Shawna:
Where are you calling from?
YourMVP:
Cleveland, Ohio.
Oh!
You
sound like a radio DJ, "Where are you calling from?"
I
do?
Yeah.
Oh!
<laughing> "Where are calling from?!" <with gusto> |
 |
To
start with, I read the book "I Was a Teenage Dominatrix"
and I guess I just wanted it to keep going. What's happened
since the book ended?
Let's
see . . . I graduated school . . . moved to California . . . worked
in the entertainment industry for a while . . . .
What
does that mean, "worked in the entertainment industry?"
I
worked as a production assistant and did what everybody who comes to
Hollywood does. I did these stupid film jobs and decided I
didn't really like it and I've been freelance writing for the past
couple years.
You
were with "WHAP!" magazine?
Yeah,
I was with "WHAP!" Now they're out of business.
They're pretty much just an online thing.
They
encouraged you to write the book.
Yeah,
I ended up editing at "WHAP!" and telling stories around
the office about my old job as a dominatrix. They asked me if
I'd ever written about it and I was like, "No. Why?"
<laughing> When I lived in D.C. I wasn't really very open
about what I was doing for a job. Now in L.A. pretty much
anything goes and I got more comfortable talking about it.
I
would imagine the people at "WHAP!" would have these kinds
of similar experiences especially if they were editors.
Yeah,
they were all into it.
But
they were fascinated by your stories?
Yeah,
I guess just because, like . . . I don't know . . . I guess they
just liked my take on things.
You're
a good storyteller.
Thanks!
You're
currently living with your boyfriend and your snake.
Actually
we just let the snake go recently because he bit my boyfriend.
<both
laughing> What kind of snake was it?!
It
was a Florida corn snake. It wasn't poisonous. It's just that
it was getting too big and we didn't want to get a bigger cage.
And then he bit my boyfriend.
Were
you kind of secretly enjoying the fact that your boyfriend was in
pain at the time?
No!
<laughing> My boyfriend doesn't deserve pain. He's very
good. He's a very good man.
How
long have you been with him?
Five
years.
Wow!
How long has it been since the time at the end of the book?
The
end of the book was probably 1995, when I graduated. I met him
when I was in my last year of college and my last year of
domination. We were just friends and I told him what I was
doing for a job. He didn't believe that that was really
something that went on in Washington D.C. We were friends for a
while and then we started dating. So, he knew me for about six
months of my domination career.
He
moved out to California with you.
Yeah,
we moved out together. I was going to go alone and ended up
kind of falling in love with him. <pause> I kind of
changed the end of the book to be what it was originally going to be.
I
understand!
It
could have been another story . . . <mocking a dreamy voice>
"I fell in love and moved across the country."
The
first run was 5,000 books. Are you working on a second run?
Yes,
we're working on a second print right now. The first one is
pretty much sold out . . . there are only 300 left.
Oh
my!
So
I'm a little nervous. <laughing and mocking shouting>
"Hurry up and print them!"
You
have an agent with ICM now.
Yes,
he's selling the film rights to the book.
Any
news on that front?
<pauses>
I can't really say, but yeah, he's talking to somebody right now
about making it into a "Movie of the Week."
On
TV?!
Yeah.
Lifetime
Channel?
No,
no, no. A big network. Maybe Meredith Baxter Birney will
play my mom or something.
Oh
my goodness.
Tori
Spelling will be me and Valerie Bertinelli will be my head mistress
<laughing hard>.
Valerie
Bertinelli? Who's she?
You
know, from "One Day at a Time."
That's
right.
All
of those people you know that are always in all of the made-for-TV movies.
You
can tell you're an 80s child.
Yeah!
Speaking
of your parents, are you currently speaking to them?
<answers
cautiously> We are working on it. As soon as the book came
out and I started to do a lot of press I called and told them about
it. They didn't know about my old job and they didn't know
about the book. It was kind of a big bomb to drop, but I wanted
to speak to them before anything came out in the press. They
were pretty angry. We didn't talk for almost a year until this
past Christmas.
Wow,
that's like, three weeks ago . . . four weeks ago?
Yes.
I actually went back to D.C. for the holidays. They didn't
know I was coming. I stayed with my boyfriend's family and went
to see a lot of friends and stuff and kind of popped in on my parents
and surprised them. It went really well.
Really?
Yeah,
we're working on things. But they were really surprised and
shocked and unhappy with the whole scenario in the beginning.
The
book came out about a year ago, correct?
Yes.
Do
you think your parents are out celebrating Martin Luther King Day today?
Do
I think what?
Do
you think your parents are out celebrating MLK Day today?
<laughing
hard> Definitely not, but they're probably enjoying the
holiday off.
That's
what started the separation from your parents.
Yeah,
that's kind of what . . . I mean, I guess relations hadn't been
great for a long time. . . But they officially disowned me when I
started dating my black boyfriend.
Is
your current boyfriend black?
No,
he's white. But not because of anything other than
circumstances <laughing>. May the best man win!
<laughing>
I believe you! I was hoping to bring up a couple of things
going on in the news right now and hear your thoughts on them.
OK.
A
woman in Milwaukee has been brought up on charges for buying her
13-year-old son two dozen condoms. The mother "failed to
prevent her child from being sexually abused," and that's a
felony. The mother says that talking to her son about sex is
constitutionally protected speech.
Yeah!
Right on. I agree with her. I'd do the same thing.
I mean, if I thought it was the right time for my child to have
condoms. You don't go buying a child condoms when they're
six-years-old and they're not ready to discuss that or be sexually
active. You know, I guess you just use your best judgment as a
parent. I don't know, I'm not a parent.
Would
you like to be a parent?
I
don't think I want to have children.
At
all?
If
I were in the right place financially, if I had a lot of money I
would love to adopt, like, 10 kids and just give them great
lives. I know I have the love in me and if I had the means it
would be awesome to do that for someone. But I really have no
desire to procreate.
Are
you afraid of the pain?
Partially.
Partially it's overpopulation. I just think it's
irresponsible. I don't have that ticking clock in me that I
hear women talk about. <pause> I don't have a
desire to have a child come through my body. It's like
science-fiction to me. <laughing> I mean it's amazing, it
happens every day! And people are . . .
Overjoyed
. . .
It's
cool for them.
You
can't see yourself holding your own child in your hands and going, "Wow."
I
don't really think it has to be my own child for me to love it and
raise it and give it a good life. Someday if I'm wealthy I would love
to take some children that are otherwise unwanted and give them
amazing lives. But no, I don't really care to procreate.
What's
your sister been doing?
She's
a computer programmer. She's really wealthy and successful.
Is
she really?!
Yeah.
She's younger than I am. She lives in D.C. She's pretty much
O.K. with the book. She was pretty supportive. When I
toured the East Coast I stayed with her and she was pretty
open-minded about it. But compared to me she's really conservative.
Are
you calling her a Republican?
Hmmmmm
. . . I don't know if she's a Republican. I didn't put her
real name in the book, let's put it that way. I didn't want her
to have any problems at work or socially or anything.
That's
good. Does she plan on having kids?
I
think so. Yes, I think she'd like to be a mother. She's
dating. She's not seeing anyone seriously, I don't think.
No
other siblings?
No.
On
Saturday, in Nigeria, they reduced the sentence of a teenager for
having pre-marital sex, which is against Islamic law, from 180 to 100
lashes on her back. There's a quote from the article that says,
"Under Islamic law the man who gives the flogging must hold a
copy of the holy Koran under his arm and cannot raise his arm
high. It must be a very soft beating. There must be no sign at
all left on her body." Now you can speak to that on two
fronts, you personally about the flogging and about the laws that
vary around the world regarding sex. What would you say to this
girl before she was flogged?
I
don't know. I'm not into flogging women at all.
Against
their will . . .
Well,
even if they begged me. I've had women beg me to spank them and I
wouldn't do it just because I don't feel right hitting a woman.
Even if she's submissive and that's what she digs in her sex life,
that's cool, but I don't have to be the one to do it.
<pause> I don't know, I feel like we get enough shit as
it is in everyday life. I don't really need to add to that for
anyone else that's a female.
With
these kinds of laws over there in Nigeria I'm sure there are most
likely no dominatrices.
<laughing>
 |
I'm
sure you would have a booming business.
No,
the women live in bondage every day there, so to speak, you
know? They have their religion. I guess I could never
fully understand it but it seems to me that women are treated really
poorly in some of those countries. I just read a statistic that
one out of every four murders is a compassionate murder, husbands
murdering wives in the Middle East for acting lusty or cheating on them. |
Do
you think these kinds of punishments stop people from having sex?
No.
You're never going to stop people from having sex or acting out
their fantasies.
Do
you think these domination/submissive kinds of fantasies run rampant
all around the world?
Oh
yeah. I've had clients from all over the world and all
different races. Although the most common demographic is the
older, Caucasian man in my field.
But
I did see all kinds of clients and the other mistresses I worked
with saw all races, too.
Did
you ever have two male clients at once?
Yeah!
This isn't in the book, but I actually had one guy, a regular, who
kept eluding to the fact that he sort of wanted to be forced into
some sort of homosexual situation. He chickened out every time
I suggested it. He'd get really scared but finally I did bring
in another submissive. They were both blindfolded, but I
brought in another male submissive who jerked him off.
Oh,
OK! Whew! <both laughing>
That
was a really interesting one for me.
Have
you received offers to resume your role?
Yeah,
but I'm not planning on coming out of retirement.
Are
you being offered a lot of money to do this again?
Sometimes
after some of the readings that I've done there are always a couple
of older men in the crowd who want to talk to me afterwards . . . and
make some crazy offer. Nothing that I would do. I'm just not
into it, you know? I'm not what they call a "Lifestyle Dominatrix."
What
are you doing now?
Freelance
writing for lots of pop-culture and music magazines. It's what I've
been doing for a few years now.
Any
recent articles we can check out?
The
new issue of "While You Were Sleeping," it's like a young
men's graffiti magazine. I interviewed Ian MacKaye of
Fugazi. I have a Henry Rollins interview online at
musicbooks.com that's out right now. And also in "While
You Were Sleeping" I did an interview with a female wrestler . .
. she grapples.
Is
she like a WWF wrestler?
No,
she's not WWF but she does Jujitsu and she does fetish grappling.
Did
you guys compare notes?
<laughing>
No. I did that and I'm working on an article for
"Gear" magazine right now that should be out in April.
What's
the best movie you've seen recently?
Hmmmm
. . . recently. I don't know, but I think my favorite movie
and the best movie of last year was "Almost Famous." I
loved that just because being like a rock writer myself and starting
out at a young age doing that I can relate to a lot of the
movie. That was really cool.
It
didn't do too well at the box office, unfortunately.
I
know! But I still thought it was an excellent story. I
love true stories.
Do
you have any plans to do TV? Have you done any national TV?
Yeah,
I was on "Extra!" They have re-run that a couple of
times. I've had the most bizarre calls, like blasts from my past . .
. old friends from high school saying, "I saw you at 3 a.m. on 'Extra!'"<laughing>
<mimicking
Canadian friend> "I thought it was just the beer but, it
really was you!"
"What
the hell have you been doing?!". . .You know . . . a couple of
alumni from my college and just like, weird people turning up.
I was on "Extra!" and I was on "National Enquirer
TV" and a couple of local shows here in L.A. and one in
Philadelphia when I was on the East Coast.
Do
sales jump when you go on those shows?
You
know, not as much as I thought they would. I don't think
people who watch "Extra!" read that much.
<both
laughing> They're up at three in the morning watching TV!
Yeah,
I don't think they went right to Amazon.com and ordered my
book. Sales kind of spiked up when they featured me on Salon.com.
Your
book is available in e-book format right now. You can download
it to your Palm Pilot. What do you think about that technology?
I
think it's cool, but me, personally, I read a lot. I've only
downloaded one e-book and it was the beginning of that Stephen King
book, "The Plant." I never downloaded the rest of it!
So
you don't know how it ended?!
No,
I didn't care. I didn't think it was such a great story.
<slight pause> Sitting at a computer or looking at a Palm Pilot
reading a book does nothing for me. I like the pages . . . I
like the smell of the paper . . . I like holding a book in my hand,
you know . . . the artwork on the cover. I'm a big book
lover. I don't think books are going to be gone anytime soon.
Do
you remember your parents reading to you when you were young?
I
learned to read at a really young age, at about two. I
remember reading in a crib. <laughing>
Really?!
What were you reading back then? Any Dr. Seuss?
Oh
yeah. Dr Seuss, Curious George, all the usual stuff.
What
would you read to these 10 children you're going to adopt?
Same
thing! I still have all of those books.
Oh,
wow!
I'm
a big book collector. I love children's books. I
actually wrote two children's books that I hope to put out some day .
. . probably not directly following this book <laughing>. Someday.
Any
young boys who are wizards and have bolts of lightning on their foreheads?
No,
no. One is a bedtime story called, "An Oink in My
Underbed" and one is like a multi-cultural awareness sort of
book for young children called, "Me and My Friends."
<slight pause> That probably came out of my life experiences.
Had
you thought of that while writing the book?
Yes.
Did
you draw any pictures with it?
I
had a friend of mine do the artwork. I have pictures but I
haven't submitted them to a publisher or anything like that.
The
publisher that published your current book probably wouldn't put out
those children's books.
No,
they only do fetish and S&M books. I'm actually working on
a new book and it's not fetish at all. It's called "Chicks,
Tits and Lips: Women ReFLecting on Body Image in the 21st
Century." It's an anthology that I'm doing with an author
named Cara Bruce. We've got a bunch of really great women
writers contributing to it. Hopefully that will be out by the
end of this year. |