WeezyWTF On Hosting Sex Sells, Destigmatizing Sex Work, And Sex Positivity - Exclusive Interview
WeezyWTF did her time chasing the so-called American Dream the way most of us do. She started her career at a tech company, making the big paycheck and climbing the corporate ladder, but she didn't feel like she was doing "meaningful work."
While she was still playing the corporate game, Weezy teamed up with her high school best friend to start a podcast called "WHOREible Decisions." They recorded blunt and hilarious conversations about their sex lives, masturbation, slut-shaming, and sex positivity, and listeners loved it. People started approaching her on the street to tell her how the podcast changed their perspective on sex or improved their sex lives. "WHOREible Decisions" also caught the attention of journalists, critics, and influencers because there weren't many podcasts out there featuring Black women talking frankly about sex.
Weezy finally felt like she was doing meaningful work, so she left her career in tech to become a full-time sexpert and an advocate for sex work and sex positivity. During the pandemic, that career shift led to the opportunity to make and host a show centered on destigmatizing sex work called "Sex Sells." Like the podcast, Weezy's show has garnered a lot of praise, and its second season is currently underway on Fuse.
Ahead of the premiere, Weezy spoke with Health Digest about Season 2, how she became a sexpert, why destigmatizing sex and sex work is so important, and how sex positivity can improve physical and mental health.
Becoming a sexpert
What made you decide to leave a lucrative career in tech to become an advocate for sexual health and sex positivity?
I don't know if it's as lucrative as I thought it was. I always thought the pinnacle of my life would be, "I make six figures," and now the rest of the world could barely feed themselves on that, especially in New York. I thought climbing the corporate ladder was something I had to do and I was really proud to do.
When I saw the trajectory of what talking about sex was doing for me and what it really meant for people ... I would have people stop me in the street and thank me for opening them up to their queerness or losing their virginity ... So many women talked about how they hadn't had orgasms before and how learning about it, talking about it, teaching them how to masturbate really changed their lives.
Don't get me wrong, the money was good too, but all of it put together is what made me leave. I was actually doing meaningful work.
Making media to destigmatize sex
How did your hit podcast WHOREible Decisions come to life?
My co-host and I have known each other since we were 15, back from Florida. [We] stopped talking for a few years [and] reconnected in New York. When we were sitting down having dinner, we were sharing slutty stories, to be honest. I was like, "Oh my God, you work at Goldman Sachs, I work at this tech company. We're making it in life, but also, we're still slutty." We decided we needed to make a podcast about sex from the perspective of normal girls.
To be honest, at the time, there weren't any Black sex podcasts that I had listened to. I only knew about "Guys We F**ked." There was nothing really for me, [and] nothing from queer women too, or women that were ... when I say normal, I mean a lot of comedians or porn stars were doing them [podcasts], but I didn't feel like the average girl was doing a podcast and that's really why we made it.
How did you get involved with "Sex Sells"?
"Sex Sells" was created during the pandemic with my friend, Brandon Allen. He was the head of development at Fuse at the time. This is the longer version of it, but we got approached by Forbes to do a show called "Sexit." It was basically people leaving the sex industry. I was like, "That's not a good look for me because I celebrate sex work."
Instead, we made "Sex Sells" together, where we basically got to explore the legal sex industry and highlight businesses that do so. We loved it because it showed people how they can make money, no matter what business you're in. You could be starting a construction company and the dominatrix might teach you something about SEO and marketing.
Why did you want to make a show specifically about sex work and sex workers?
I didn't realize that this would be something that can make me a millionaire. I thought working in tech was going to be it, and when I realized how big the industry is and how important it is to everybody that I don't know ... I wanted other people to understand it, and I really didn't feel like they did at the time.
[It wasn't] until I opened a podcast studio [that] people [thought] it was real. No matter if I had an Essence article or I was on TV, it still was like, "You're doing a sex podcast now, but then what?" This could be a job I have forever, being a sex-pert or talking about sex. It's the oldest profession.
How destigmatizing sex impacts health
Why is de-stigmatizing sex so important?
Especially in times of Roe vs. Wade ... and we just found out [recently] that Republicans don't even want birth control to be legal. It's super important to de-stigmatize sex because the more taboo we make it, and the more we're not talking about it at home, that's how you get a "no" vote on contraceptives. I live in New York. I grew up in Florida where sex was taboo to talk about. I want to make everything like in New York, or like in Europe.
You go to Spain and you see all these nude beaches, even with children in it. At first, when I went, I remember thinking, and this is me going on a tangent, but, "Oh my God, this is so gross!" But really, they're comfortable with their bodies. We have to start having ownership over that and we don't.
What impact does de-stigmatizing sex have on sexual health and safety?
The safety is the biggest thing about it. If we're not talking about it, we're not going to be safe with sex. All of my friends in high school who didn't have moms like mine got pregnant first. They were the first ones to get knocked up, and then [they needed to be taught] about Planned Parenthood or whatever. It's always [about] when you don't know, or you feel like you can't ask. By putting it in their face, it opens the conversations for that.
Sex positivity, mental health, and bodily autonomy
Talking more about sex positivity, what impacts does that have on mental health?
When I was dating a woman, I always knew I was bi, but not until I had a girlfriend and I saw how the world treated me [was when it truly affected my mental health]. It really f***ed me up, and accepting who you are, your sexual orientation, the things that you're into, knowing that it's okay, is really important, because it could eat at you at night. We don't realize [that] how we treat people can affect them when they go home. As long as you're not hurting kids or animals and things are consensual, I say, do whatever you want.
To that point, how can sex positivity help people, especially femme people, [who are typically more stigmatized for sex], take control of their bodies?
I don't know how to answer this question all the way. I feel like sometimes they're easy answers, so I'm trying to make it deeper for you. Sex positivity helps femme people because in a moment like today, again, and I can't get away from it, because I'm still in shock. We would think "It's 2022, everybody celebrates women, we're fine." We're not. The slut-shaming is really the issue. It's saying things like, "You shouldn't be wearing shorts like that, or this will happen to you."
It's knowing that your body is your own. You make your own decisions on it. Sex positivity does boil down to clothing and little things like that too. Even I may have been told that by my grandmother, saying I was fast because I was doing or wearing certain things. The more that we welcome people to take ownership over themselves and be free to who they want, then they'll be better out in the real world.
Normalizing sex work
What do you want people to understand about sex work and sex positivity?
Sex work – choice and circumstance. Some people have to do sex work because they may have been in a situation where this is all they can do ... or somebody who may be in an unsafe situation. There's also sex work that people do by choice, that know that it's going to empower others, that feels sexually liberated by it, that enjoy what they do. Having an OnlyFans doesn't mean you f***ed up at life.
That's how we look at people, like, "She doesn't have a job now. She's going to make an OnlyFans." One of the women highlighted in "Sex Sells," she's making six figures a month on OnlyFans. I'm making six figures a year. There's so much to be celebrated about sex work and so many different entities, and these are real people, real business owners with real business acumen. That's what I would want people to know and understand about sex, that it's not some fallback thing [for] when you dropped out of college or whatever, like me.
New episodes of Sex Sells premiere Wednesdays at 11:00 p.m. ET on Fuse and Fuse+.
This interview has been edited for clarity.