Anna Reed was the Canterbury regional coordinator for the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective from the late 1980s until 2016. Reed, pictured here in the 1980s, talks about why she enjoyed sex work. While many sex workers do not experience pleasure with clients, Reed found it exciting to have sex with different men, and considered that sex work suited her well. She has worked on a number of research projects relating to the sex industry with public-health specialists at the Christchurch School of Medicine, University of Otago.
Transcript
The first time I went to Amsterdam, in the early '60s, I went one night and had a look at the window girls, and I remember just so clearly thinking I would like to do what they're doing and that didn't mean sitting in the window. I knew that they were having sex and I like having sex with different people and you get paid for it now and wonder what a great way to make a living. As soon as I had my first client I just thought, this is exactly what I should be doing. Sexually, with clients it was often better than with lovers because it was all new and exciting. And as I said I always got bored with one person. Sex work just was made for me. And I believe that in other civilisations other times that we were highly revered, you know, we were the wise women, we were often nurtured into this role and I really understood that.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Private collection
Sound file: Anna Reed, interview by Caren Wilton for oral history project Selling sex: the New Zealand sex industry, 2009. Alexander Turnbull Library, OHC-0976-02
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