About me

My name’s Jaina Rodriguez-Grey, I’m trans, I’m a career journalist, and I’m also a sex worker. I’ve been writing professionally for most of my adult life and I’ve been a sex worker off and on for a lot longer. Yes that means what it sounds like it means. Let’s not get stuck on that, yeah?

For years I covered civil litigation for Westlaw, filing daily summaries of every lawsuit filed in the state of Oregon, plus San Francisco County and LA County. I also contributed to Portland-based alt-weekly, Willamette Week. After that I pivoted to tech journalism, covering PC hardware and gaming for Digital Trends. Then finally I ended up at WIRED, where I was hired to cover PC hardware and laptops but ended up pitching and building out broader and more inclusive sex tech coverage.

There were issues, as you can imagine, being trans and covering sex for a legacy publication owned by THE legacy media company, Condé Nast. I burned out, I had one too many meetings with middle managers pushing for more content, faster, friendlier, less me. I couldn’t keep going, so I left. I spent the next year recovering from burnout and supporting myself the way I knew best: Sex work, and freelancing. Since then, I've written for the Guardian US, Vice, and of course, this little blog.

Now that I’ve gotten my voice back and I know what I want to write, how I want to write it, and for whom, I’m ready to get back to work.

Why Strapped?

Because I’m a dirty little pervert who loves a triple entendre. Strapped can mean either wearing a strap-on, being fucked by one, or, as is often the case as a freelance writer: being broke. There’s also the connotation of being armed which in the context of a wearable silicone cock is really funny to me.

So it’s just like a sex blog?

Yes and no. Like I mentioned, I’ve covered civil lawsuits, PC hardware, gaming, coffee, music, sex toys, even patents at one point. My coverage areas are vast and strange but overlap in a lot of surprising ways. So while I do write about sex an awful lot, it's hardly the only thing I write about.

The tech industry has always been terrified of sex, and fascists are taking advantage of that opening. They see a pathway to erase queerness by criminalizing explicit content. Payment processors are censoring access to it, and there’s a war against pornography in the American South. It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. And one way to stand out in a crowd of mealy-mouthed centrist techno-optimist bloggers and an ever increasing glut of AI slop is to get positively, fearless and fucking filthy.

What else have you written?

Well I'm glad you asked! Here are an assortment of some of my favorite stories from throughout my career.

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I also voiced and illustrated a series of animated reviews during my time at WIRED.

Why Strapped?

So it’s just like a sex blog?

What else have you written?

Culture

Home & Coffee

Sexual Health & Wellness

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