A Hooker with the Heart of Gold: It’s a cliché almost as old as the profession itself. The Jealous John is also quite common, as is the Dominating Boss. We also see the Heartless Harlot who toys with emotions for entertainment, or conversely, the Business Bitch who sacrifices emotions for enterprise. Society has attempted to organize the relationship between sex, work, and love into neat little packages since the dawn of time, and the incessant and desperate categorization has just grown more exacerbated as gender roles grow more ambiguous.

But  sex worker Kitty Stryker paints a more a nuanced picture of romance in the face of sexual stigmas. Her recent article in the Huffington Post chronicles her past and current relationships in order to combat the assumption that, because she is a sex worker, she is condemned to be alone forever. We’re all familiar with, and at often times tired of, that ubiquitous ultimatum: you need to choose love or career. But just think of what that means for sex workers! One by one, Kitty Stryke strikes down the many ignorant comments and questions she receives on her relationships, and exposes a side to sex work rarely seen–the emotionally stable.

Stryker defines herself as a “politically and socially conscious, well-educated sex worker/performer with experience and/or knowledge of many aspects of sexuality, from threesomes and bondage to the history of fetish and fashion and the psychology of kink!” Her writing confirms this statement. It is not just her Huffington Post article that receives a Naked Star, but instead her entire ouvre. Her blog, Purrversatility, offers a refreshingly frank and well-conceived articulation of the ambiguities of sexuality, psychology, queerness, and love.

The Naked Star  is given to a website or article that has shown awesome bravery in expressing truth in the areas of psychology, health, sexuality and/or culture.