of Maidenhead
“By turns breathtakingly fun and poignantly serious, Modern Whore is an original—a feminist memoir that fearlessly explores sex, money and taking life into your own hands. But the book also deserves to be recognized as a classic coming-of-age story about an adventurous young woman, who just happens to be chasing her dreams in the sex industry. I loved how Modern Whore turns the tables on men, making the hard-working, shrewd and hilariously honest women in the sex industry like Werhun the centre of the story. Werhun never lets us forget that life in the strip club has more than one dimension.”
—Chanelle Gallant, writer, strategist, and sex worker advocate
“Andrea is not only a gorgeous woman, but also a most talented and witty writer. Her story in mindblowing, revealing because it’s real. Whilst I was reading her book, a lot of memories from my past as The Happy Hooker came back. Flashbacks of my time as a famous madame. Not only does Andrea have a great story, she also knows how to write about it.
I introduced real sex talk, 4-letter words like dick, cock, suck and cunt—no Latin BS. And Andrea did the same for her generation and her time: her story entertains and shows how empowering sex work can be.
This whore’s playbook can educate future sex workers and make readers aware of the pros and cons of being a prostitute. If you want to find out more about the sex industry, this is the right book for you: a real whore’s playbook.
Andrea is more than just the sum of her beautiful private parts. She has got all the weapons and knows how to use them. She certainly knows the sex worker’s “fuck and suck” etiquette!
If I had a daughter, it would be you, Andrea. Who else could carry the legacy of the Happy Hooker! I would be a proud mother. No sad little girl without a choice—a smart, beautiful woman who knew exactly what she was doing, because she wanted to.
—Xaviera Hollander, author of The Happy Hooker
“With wit, insight, and honesty, Andrea Werhun takes us behind the scenes of her ‘journey into the sexual underworld,’ along with the ironic ‘thrills and revelations’ of her experiences as an escort. Following a very ‘simple desire to live happily and independently,’ she discusses family confessions while exposing the quirky motivations of her clients. In an era where ‘Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion’ are buzzwords, it’s time for Canadians to remove the stigma and provide legal protection for this forgotten sector of the #MeToo movement.”
—Gerald Cupchik, Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto
“Nicole Bazuin’s photographic body of work in Modern Whore is as much a love letter to friendship as it is to sex workers. Her challenging and alluring portraits define the nouveau aesthetic of visual sex culture and spank the worn-out male gaze back to the 20th-century where it belongs. If you have an issue with sex workers being seen as smart, sassy, hilarious, free-thinking, free-spirited characters and well, let’s be frank: as human beings then you are going to hate this book.
Bazuin is a firecracker of a photographer. With every photograph, she renounces tired visual tropes of the romanticised and sensationalised images of sex work.
A natural-born visual storyteller, with Modern Whore, Bazuin has spectacularly helped establish a new era of the sex worker gaze.”
—Camille Melissa Waring, Feminist Visual Arts Academic, The Photographic Theorist
“In one sense this is a familiar kind of story, a story about growing up, finding your place in the world, accepting yourself for who you are and asking others to do the same. But the similarities to Anne of Green Gables pretty much end there. Prepare yourself for a candid, entertaining, intelligent window on a set of experiences too often left in darkness by a writer who is as honest and straightforward with her reader as she is with those she encounters and with herself. Also, a lot of cocks.”
—Nick Mount, author of national bestseller Arrival: The Story of CanLit
“Werhun, in collaboration with Bazuin, brings a powerful sex work skill to the art of book-making: the ability to find harmony in meta-layers of story. Their book brazenly denies that the sex working artist must choose between humor or politics, cheesecake or intellect, vulnerability or persona. This Modern Whore is all that and more.”
—Tina Horn, creator of SfSx and Why Are People Into That?!
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