Melissa Petro

Melissa Petro

Bio

Melissa Petro is a former sex worker and "hooker teacher" who has written about the industry for HuffingtonPost, Salon, and others. She is also the founder of Becoming Writers, which provides free and low cost memoir-writing workshops and mentoring to writers of all backgrounds and experiences. More info at http://becomingwriters.wordpress.com. 

Melissa Petro Articles

Image via YouTube.

Why "Kiss Bang Love" Is Not For Me

On FYI’s newest, Kiss Bang Love, the show sets one man or one woman up with ten strangers who the contestant will kiss, one after another, while blindfolded. From these ten hopeful suitors, the contestant chooses five and then two, with whom they go on “intimate 24-hour dates.” The producers ask: Can blind sexual chemistry lead to love? I say, probably not!

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Let's Not Be Friends: On Female Friendship

Sure, "friends forever" sounds nice. In theory. But sometimes it's better that two people just not be friends.

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To the individuals, families and communities affected by the tragedy in Orlando: the pain and fear you feel right now is real. Image: Thinkstock.

Becoming Bride: On Orlando, Hatred, And Privilege

Hate hurts us all, but we don’t all receive it with the same systemic intensity. Those of us with the privilege to do so need to push against the borders of what is “permissible” in this society. We need challenge the idea of “normal” — rather than conform to it — so that all of us can live more closely to our truths.

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I didn’t have a single clue what kind of ring I was expecting. Image: Melissa Petro.

Becoming Bride: Choosing The Ring

A couple months before our official engagement, Arran and I had an uncomfortable conversation about getting married. Specifically, my dear boyfriend of two years chose a quiet brunch on one unassuming Sunday to bring up the fact that he was reluctant to propose.

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Stock photos seemed to get pregnancy and parenting all wrong. When a Facebook friend posted looking for a real life pregnant stock photo model, I offered.

I Was A Real Life Pregnant Stock Photo Model​

Stock photos seemed to get pregnancy and parenting all wrong. When a Facebook friend posted looking for a real life pregnant stock photo model, I offered.

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newborn baby (image credit: thinkstock)

I'm Scared To Have A Baby

After gaining as much as forty pounds and pushing a cantaloupe out my vagina, I wondered: will my body ever be the same?

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Sex work is not a crime.

Jeremy Corbyn And The Decriminalization Of Sex Work

“If you believe in the decriminalisation of sex work,” Ian Dunt rightfully points out, “you will instantly come under a sustained and highly emotive attack on your morality and your identity.” In this vein, when a man comes out in favor of sex worker’s rights, he becomes “a betrayer of women, a gender Judas encouraging violence against them.”

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Sometimes the fights I pick with my fiancé are really fights with myself. Image: Thinkstock.

Becoming Bride: When The Honeymoon Ends Before The Marriage Even Begins

Sometimes the fights I pick with my fiancé are really fights with myself.

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“It’s your day!” —  Britni De La Cretaz, on her day. Image: Justine Johnson Photography

Becoming Bride: The Best Advice From Real-Life Brides

Everyone I talk to agrees: Apparently, wedding planning is the most awful thing ever! Seriously, I did not know that when I first got engaged. This got me thinking... What else don’t I know?

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My wedding will not be the most important day of my life. Image: Melissa Petro.

Becoming Bride: We're Getting Married (FINALLY)

For someone like me — someone with difficulty forming and maintaining relationships, who has struggled with commitment, and who’s got intimacy issues galore — surely, you can see the appeal. You don’t need to be Freud to figure out why, at a disturbingly young age, I looked forward to the day a man would commit.

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