In 1978, The Police told Roxanne she didn’t “have to put on that red light.” She no longer needed to walk to streets for money, but did anyone ever ask if she simply wanted to?

The stigma surrounding prostitution is as old as the profession itself. Although there are an estimated 1 million sex workers in the United States alone, according to Business Insider, Americans still ponder the question, “why would anyone want to do that?”

In 2014, American adults completed an online survey rating professions on a warmth and competency scale. According to the review published by Princeton University, Prostitutes scored the lowest in both areas.

These numbers confirm that we don’t think highly of the stereotypical sex worker. However, if you learn one thing today, let it be that this archetype doesn’t exist. Sex workers, much like breasts come in all shapes, colors, and sizes.

This week I had the privilege of interviewing a college student and sex worker from New York City. She was both warm and competent, among many other things. Truthfully, she was one of the most articulate people I’ve ever met.

Lori Adorable, as she is known online, is a professional BDSM sex worker, porn actress, model, and blogger. Adorable entered sex work three years ago after leaving school in 2011 due to medical problems.

“I really had no intention of doing sex work until I started having health issues,” she said.

Initially, Adorable sought to balance a traditional position with her schoolwork, but found that her learning disability wouldn’t allow for the time constraints of a nine-to-five job. She needed a flexible work schedule because she requires more time review and process information while studying.

Adorable reached the point where she faced homelessness or even worse, would have to move back home with her parents, with whom she had a strained relationship.

Adorable joked that her career started out as a sex work cliché.

“I saw an ad on craigslist: ‘become a dominatrix.’”

Up until that point Adorable had been modeling, acting in porn, and had also explored sugar daddy websites.

Today, Adorable works independently as a professional BDSM ‘switch,’ rotating between both the submissive and dominant role. However, this wasn’t always the case. For the first year of her career, she worked in a BDSM commercial dungeon alongside a cohort of women.

“They provide the rooms, props, outfits, and clients. All you have to do is show up,” she said.

When she told me this, I naturally assumed this organized environment was safe. Unfortunately, in this instance, organization and supervision didn’t translate to security.

“There are a lot of abuses that go on in places like that,” she said. “There are no labor rights for people in that work.”

Forget about paid vacation; basic rights such as sick days warranted fines for workers. From fiscal to physical, things only worsened under the veil of criminalization.

“There would be abusive clients that they wouldn’t blacklist because (the company was) either greedy, or afraid of being tipped off by the cops,” Adorable said.

Adorable and the other women who worked there looked out for one another.

“We would warn each other and say ‘OK if you go in with that guy, be careful. He might try to do x, y, and z,’” she said.

Now Adorable performs her own client-screening process. Her clients find her through ads. From there, she arranges meetings via email to ensure the client is legitimate. If so, she will do outcalls to their apartment, or hotel room if they’re traveling. She also meets at commercial dungeons and pre-rented spaces.

Although her job requires considerable effort and forethought, Adorable mentioned a notable silver lining.

“It’s definitely never boring,” she said. “It’s surprisingly creative. I do a lot of acting and role-playing.” There’s a good amount of sex-ed involved.”

Adorable likened her time with clients to an improv stage. They give her an explicit list of things they want to do and things they don’t; She works within those boundaries. These men aren’t your stereotypical ‘John’ either.

“Men don’t come to me because they can’t get laid,” she said “They come to me because they’re kinky.”

Adorable said a lot of her clients are dating or married, sometimes even married and dating.

Adorable acknowledged her work is unique because of the clientele she attracts and her price range. Overall, she said that she is not a ‘representative sex worker.’

She clarified, “there is no such thing as a representative sex worker.”

Adorable emphasized the dichotomy surrounding sex work.

“People have this idea that there’s this black and white picture, you’re either empowered or exploited. It’s more complicated than that.”

Sex workers come from all ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, socioeconomic classes, age groups and physical statures. They aren’t all beautiful, trafficked, eastern European women, as media coverage leads us to believe.

While each sex worker is unique, all share a common goal: earning a profit. Adorable explained that majority of sex workers don’t want legalization, as legalization implies governmental regulation. Instead, Adorable said many want sex work to be decriminalized. Decriminalization would allow workers to come forward with crimes committed against them on the job, ultimately providing a safer space for them to pursue their livelihood for the time the need to.

“Most of us aren’t on a mission to help dudes with their boners,” she joked.

Adorable said most don’t stay in sex work for long. She plans to quit after obtaining her degree.

At the end of the day, you can’t rid the world of sex work. It’s a supply-and-demand relationship that will never fade. By making it illegal, we only make it more dangerous for all individuals involved.

This country is beautiful. Let’s keep it the land of the free and the home of the laid, pay or no pay.

I leave you with Adorable’s words, “If you have a problem with sex work, you have a problem with capitalism.”