What’s the aim of Parlour Talk?
To smash the societal norms surrounding taboos and be an inclusive and informative website. To start a conversation on several topics, from sex work, sexuality, and BDSM to disability and sexuality, chronic illness, gender, periods, menstrual cycles, and more. And, to be a home for all the chaotic musings in my brain.
Resources and posts will be free to all and made as accessible as possible with other formats to come, health-allowing.
If there’s ever a way to make the site more accessible, please let me know. Currently, I am looking at text-to-speech plugins that fit my criteria.
Who runs Parlour Talk?
Ruby Rousson here, and I started Parlour Talk in 2016.
In September 2023, I also merged what was Arousibility and The Ruby Umbrella into Parlour Talk to create a hub of information, start a multitude of wide and varied taboo conversations, and make it easier for me to run and fund one site instead of three.
It’s my hope that others can benefit from what I have learned over my past 30 years, or at least feel a little less alone in their lived experiences. I know I’ve felt comforted when people talk about experiences so similar that they could be my own, and I hope that’s what this site can give to some people.
Facts About Me
- My pronouns are she/her/they/them.
- As of November 2023, I shall enter into my thirties.
- And as of October 2023, I will have been in the adult industry for 10 years.
- I am kinky, Queer hedonist who loves playing with sexuality, BDSM, fetish and power dynamics.
- I’ve been disabled most of my life, with an overarching diagnosis of ‘pain’. The conditions and diagnoses change, but pain in varying forms is my primary disability, and then there’s a host of autonomic dysfunction issues, problematic collagen, numbness and more.
- It took me nearly 30 years to realize I had ADHD. Shocking, really. It feels especially impressive, considering the number of websites I’ve created, hobbies I’ve started (never finished), and business ideas I’ve explored in the past.
- It’s no secret that mental health comorbidities are a thing, and I have a fair share of them. Whether I’ll share more about them in time is to be determined, but I do have my fair share of trauma.
- My other hobbies include writing creatively, learning and playing various instruments (mainly woodwind), starting a hundred and one arts and crafts projects, and playing Stardew Valley.
Etsy
Besides talking about taboo topics, Parlour Talk was also borne out of a desire to create red umbrella enamel pin badges and donate half of the profits to sex work organisations. The Etsy store then grew to include stickers, bookmarks, button badges and more, and then the pandemic happened.
Hopefully, the three-year break will be broken soon, and the Etsy store will open back up with brand-new stock. Opening up the store again will require sending parcels, which is very health-dependent. As a result, I anticipate longer wait times, though I will try to get parcels out as soon as I can.
As always, when the store reopens, 50% of the profits from the pin badges and bookmarks that feature a red umbrella go to sex worker organisations and charities that are pro-sex workers.
I don’t work with charities or organisations supporting the Nordic model or those that try to hide their anti-sex worker agenda behind supporting sex workers. Sex work is work and should be rights, not rescue, for consensual sex work.