Pretty Baby

A FINALIST FOR THE 2022 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FOR LESBIAN MEMOIR

‘A muscular, canny memoir . . . I couldn’t put it down. What a fucking gorgeous book’- Carmen Maria Machado

‘Absolutely not to be missed’ - Vogue

Chris Belcher appeared destined for a life of conventional femininity after she took first place in an infant beauty contest – a minor glory that followed her around her small, working-class town in rural West Virginia. But when she came out as queer, the conservative community that had once celebrated its prettiest baby turned on her.

A decade later, living in Los Angeles and trying to stay afloat in the early years of a PhD program, Chris plunges into the work of a pro domme. Branding herself as Los Angeles’s Renowned Lesbian Dominatrix, she specialises in male clients who want to feel worthless, shameful, and weak – all the abuse regularly heaped upon women for free. But as her profile grows in both academia and in sex work, it seems inevitable that the two will collide . . .

In this sharp and discerning memoir of class, sexuality and academia, we see through eyes of a pro domme-turned-academic how power and desire can be renegotiated – or reinforced.

Author Biography

Chris Belcher is a writer, professor, and former sex worker. She completed a PhD in English at the University of Southern California, where she is now assistant professor of writing and gender studies. Under her working name, Natalie West, she edited the acclaimed anthology We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival. Born and raised in West Virginia, she now lives in Los Angeles.