Carol Leigh

Carol Leigh (January 11, 1951 – November 16, 2022), also known as The Scarlot Harlot, was an American artist, author, filmmaker, sex worker, and sex workers' rights activist. She is credited with coining the term sex work She was a red diaper baby, and her family was Jewish. She later attended Binghamton University (1968–70) and Empire State College (1972–74), where she obtained a BA She also attended the Boston University MFA program for creative writing.

In San Francisco, Leigh also joined the AIDS activist organization Citizens For Medical Justice and collaborated with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. In 2008, she prominently advocated for a San Francisco ballot initiative to decriminalize prostitution. The terminology used at the Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media conference for the sex industry was the "Sex Use Industry". She explained in a 1997 essay titled "Inventing Sex Work" that: "I invented sex work. Not the activity, of course. The term. This invention was motivated by my desire to reconcile my feminist goals with the reality of my life and the lives of the women I knew. I wanted to create an atmosphere of tolerance within and outside the women's movement for women working in the sex industry."

Theater, television, and film In the early 1980s, Leigh wrote her one-woman satirical play The Adventures of Scarlot Harlot.

Personal life and death Leigh lived in San Francisco and was bisexual. She died of cancer on November 16, 2022, at age 71.

Her papers, videos and films are archived at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard University. The Celluloid Bordello aka Whores on Film (2019) [ Annie Sprinkle's amazing world of orgasm (2004) Annie Sprinkle's Herstory of porn : reel to real Dr. Annie Sprinkle's How to be a sex goddess in 101 easy steps (1992) Mutantes : féminisme porno punk = Punk porn feminism (2011) (in French) Mutantes : punk porn feminism (2011) Our bodies, our minds (2005) Released : 5 short videos about women and prison (2001) Sphinxes without secrets : women performance artists speak out (1991) Straight for the money : interviews with queer sex workers (1994)

Videos produced As listed by Western Connecticut State University.

Die Yuppie Scum (1989) 30 min Outlaw Poverty, Not Prostitutes (1989) 21 min Safe Sex Slut (1987) 30 min Spiritual Warfare: The G.H.O.S.T.* Campaign (1990) 28 min Taking Back the Night (1990) 28 min Whores and Healers (1990) 28 min Yes Means Yes, No Means No (1990) 8 min Whore in the Gulf (1991) 30 min