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The Whore Singularity: Online sex worker rights movement histories, pornographic presents, and whoretopias

Teachers
Tina Horn, Jaye Elizabeth Elijah
Date
Section 1: March 31, 2026 to June 2, 2026
Section 2: April 5, 2026 to June 7, 2026

(10 classes)
Time
Section 1: Tuesdays, 1:00–4:00pm ET Section 2: Sundays, Sundays, 4:00–7:00pm ET
Location
Online (Zoom)
Cost
$1200 Or pay $600, $300, or $0 with scholarship
Deadline
Applications open until February 9, 2026

Apply Now

Description

The Whore Singularity asks: if everyone is naked on the internet, is no one naked on the internet? Made for students new to sex worker history and theory as well as those with prior knowledge, this class traces the history of online sex work, censorship, and surveillance. Together, students will collectively imagine cybersex utopias grounded in liberation, and share them with their communities during a hybrid showcase at the end of class.

Images courtesy of teachers.

Disclaimer

This class centers the perspectives of people with experience in the sex trades. Allies and accomplices are welcome. No one is required to disclose personal experience.

Full Description

From JenniCam to Rule 34, online culture has always been synonymous with the human erotic imagination. Not all digitally-mediated erotic expression is labor, but it is all under constant surveillance. Because of this, we all have a stake in the fight against sex work criminalization, anti-porn stigma, and whorephobia. The Whore Singularity traces key moments in online sex work history alongside contemporary policy regimes such as FOSTA-SESTA and Project 2025, examining how pornography has become contested terrain for free expression, labor rights, and bodily autonomy.

Students will learn to see their everyday internet use as built by sex worker necessity, creativity, and organized resistance against injustice, and to recognize the benefits of solidarity with those who are naked on the internet—whether or not they themselves are currently naked online. 

Whether you use platforms to market your services, to get off, or to connect with others, your privacy is on the line. Digital sex represents the control that fascists want to win, and the power that everyday people stand to lose. What can we all do to fight slut and pervert shaming in the interest of solidarity and liberation for all? What could a cybersex utopia look like, and who do we get there together?

Students will use literary tools of utopian imagining to envision and illustrate whoretopias. The class will conclude with a hybrid showcase based in Los Angeles, where students are invited to share their cybersex utopias.

Course of Study

  • Week 1: A ridiculously compressed history of sex censorship leading up to the dawn of the internet
  • Week 2: How sex workers built the internet in the late 80s through early 90s
  • Week 3: Cybering and early online back pages in the late 90s through early 2010s
  • Week 4: Gentrification and criminalization of online gig economy in the early through mid 2010s
  • Week 5: FOSTA-SESTA-era shadowbanning and grassroots organizing in the late 2010s
  • Week 6: COVID-era enshittification in the early 2020s
  • Week 7: Sex bots, fan sites, and the Decrim movement in present day
  • Week 8: Conversations between online sex work and mass culture
  • Week 9: Cyber dystopia - How the political right and corporate surveillance collaborate on restricting human rights through deplatforming
  • Week 10: Futurelab - Achieving whoretopia through solidarity and coalition building!

Expectations

Materials

Device with webcam and strong wifi connection

Technical Experience

No prior knowledge of sex work politics is required—only curiosity and openness to complex, polarizing discussions is necessary

Is this class for me?

This class may be for you if you:

  • Are a part of, or in solidarity with, the sex worker rights movement or want to be
  • Care about sexual expression, erotic countercultures, labor, privacy, and digital freedom or related topics
  • Want historical context for today’s digital culture conflicts

This class may NOT be for you if you:

  • Are not interested in interrogating your own internalized sexual stigmas or whorephobia
  • Don’t think sex work is real work

Meet the Teachers

teacher

Tina Horn

Tina Horn is the author of Why Are People Into That?: A Cultural Investigation of Kink — a book based on her long-running indie fetish podcast of the same name — and the sci-fi comic book series Safe Sex (SfSx). Her journalism on sexual subcultures has appeared in Rolling Stone, Playboy, the Wondery podcast Operator, and in anthologies such as We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival, which she coedited. Tina is known for the theatrical sensibility she brings to her BDSM workshops in feminist sex boutiques, university lectures on sex worker rights, as an emcee at kinky art shows, a panelist and moderator at writing conferences, and commentator in the media. Her work explores the narrative shapes of pervert experiences and the pornographic potential of pop culture. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence in Creative Nonfiction Writing, and is a LAMBDA Literary Fellow, an AVN nominee, and the recipient of two Feminist Porn Awards.

she/her · website · twitter · instagram

teacher

Jaye Elizabeth Elijah

Jaye Elizabeth Elijah is a poet, editor, facilitator, and professional pleasure seeker based in the high desert of New Mexico. Their work weaves eroticism, death, and ritual through language, study, and care work. Their words and images have appeared in beestung, Journal Safar, and the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series.

they/she/whatever · website

How do I apply?

Apply Now

Applications open until Applications closed on February 9, 2026.

You can expect to hear back from us about the status of your application on February 25, 2026. Please email us at admissions@sfpc.study with any questions you have.

How much does it cost to attend?

For 10 classes, it costs $1200 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.

SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.

Applicant FAQ

For more information about what we look for in applicants, scholarships, and other frequently asked questions, please visit our applicant FAQ.

Interested in more learning opportunities at the School for Poetic Computation? Join our newsletter to stay up to date on future sessions and events, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Support our programming through scholarships. Get in touch over email.