Heather Hunter

In vogue and on trend, sex work is social media’s current flavour of the month. A spike in OnlyFans accounts since COVID-19, a person’s yearning to make a quick buck or a general curiosity for the industry—whatever the case may be, the evidence is available day after day. Though, for Heather Hunter, the sex work industry was a true calling; a cumming of age story if you will.

Previously shunned by employers for her “image”, the self-proclaimed BBW goddess took it upon herself to navigate her future as a sex worker; only ever on her own terms.

Last year was a bit of a head-fuck for me…

I, too—I had a complete mental breakdown last year and stepped away from a lot of stuff for a long time.

You’re an independent sex worker—how do you manage when you get to that point where you feel like you’re crumbling on the inside and not living your best life? What did you do to get yourself out of that?

I suppose it’s part of the privilege of being an independent sex worker. I do make a fair amount of money when I do work, and that does give me the luxury of when I need to take time off and recharge, I can [decide that] I’m not going to work for the next month or two. Or I’m only going to see established clients—I won’t see anybody new, and I get to sort of pick and choose what I’m ready for. 

How did you first realise that you were in a fragile state and what did you do to get yourself out?

I go to lots of therapy and smoke a lot of weed.

Apart from that, knowing what my body wants—like, if I am burnt out and stuff, I will give myself the time to relax and rest, and do things other than sex for a little bit.

Because you are a very creative person…

Oh, I haven’t done anything creative since I had my mental breakdown, actually. 

But that’s okay! It’s like having writers block. I get writers block quite often actually, and even if I’m desperately wanting to write something, sometimes it just doesn’t come out. I’ve had to teach myself that that’s okay and that these things can’t be forced. As creatives, we have to take those time-outs to have a breather.

Oh definitely. Probably the only creative thing I do anymore is taking pictures for Instagram.

Well, you take very nice pictures for Instagram so at least you do it well.

Oh, thanks!

You’re welcome.

Let’s talk about sex work. Correct me if I’m wrong, but did you start off as part of an agency or have you always been independent sex worker?

I went from being a sugar baby when I was in uni to working in a brothel, and then I made the [decision] to go completely independent.

So yeah, I went completely independent after brothel work just because it seemed like the right move to go. I’d done a couple of out-call bookings for the parlour I was working at and I ended up making less money working through that agency then I would in a brothel. I kinda realised that there was no point using an agency because they weren’t actually screening clients for me, and that I’d be safer working for myself and make more money.

How did the decision come around to get into sex work—well, to first be a sugar baby and then to get into sex work? Was it something that you were always considering? Was it more of a spur of the moment decision? 

How did you find yourself as a sugar baby and, subsequently, as a sex worker?

So, I started sugaring after reading an article in either The Guardian or The Age on the morality of Seeking Arrangement. It was a very negative piece, but it had me going oh, this sounds great! Which is probably not [the reaction] they wanted. But yeah, I went through that and I had a few good sugar daddies. Because I was a uni student at the time, they tend to love that—it’s a weird thing that some men feel that paying a sex worker for sex is a hard line that they don’t want to cross, but then when it’s a girl they’re paying for their attention, and they’re studying at uni, it’s suddenly seen as okay because they’re not supporting my bad habit of sex work and I’ve actually got a future—which is really gross. It was very much educational privilege that helped me get into sex work.

What was the general demographic or calibre of people that you would find? In my mind, I think I know, but I don’t want to make assumptions or be out of line. Was it a case of them finding you, or did you also seek them out as well?

It was a case of them finding me, mostly. There was only one guy that I ever messaged personally on Seeking Arrangement, and it was someone looking for a travel partner for Europe and they were going to pay for everything. I realised very quickly when we went out for coffee that he was just trying to scam people into thinking that they were going to go on holiday with him and get free sex from them in the meantime, which wasn’t something I was interested in. 

Mostly it was men between the ages of 35 and 55 who work in white collar jobs; really stereotypical. And it’s still my clientele now. 

Did you find or do you find that a lot of them hide that part of their life? Are a lot of them married?

Most clients tend to…actually I think it’s a 50/50 split between being married and single, and they tend to just tell me because I’m sort of the person that they don’t have to lie to because I’ve got no actual stake in their life. People tend to open up to you if they don’t see you as a threat…lots of people tell me things that they really shouldn’t, but I’m pretty good at keeping secrets.

How old are you?

I’m 25.

And what age did you start working in the industry?

22/23.

So it’s been a few years now…

Yeah, well it’s been a year and a half of private work…I turn 26 soon, so it’s actually been four years.

So when you decided then to get into private sex work, what made you decide to go down that path? How did you come to that decision?

Being plus sized in brothels is awful. Either places won’t take you because you’re plus sized; the places that will take you don’t have the right clientele for me…I don’t do well in suburban brothels, I did well in city brothels—they only necessarily take some girls; you have to be under a size 12 to work in most places that are open now. 

I also started getting a little bit of a following on social media and was having people message me about private bookings and things, so I realised that I could make that leap. I signed up to Scarlet Blue which, at the time, was the best advertising platform…

Do you mind us talking about you being a plus size sex worker? 

Yeah, of course! I market myself as a BBW goddess.

Well, you are! It’s true!

I’m very interested—and obviously I don’t come from a sex work background, so I don’t really understand the politics of it all—but why do you feel that there may have been, and potentially still is, a negative stigma towards you as a plus size sex worker, and all other plus size sex workers? Do you think they felt that having a plus size sex worker would tarnish their image?

As in, why brothel managers may not have been accepting—that sort of stigma?

Yeah!

It’s the same as strip clubs…I would be a fucking great stripper, and I wish I could get employed by one, but they don’t take plus sizes in Australian strip clubs.

I just don’t understand that!

A lot of these places are really outdated…they don’t seem to understand that people have their varying tastes. It’s actually better to have a diverse group of people working in a brothel—people don’t only want one type of person, and the person that most brothels hire is medium height, very thin, blonde, with fake tan and fake titties. It’s this very stereotypical appearance that people tend to assume is what is wanted when, in reality, of course there’s a market for plus size women; but there’s also a market for everybody in between.

I’m just so perplexed that there isn’t a bigger market…well, not necessarily that there isn’t a bigger market—there’s obviously a market for it—but just that no businesses have really embraced a bigger market.

I’ve worked at multiple places where I’ve been one of the top earning girls in the brothel, and from one of those places I was actually fired for being plus size.

…That was literally their reasoning?

They told me that my image “didn’t fit” with them but, if I worked at it, I might suit their image later on. 

What?!

And then when I said is this about the fact that I’m plus sized? The owner said no, no—we didn’t say that. We said ‘image' not ‘weight’. 

So, if that was the case, why did they hire you in the first place?

You’ll have to ask them…I think they just wanted to use me for a bit and then get rid of me. And also one of the owners had been overseas and when he got back, I’m pretty sure he saw me on the security camera and had like a why the fuck is there a fatty working here moment.

I’m really sorry that you went through that. It’s horrible because, from what I understand, the sex work community is a very connected community in a lot of ways—and I’m sure that it may be disconnected in a lot of ways, such as in the case of you being pushed out for what I deem to be a very stupid reason…I’m just really sorry that you had to go through that.

Like in so many industries, there’s still a lot of fatphobia and transphobia in the sex work industry. It doesn’t necessarily make sense because if you look at PornHub’s most searched things, like BBW is really far up there in every country. People want chubby girls…it doesn’t make sense to me because for brothels to say no to that, it really means that they’re cutting away a percentage of what they could be making. 

Let’s talk about the friendships and community within the sex work industry. What has been your experience with camaraderie and friendships in the sex work industry, and have you found that there is a lot of camaraderie and togetherness in the previous work that you’ve done with other sex workers? Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, have you found that the industry is quite divisive and that most sex workers you’ve been acquainted with have really just stuck to their own?

I think it’s a bit of both, just like every industry. I feel like I’ve made good friends working for parlours and also working privately, but there’s also that thing—like in every industry—there are some people that you think you’re going to become friends with just because you have the same job, and you do actually need more connection than that with people to form a friendship.

I wouldn’t say that I’ve made heaps of friends in the industry—I’ve made lots of connections, but probably only a few really good friends through it.

Do you find that there’s quite a bit of cattiness and judgement, or do you think that people mainly stick to themselves?

Oh no, there’s insane cattiness. It was worse when I worked at brothels—girls would steal things, they would lie to each other, they would lie to clients about you; there’d always be the one receptionist that randomly hated you as well…just for the sake of some controversy and to bring something interesting in. It’s quite ridiculous.

Let’s chat about the sex-worker-you and the outside-sex-work-you. I’m very curious as to how you compartmentalise and are able to separate one from the other. Do you think that there are ultimately two versions of you—the sex worker you and the outside sex work version of you? Or do you combine the two “personas” into the one entity?

I think it’s all a version of me. I’m not that great at pretending to be someone that I’m not. As clients work out pretty quickly, I can be dorky and weird as well, even though I can also be the cool, cute girl. I’m always going to be a bit of a dork. 

As far as my sex work persona and my at-home persona, I’d say that I dress fairly different in both of those sort of worlds. At home, I tend to dress like a fuckboy and at work I’m in pretty dresses and heels and I have my makeup done. I never do makeup when I’m not taking photos or going to work. It’s kind of like putting on my warpaint when I put on my makeup to go to work. Mostly, it’s all just me.

I know that there are days for me where I’m getting ready for work and I just cannot be fucked. I can’t be fucked seeing people, I can’t be fucked going into the office, I can’t be fucked getting dressed. Do you ever have those days where you’ve booked clients, you’ve got things on, and you wake up in the morning and just say I cannot be fucked doing this today?

Not really, actually. I don’t tend to take last minute bookings, I only take pre-bookings and I’ve kinda worked myself up for it so I know I need to get up at this time and get ready for the booking. It’s just like setting any other appointment—most of the time I actually really love my job and I’m pretty excited to go to it. I get excited when I’m seeing new clients and even more excited when I see existing clients that I have great friendships with. I do definitely consider quite a few of my clients to be friends, not just clients.

That’s lovely. So maybe I’m just being a lazy asshole then?!

But then again, I probably only work half the week. I’ll have a couple of days where I do a few bookings and then I’ll have a couple of days where I hang out with friends, drink too much wine and laze around in tracksuit pants all day. I have a pretty good work-life balance most of the time.

How many clients do you currently have on your roster?

I would have no idea…I’ve never thought of that. It really changes because there are lots of clients where I see them a few times but it may be a few months apart, so I don’t necessarily count them as regulars. Then there are clients that I see every couple of weeks.

I could not even tell you…To think about that number is a little bit terrifying. It’s like when people ask what my body count is [for people I’ve slept with] and I’m like oh, we don’t want to go there.

When you’re getting into a relationship, are you open about the type of work that you do straight off the bat or do you wait a little bit to divulge that information? 

Yep! The one time I wasn’t open about it—I told them on the second date after we had sex—this woman freaked out and started telling me that she wasn’t comfortable being in a relationship with me; that the idea of me sleeping with men for money was disgusting…shocking considering that this is somebody who has posted stuff like sex work is real work! I was like babe, you pretend to be a radical feminist and you’re currently telling me that, because of my job, you don’t want to be in a relationship with me…but if I’m down to fuck, you’re down for that.

Ever since then, I have told people before I have had any sexual encounters with them.

Have you found that, majority of the time, people are open to it—excluding that person?

I’m bi, and I’ve found that—this is going to sound really stupid—but, out of everyone that I’ve dated, [heterosexual] men seem to be the most understanding about it. It seems like it should be the other way around but it’s really not, so I tend to mainly hook up with men because I don’t want to get the judgment, I don’t want to deal with that. 

When you are meeting new people and you tell them what line of work that you’re in, do you find that there is a stigma attached to the way that they treat you? Or do you find that most people are generally quite open and accepting?

On that, what sort of stigmas do you want to see broken down about sex work? I feel that, as an outsider looking in, sex work as a whole is being more accepted…

It’s currently in vogue. Sex work is seen as something trendy now, and lots of people are trying it—especially what’s happening now with COVID and everything, people are starting OnlyFans accounts that have never done that sort of work before.

Most of the people I choose to date and hang out with aren’t the type that would judge me in any way for that. I just don’t surround myself with people that would. The few people that I have dealt with that have been shit about it, even they haven’t been necessarily that bad. They’ve just been like I’ll have to double-bag to fuck you, and it’s like babe, I have protective sex with everybody I fuck. It doesn’t matter whether it’s work or in my personal life, and I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve never had an STI or anything.

I don’t understand why people still seem to think that sex workers must be diseased—that’s usually [the first thing that] Twitter trolls and dudes on social media will say when you reject them—oh, you’re probably diseased anyway! It’s like, dude, sex workers actually have the lowest percentage of STIs in the community because we are so regularly tested and actually are knowledgeable about our sexual health.

How do you find it when people are cruel to you online?

I dealt with a lot of that in the past—like really shit people—but I haven’t dealt with anything for five months or so. I think I just kinda got to a point where I stopped posting things online that could be controversial. I have curated myself a bit so that I’m not talking about politics or my beliefs in any way, because I think that those are things that people are more likely to get attached to and attack you on. Sometimes I can’t help it and do post very lefty stuff but, mostly, people don’t care.

I was going to say, not just with regards to you personally, but for everyone—we all have our social media accounts and, for the most part, should have the freedom to post what we want on those accounts—within reason, of course. Do you think the fact that you have felt the need to curate yourself is, in a sense, censoring who you really are or do you think that you’re more doing it for self preservation purposes?

I think it’s more just personal branding. Social media is like a big advertisement for yourself and I had personal social media that I have gotten rid of and my friends followed me on my work stuff because I couldn’t be bothered running more than one social media account and I do see it as work. 

I schedule when I’m going to take photos, when I’m going to post stuff—I try and keep it relatively regular but sometimes I won’t post for a couple of months because I just can’t be bothered. It’s a part of the job, that’s kinda how I look at it. That’s not to take away from people that really enjoy it; it is something that lots of people find a great community in.

But it might not be for everyone, and it shouldn’t necessarily be an expectation. One thing that I admire about your online presence is that you post according to what works for you and when, rather than what people might expect from you. There is an authenticity when you post things and the fact that you are extremely creative does come out in a lot of your posts. 

The fact of the matter is, there are a hell of a lot of creepy and weird people online that will slide into yours, or anyones DMs, and say some pretty heinous shit.

The difference between cis men and femmes sliding into my DMs is hilarious. Like, cis men especially, they’ll slide into my DMs just being like TITS and nothing else.

And you’re just like, I do have them—thank you for noticing…

Or they’ll just be like: oh baby, that butt! Like yes, there was a butt.

But then when I have femmes sliding into my DMs, it’s like oh my god I love you, I’m so sorry to bother you. I was just wondering if you could tell me where that lingerie you wore in those last photos was from? I love your style. Again - so sorry for bothering you. Which I’ll always respond to those messages.

You know, nine out of ten messages I get on social media are just funny, and then the other one is really beautiful. It’s very occasionally—I mean, I get some dicks on Twitter but everyone gets dicks on Twitter…mostly it’s just people saying you’re really beautiful, can you talk to me? And me ignoring them because they’re not paying me.

You’re like give me the money or shut the fuck up.

Well yeah, I’ve had a few people…send me a nominal fee, like $5 or $10 and then slide into my DMs going I just want to tell you that you’re really beautiful, I just sent you a little tip first before I slid into your DMs because I understand your boundaries. And it’s like wow, you’re a great person - thank you! I will accept your message request and occasionally, I will send [them] something nice.

People generally expect everything from you for nothing. But, generally I don’t get much hate.

That’s good. Because there are a lot of creeps out there…my personal Instagram used to be on public and I had a few dudes creep on in. It can happen to anyone, and they seem to think that what they’re doing is absolutely fine!

Even with my business account though, I’ve had photos on there which may be seen as somewhat provocative—I don’t see it that way. I mean, my tits are out, sure…

I don’t think bodies should be sexualised until you sexualise them…

Yes! Absolutely!

Most of the time, I think my pictures are just cute. Sometimes I’ll have my titties out more than others. Mainly I don’t think they’re sexualised images.

The thing is, you can post something and be admirable of your body and admirable of the image and think it’s really cute, but then when people start to sexualise it…And, fuck it! Even if I post something with the intention of it being sexual, that’s my right. It’s my fucking profile.

How are you going with COVID and the whole isolation/social distancing thing? It’s affecting everyone in different ways…Are you still having clients wanting to see you?

Yeah! My [work] phone, I’ve had to turn it off most of the time because of the amount of people asking to see me. There’s currently a nearly-$20,000 fine if you’re found to be working in Victoria and that’s not something I’m prepared to pay, so I will not be working until after COVID or after lockdown laws have been lifted.

I’ve had a couple of people ask me how much for a booking? And I’ve been like thirty grand, babe! Twenty grand to pay for the fine, and another ten grand for me—which is obviously ridiculous, I would never charge thirty grand for a two-hour booking.

You never know, someone might be interested enough that they might take you up on that…

Honestly, I don’t want to know what I have to do for thirty grand…

Maybe they just want a cuddle? A two-hour cuddle worth thirty grand.

No one will pay thirty grand just for a cuddle. There’s got to be something weird happening in that booking.

I tend to get envelopes at the start of bookings, and when there’s already a big tip in there, I think what’s this person going to do?!

Do you know in advance what people are expecting of the meet?

Most of the time, like 90% of the time I know exactly what’s about to happen. And then sometimes you’ll be fucking and they’ll whisper in your ear can you shit on me, babe?

Have you ever done that?

I mean, yeah. I’ve done it with one client once…I was paid enough that it was very worthwhile. I did, however, get stage fright and it wasn’t as impressive as I wanted my shit to be. And then it was really weird because you start thinking about shitting in a really different way—it stops being gross and it’s like oh, I just want to do this for you! I need to deliver this shit for you.

I was getting stage fright which was annoying because I made sure I ate enough fibre for [it], I don’t understand! I’m usually so regular!

It was awkward…it took a while and we got there, but it wasn’t as impressive as I wanted it to be.

It was actually really interesting hearing from him what it was about that…I asked him why he wanted to have a brown shower and why this is a fetish and—obviously without giving away any specifics about that person at all—but it was fascinating hearing that he wanted to have this experience because it was the most intimate and private moment that he could imagine intruding on. And it was the idea that he—you know when people want to get as close to you as they possibly can? That was what he thought, because it’s not something that I would let anybody else see. It’s not something that I would just offer people, and he wanted to be the first person to see that; to experience that with me, and it was this weird moment that he felt that he was the closest to me that he could possibly get.

So, at the root of it all, it was intimacy that he was really craving?

Yep. I shitted that intimacy right onto him.

Amen sister.

Tell me, what sort of stigmas you want to be broken down around sex work—whether that be from people in the industry or just in general? How do you want sex work to develop over time?

I’d like people to understand that sex workers don’t necessarily look a certain way. There are lots of different types of sex workers and we don’t fit a mould. And I’d just like Uber drivers to not be creepy, really…

Is this when you’re going to and from clients?

Oh, yeah. It’s that whole cute girl, dressed up, going with nothing besides a small-to-medium sized handbag into a hotel—like, it’s really obvious what’s happening. Uber drivers [are] either really lovely, they ignore you completely or they want to tell you that you’re a whore really casually.

Oh wow…people are pigs.

The amount of times I’ve had people wave $50 notes when I’ve come out of hotels and been like you come in front and blow me quickly is astounding…

WHAT?

Yeah! I’ve never taken any of them up on that offer…

I don’t blame you. That’s disgusting.

I think that a lot of people have this really outdated, hyperbolised, bizarre idea of what sex work is—and I don’t think that movies have helped. And it’s like, they can’t seem to get that idea out of their heads. I think that’s why it’s so important for us to break down those barriers and, as a society, be so accommodating of all different types of sex workers.

From speaking to a lot of people, in the industry or otherwise, they have this almost preconceived idea of what sex work is and that really needs to be broken down. Sex workers are all different shapes and sizes, genders or non-gendered, any colour under the sun, and that needs to be recognised.

It’s something that I feel really passionately about, and that’s why we need to get these messages out there. My heart broke when you spoke about your brothel experience and not being accepted for the way that you looked, that you didn’t “fit the bill”—there shouldn’t be a “bill”, you’re all in this together—it should be a community.

Yeah—I completely…what you’re saying is completely right. What I would love to see—this sounds really ridiculous—but E! or Bravo, they really need to do a reality TV show about sex workers and follow sex workers around in a Real Housewives style formula. This is us going out for brunch together, this is us organising a fundraiser, this is us getting ready for clients…

The Real Sex Workers of Melbourne…

The Real Hookers of Melbourne—something like that. I don’t think people realise just how normal we are.