Where Is She Now? (The Scream Queens and The B-Movie Bimbos)
Feature by Alex Zander
Welcome to our new and ongoing feature. “Where Is She Now?” Every issue we will bring back one of the legendary bad girls who were cinemas most sensational sex symbols. The movies may have been panned by so-called critics, but they were adored by us. Enjoy the first of an endless run of B-Movie Babes that will begin here with Yvette Lera who starred as Razor Baby in Full Moon’s, “Blood Dolls”.
Yvette Lera is a native Chicagoan who was in love with music. She is real rock n roll girl but not at all rock grrl. Her image is one more easily identifiable as glamour as opposed to grunge. She studied acting and music in Chicago, and in the 90’s moved to LA like so many other young women hell-bent on breaking into the business. Unlike so many others her story is not a tragic one. Yvette is, in essence a workaholic, and rock n roll is her job. She’s on the job 24-7, and is not one prone to taking a day off. A shameless self-promoter, her resume is impressive and speaks for itself. Moving to LA her face made her a living as she appeared in print ads TV ads and then moved into movies. She has a few low-budget beauties to her credit, which of course include gratuitous nudity. Somehow she managed to graduate to the biggest summer blockbuster of 1998 Armageddon.
But her real love is rock n roll. And she decided after a brief stint playing the sunset Strip in Hollywood to return to her roots in Chicago. The timing couldn’t be better since the music scene is becoming healthier for original rock music than it ever has. And unlike the Lolitas that have the music world’s attention over the past 4 years, Yvette, writes, sings and plays her own stuff. At the time of this writing she now has the attention and interest of rock n roll legend Kim Fowley. Fowley, who may very well own the greatest rock n roll resume of them all was the man who created the sensation known as The Runaways in the 70’s.
It’s still early in Yvettes return to her hometown, so we wanted to catch her while we could so we sat down at Rannalis under the Tower Records store on Chicago’s north side and shared some beer and chewed the fat.
Alex Zander: Yvette please rattle off some of the movies that you’ve done and what you did in them. And begin with the notorious Blood Dolls
Yvette Lera: First I was in Blood Dolls. I played Razor Baby, so I was the guitar player and the little bad girl in the cage that the villain makes perform songs through electric shock. I was picked from 150 girls chosen by Charles Band and Miles Copeland. They had interviewed us. Miles Copeland, founded IRS Records and he had us working with Penelope Spheres who did the documentaries on the DVD for Blood Dolls, she did “Suburbia,” “Wayne’s World,” “Decline and Fall of Western Civilization”… I worked with Jane Weidlin from the Go-Go’s, we collaborated on some music. So that was a long interviewing process.
AZ: Was that the last film that you did?
YL: Yeah, that was the last major film that I did.
AZ: What was the film Judas Kiss?
YL: Judas Kiss, I was with Carla Gugino, she’s in Spy Kids now, she plays the mom. In Judas Kiss I played an extraterrestrial-vixen sort of thing, Captain Desire. It was the very beginning, basically. It was a small little clip of like a semi-porno with a chick that the security guard was watching when he was getting killed.
AZ: Is that where they got the nudes that are on the Internet?
YL: Yeah, basically, it was just “I’m Captain Desire and I’m here to shoot you,” the alien chick. And we just take our tops off and get it on. (laughs)
AZ: What was House of Wax?
YL: Exotic House of Wax is a Full Moon production, but it’s under a different name. It’s sort of like their softcore things that they do. My character was Cleopatra and I play the wax figure, and it was Cleopatra and Anthony…
AZ: Comes to life?
YL: Yeah, so she comes to life when you put the amulet around her neck and all of a sudden she’s sexy.
AZ: So that’s why for that movie Charles Band directs under a ladies name, right?
YL: Yeah, it’s sort of like how Anne Rice writes and then she does Anne Rampling. Charles also uses the name Sybil Richards.
AZ: That shows up on Showtime, USA and late-night Cinemax?
YL: Yeah, basically. You know, living in Hollywood, starting out I did a few things where you start out, you do a little bit of nudity here and there and it’s just like “alright, whatever.” But, it gets you one contact. Everything that you do in this business, depending on how you work it, gets you from one level to the next. It’s like stepping stones. So because of the fact that I did Exotic House of Wax, they remembered me and they really liked me as the character. Plus I got box art cover for that. They called me in and they were like, hey are you doing skin flicks anymore? I said no, I’m not doing that anymore, I’m moving up. Then they said “We want you to come in and audition for this Blood Dolls film”. You need to come in and actually sing and play guitar, meet Miles Copeland, all that stuff. So I went down to the record label, met Miles and auditioned.
AZ: Your credits include the big budget Armageddon. That’s impressive. I remember you were a stripper in that.
Is that the bar where the astronauts went before they flew?
YL: Yeah, that’s when I met Steve Buscemi, actually. It was awesome because I got cast for that last minute, and it was the scene with Steve Buscemi where it was his last night on earth before he was going up on this big mission. This scene was filmed downtown at the LA theater. They were spending a wad a cash on strippers or whatever. My little part for that, I had my hair really short and slicked back and I was in patent leather, dancing around a pole. I was one of the dancers on the side and he was surrounded by strippers, throwing cash. It was sort of like a real-life meets film-art thing because I was part of that whole scene at one point. But it was cool, and then I got to sit off on the sidelines and Michael Bay was the director, of course he’s done Pearl Harbor and all these big things with Jerry Bruckheimer.
AZ: What other movies?
YL: Basically House of Wax, Blood Dolls, Armageddon, and Huxley’s Brave New World, I had a part in that. That was fun because I got to work next to Peter Gallagher and Leonard Nimoy. So I got a chance to meet those guys and be on the set, be an extra on that.
AZ: Did Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows scare you?
YL: Yeah sort of.
AZ: Are they as big in person?
YL: Bigger and bushier, at least every shot I was behind them…
AZ: Behind the eyebrows?
YL: But I remember the day we were filming that, there was El Nino at the time. So it was raining really hard, it was a scary day. But it was awesome because I got a chance to meet and work with those guys.
AZ: You did music videos, too?
YL: Oh yeah, I was a featured extra in Lenny Kravitz’s “Fly Away” video. I was the chick in the background on the left wearing a red tank top, having a cigarette, kinda dancing/partying. But that was pretty featured, it was played on MTV, it got a lot of airplay. So I was in that. I did a video with the Wallflowers. So I got to talk with and meet Jacob Dylan. I also got a chance to be in a feature, this up-and-coming band, Everything. Then the Harvey Danger video. You know, the cheesy pop stuff, basically. But also being out there I got to sing backgrounds for Danzig. I’ve worked with Chris Vrenna, Geordie Walker, Jazz Coleman, Steve Jones, from the Sex Pistols, Joey Castillo and Paul Raven on the Zilch Hide project from Japan. I got props on that. I got credits for being background vocalist and I named the song.
AZ: I know you were doing Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors, right?
YL: Yeah, they did a feature on the Blood Dolls. I have a big poster of that.
AZ: So you had to sit there all day, sign autographs and take pictures with geeks? How often do you do that?
YL: Not very often.
AZ: Full Moon does a lot of merchandising, they made the Pimp Doll, Was that was the only toy from Blood Dolls.
YL: They were supposed to do some dolls of us but…
AZ: They do move a lot of videos and DVD’s.
YL: Well, Penelope Spheres did a full-length documentary on us but she pulled out of the project before it was finished.
AZ: So explain to the readers the advantage of buying the DVD as opposed to the video. Or as opposed to watching it on Showtime.
YL: Buying the DVD is better because you get a lot more for your money. You get cast and crew bios, you get a short clip, a brief piece of the documentary segment that Penelope did with us. In the video it only just shows the Full Moon previews and the movie. But the DVD has a lot more features of each person. You get a little bit more on it. What’s really sad though, about that movie, is Nicholas Worth, he’s the rich guy in the film, he passed away. That’s pretty sad. Yeah, he was a really great guy. Jack Maturin the clown-face guy, he was awesome. He loved us. Of course the midget, Phil Fondacaro who was in Willow.
AZ: He’s in everything, the Little Monsters movie, Bordello of Blood, Addams Family Reunion and so on. Now what’s with Full Moon and dolls and miniature people?
YL: I don’t know. I think Charles Band and whoever is a part of it, that’s just such a big thing, their infatuation with toys and taking it to the next level, creating it to life. Meeting the toymakers who actually built the dolls onset was awesome and showing how they animate the dolls and make them lifelike was really exciting and fun. Besides that, when I did a House of Wax feature they were making a mold out of me and that was quite the experience.
AZ: They made an actual mold of you?
YL: Yeah, what they did was they took me into the stage room. I’ll never forget this day. I went in there and they had me strip down. I was in my heel-platform shoes. I stripped down and was in my underwear only, topless, holding my tits and I had a garbage bag wrapped around my waist they had me sit in a chair and then they wrapped my hair up in this long tall thing, straight up in the air. What they were doing was they were getting ready to pour the prosthetic stuff on me. So what they did, they didn’t even put straws up my nose, I don’t know how I did it, I got myself into a zen breathing moment, and they poured this white, plastic molding stuff all over the top of my body. So basically they poured it off my head, my chest and everything. Then there were these people molding it to me, shaping it. Then after it hardened they cut through a couple parts and pulled it off of me. So I had a whole bust.
AZ: How long did that take?
YL: Obviously it had to be that fast because I was under there not breathing. So probably like 10-15 minutes it took to do it, but it seemed like forever.
AZ Originally from Chicago, when did you leave and move to LA?
YL: I moved to LA about five or six years ago.
AZ: So that would have been ’97, ’98?
YL: Right when I rolled into town I got the gig.
AZ: What kind of experience did you have here, if any? Did you have any acting experience or was it all music?
YL: Well the thing is, I’m a graduate from DePaul University Goodman School of Drama. I got a bachelor in fine arts, in film, theater, television and music. I have a minor in communications. Basically I did film school, then I was a bartender. Being in band and whatever performance art pieces which I was able to be a part of, I was. I was involved in everything that I could be. Being that, I had no fear. I went out to LA with $200 in my pocket and found an apartment and had faith that I’d find a little bartending job. I got an agent and right after that I just started auditioning for people. It’s definitely what they say. It’s who you know.
AZ: So who did you have to know or meet first?
YL: Well a friend of mine was working in the business and basically gave me the insights of what auditions, so it’s more so than just having a variety magazine or whatever. If you know somebody that’s an insider they can give you a tip on what to do. Then you go down and audition and of course, your look, vibe, personality and talent have to win you the part. But it helps to have somebody on the inside to be like, hey, this is what’s going on. Then you go down and you do it.
AZ: What was the first film thing you did?
YL: I think the first filming I did was the commercial work and the videos, stuff like that. Then I started auditioning for film parts and did photography shoots with friends of mine out there.
AZ: With the exception of Armageddon being a huge blockbuster, the most popular movie that you’re known for is probably Blood Dolls, right?
YL: Yeah, for a main feature, yes.
AZ: So when people meet you do they want your autograph as Razor Baby?
YL: That’s right…(laughs)
AZ: You’ve done fetish work with Robin Perine and Steve Diet Godde. Where can people see your modeling work.
YL: I’ve done shoots with Robin Perine Photography, (www.robinperine.com) which is Seeing Red Photography Studio. It’s great, she’s got a studio and it’s fun rock n’roll photography. She’s an amazing photographer She’s done some of the greats such as Manson’s Portrait of an American Family cover album. She’s worked with Chris Stein and Buckcherry, and other bands out there. She’s just a really great rock n’roll photographer. She’s got a great eye. So we’ve done a couple shoots that have been in tattoo magazines and SKIN 2 and my friend Steve Diet Goedde has had a couple of books published, The Beauty of Fetish Part 1 and 2, and he’s shot such girls as Julie Strain and Dita Von Teese.
AZ: He’s pretty popular amongst people who read MK ULTRA. Now you did music out there, right? You worked with a lot of people I know. So tell MK Ultra readers who you did it with, who your friends are in the business.
YL: Bill Kennedy, who I knew and met out there from engineering, he had brought me in and he needed somebody to do vocals. That was the one with Chris Vrenna, Steve Jones and all those people. He had me come in and at the time it was A&M Studios, which is now the Jim Henson Studios, they bought it out. But we went down to the studio with Paul Raven, it was some of the most exciting times, being in the studio, meeting managers from L7, Rage Against the Machine, it was amazing.
AZ: Did you sing for Lick before you went to LA, or while you were there?
YL: I met them on my way out there the first time then came back here for 8 months and was in the band. Then I moved out back to LA.
AZ: Now are they a Chicago band?
YL: They are a Chicago-based band. I met them here in Chicago. They were part of Invisible Records.
AZ: Then you started your own project, Cuntagious, right?
YL: Well when I was doing the Blood Dolls thing, since it was all chick-based filming and fun and kind of horrified. I decided to do a band and that’s when I worked with Meghan Mattox who was my lead, bad-ass guitarist (currently with My Ruin) and drummer Tammy Germani, she does a lot of promoting for punk bands in LA. At the time we were just all three friends, hanging out, getting drunk at the bars, then one night I was like, Hey! Let’s start a band! Let’s call it Cuntagious. We just went off with that. When Penelope Spheres was doing my interviews, she had me sing and play guitar for the Cuntagious stuff, which was great. Then after Blood Dolls and Cuntagious I also sung backgrounds with Taime Downe from Faster Pussycat and Newlydeads. Then the Danzig, and started my own project which was Black Lodge because I’m such a David Lynch freak, just so the world knows, I really admire him as a director. I really like the art that he does, especially Twin Peaks and that kind of stuff. It’s really inspired me. The way Black Lodge came about was that I locked myself in my apartment for two days and all I did was watch Twin Peaks back-to-back. I didn’t stop, and it inspired me to write the song. So right there on my four –track in the house, I picked up my guitar, started writing and said I’m gonna make this song and get it to David Lynch. Well, initially I did. We drove up to David Lynch’s house and we put our CD’s on his front doorstep. Talk about psycho move. David, if you hear us, we love you. Nothing personal, but you’re great. So I wrote Black Lodge because I wanted to get it to him because I thought it was very much reminiscent of a soundtrack for one of his movies. So after doing the whole LA thing, the agencies, the contacts, I just decided to take a break and come back to Chicago to get back to my roots, hookup with some musicians out here and see what I can do. I miss the city vibe. LA is like a sprawling wasteland unless you’ve got money and you’ve got your recording studio and your stuff that you’re doing out there to isolate you in what you’re doing. There’s really no life to be had. I think that being in Chicago gives me more of an opportunity to associate with bigger and better things.
AZ: I think the music scene is happening here, really. Next year is going to be a really good year. Soil is doing really well world-wide, Disturbed debuted at #1 with their second album on Billboard, which is huge. Some of the Invisible vibe with Underground Inc. is happening big time. Ministry will be back out on the road early next year. Now you’re here. Where do you think you fit into all of this?
YL: Being that this is my root and having been a part of a few of these things, also working hard on it and working with some really great players, I couldn’t even ask for anything better than to come back and be working with the quality of musicians that I have here because people are in it for the love of the music. Yeah, everybody wants to have some progression and the rock stardom and whatnot. But I think overall it’s way better quality of a music vibe going on out here, as opposed to just totally getting dressed up and being pretty. I would like to see myself opening for some shows. I mean, even with Cuntagious, as simple as it was with the chick band, we opened for the Impotent Sea Snakes. We did a couple of really great shows, opening for some punk bands. My style of rock is very reminiscent of heavy rock and industrial, but it’s got melodic texture, its simplicity.
AZ: So what’s your mission for 2003?
YL: My mission for 2003 is to rock out with my cock out and really do something. As a female vocalist/guitarist/songwriter, there are not enough of us out there that are really taking control of the scene. It’s really difficult being a female in this art form. You have to compete and actually prove a little bit harder sometimes than normal that you’re able to do it.
AZ: People looking at your tits, rather than listening to the music...
YL: Right, and someone once said to me, guys can be rockers because guys want to be them –chicks want to do them. Whereas if you’re a chick, you sell sex like Britney and Christina, stuff like that, is because they sell them as porn stars that rock. If you’re a piece of meat that somebody can try and get their hands on, it makes the sex appeal that you sell.
AZ: Or keep your hands to yourselves and look at the pictures.
YL: Right, so then you’ve got that, rather than somebody looking at you and taking your art seriously. Maybe that might just be my opinion, but I’ve felt that it’s harder to be taken seriously there. But I really just want to rock out, have a band, be out there and take it by storm, along with friends of mine, like Jessicka of Jack Off Jill fame with her new band, Scarling. I just really want to see these people take off and do the real thing. Texas Terri who is the greatest, and my friend Karen Crisis from Skull Sick Nation, I’m really proud of my girls who have stuck it out and stayed out there doing it. We’re battling our day-to-day life just trying to get the rock out there and get it seen and heard. To me, that’s what it’s all about.
AZ: So there’s more choices than just Gwen Stefani, Jewel and Sheryl Crow for women rockers.
YL: Fuck yeah! Because in this carnival of a music scene we've obtained a new wall of sound though lots of perseverance and a constant flow of energy within a realm of artistic sorts, such as ourselves. The worlds that we live in become smaller and identified through our pursuits of the same goals, although somewhat different, still of the same mold. This is what's happening right now, I believe with the music that I am creating, along with what we are creating, it is there at your grasp and ripe for the taking. Are you ready? I am. The music scene needs an enema and I'm the nurse. Get ready for the shit to fly! We need to take back the reality in the life of the music scene and be heard by all those that will listen, that haven't been damaged by the spoonfed bullshit that they have been injected with! Incidently, my new band is still working on a name, it’s myself on vocals and guitar, along with former members of Black Country Rock, Usherhouse, Emulsion and Nookleptia.
by LM
I was able to have a wonderful conversation with Nina Hartley to be published here in MK Magazine. Most of what is stated here are her direct quotes. I taped the conversation (with her permission) from a speakerphone, so not all statements are direct quotes.
As I spoke with Nina, I heard her speak of her realities where some have only been dreams for me. How do you begin to describe the moment when you see all that you've hoped for be validated and take form? In about a half an hour my existence was reinterpreted. I found so much peace and necessity to not only fight for myself to be expressed as a sexual being, but to give others the knowledge that they too can feel so much by opening up their minds first, then their bodies and spirit to be as beautiful and incredible as Nina Hartley. I have known all my life that I am destined to spread a message of sexuality and freedom - to tell people to not be afraid of their bodies and the capabilities for great sex and heretofore a great existence. Nina lives this every day - and so can we all.
Nina Hartley has a web site: www.nina.com (under construction at the time of the interview). She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area of California with Jewish Communist parents. She started dancing naked in 1983 and started acting in porn in 1984. She graduated college with a degree in nursing in 1985. She has made about 575 adult movies. There are 12 episodes and counting in sex education videos on Adam & Eve. She has won numerous awards for her acting and activism. She speaks out on issues of feminism and sexuality and free statement as a sex speaker. Her sexuality is constantly evolving and changing as her understanding continues to grow.
This includes her knowledge on anal sex and her personal enjoyment of it. She is divorcing her partner of twenty years and has a new fiancé who is a master of fetish in the adult film industry. She and her fiancé involve vigorous, lusty anal play with nearly all of their sexual encounters and enjoys it very much. She is able to totally revel in the joys of anal eroticism on a regular basis. She moved from the Bay Area about a year ago and now resides in Los Angeles. Currently Nina is coming out of another closet – being involved with leather sex and the BDSM community.
Nina decided to make these videos out of her own teenage frustrations of not having the possibility of receiving good, practical sexual information. There were books like The Joy of Sex, Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex (but were afraid to ask), there wasn’t a home video in the pornography market. She wanted to provide a demonstration, satisfy curiosities and not to make a value judgment from it. She wanted to leave the sex and titillation out of it. When she does the tapes now they are a statement of her feminism (which is for every woman to realize for herself). She also wanted to reach out and help others and teach them. This comes from her upbringing – for all people to receive equal treatment. Also from her desire to be a nurse - to bring some kind of healing and balm to troubled souls. The sex in our culture is sick and has been made sick. Sick people need to be nursed and cared for. She knew with her experience in the porn industry, as someone who speaks out for issues of sexual freedom and statement, as a swinger, as an exhibitionist and with her health professional background, her scientific lack of squeamishness, her ability to speak about this is a certain way could create these films. It was also her desire. There were other people that were as serious as her to make these films and had the ability to make them, but she was the one with the drive and passion to put the effort into getting the experience and seeing that the films were created.
She wanted to create something where people who were curious, but did not have the time or inclinations to read the books to become knowledgeable partners, could watch. Her byline on the “How To” movies is, “I’ve done all the fucking so you don’t have to”. She puts the information out there to people to make them more comfortable, confident, relaxed, playful, open and experimental and to decrease fear. And this is really important – the more knowledge and education someone has, the less fear they will have. Tell them different ways to have sex and that it’s okay to have certain feelings about sex and what she has learned from doing these various things. She is blessed with the ability to have these experiences and talk to people about them in a way that’s not going to scare people off.
LM: It has been my experience that people learn from most pornos that they can just stick it in your ass and it’s smooth sailing. For me it took many years of being sexually active before I found a partner that knew the first thing about using lube and lots of touching and playing with my asshole before attempting penetration.
NH: You must earn butt. You cannot be just given butt.
When her fans and friends speak with her, asking for more information about anal sex she refers them to Tristan Taormino’s The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women video and book (with the same name). It is hard for heterosexuals to find a partner because of all of the hang-ups that people have about anal eroticism and being able do it in the light. Many guys (not all) still don’t want to take the time to learn more about women’s body and reactions and they see the physiology, science and anatomy as boring. They don’t realize that to be a professional you have to learn to be a professional. What they don’t see in the movies is the time that is taken with the guy masturbating and getting hard and the playing with a woman to get her ready and what all happens before for the action takes place. Most of what they do see is a very rough and deliberately shown in a dominant way that she doesn’t see as attractive and it’s not realistic how you at home with your partner is going to make it happen. People have a hard time becoming humble with their ignorance and putting their egos aside and saying ‘you know what, I don’t know’. A lot of men (again not all) have a problem eroticizing their own anuses and relaxing to learn to receive pleasure that way. They have to know this in order to understand the absolutely different psychology between being with a butt rather than a pussy. Like Carol Queen, PhD says, “The great thing about assholes is that everyone has one.” So every person that wants to have anal sex must first make erotic friends with their own buttholes. You have to let go of your own discomforts and fears and your own inability to feel that pleasure, face your own fears about letting go and opening up and letting feelings course through your body. Anal eroticism opens up a huge Pandora’s box of esteem, pleasure, abuse and fear issues. The butt is so emotional. It is more emotional that the dick. She personally has her own issues about being with anyone sexually who has not become erotic friends with their butt. For a person to be at the level for her to play with, they would have to be someone who is at least comfortable with receiving anal pleasure. It doesn’t have to be about receiving penetration. It’s about wanting to feel that good. It’s about wanting to feel that intensely. It’s about opening up to that issue and understanding your own and your partner’s vulnerability. It is absolutely impossible for a person to enjoy anal sex unless they feel safe, secure, comfortable, respected, listened to and appreciated. You can’t fake those emotions and your body knows. As often as she and her fiancé have sex, there is butt action, whether it is just touching or having a half an hour of intense penetration. You learn how to relax into the feeling, through the sensation and it’s a mental meditative practice. It’s like surfing – it’s an intense feeling to be able to use the surfboard, this tiny surface on the broad expanse and power of the ocean and to ride upon it. People learn how to surf this intensity. It takes time and desire and the understanding that it cannot be rushed or coerced. She totally recommends doing it sober.
LM: I have had people come to me saying they don’t want to eroticize their partner’s anus because it’s not picture perfect; that there is a lot of hair or the fact that it might be dirty. What kind of tips or advice do you give them to become more accepting of their partner’s body?
That is more personal. If you have a hang-up about your partner’s physiological or biological aspects that they can’t help any more than the color of their hair, then you have issues of your own that need to be addressed. However, if your partner wants to please you so you pay more positive attention to that area, perhaps they could begin adding to their sex play by asking them to remove the hair to where it pleases them or remove it yourself. The appearance of the genitals is unchangeable; if you don’t like the look of it, then look somewhere else while you touch it. Realize that any type of hang-up is your hang-up and not your partner’s problem. A mature couple will talk about this and find ways to remedy the issue so that pleasure can mutual and more understood. Or it could mean that the relationship needs to end. If you’re not attracted to your partner’s body then it’s very hard to generate sexual arousal and you need to find someone else who will be attracted to you or more accepting and open. That is an issue to take very seriously.
LM: Another issue is the idea of a man with impotence problems receiving prostate stimulation and anal play. Many men don’t realize that they can have an orgasm by having their prostate stimulated and do not need their penis to be erect. Do you recommend this so that they don’t rely solely on the performance of their penis for pleasure?
Oh absolutely. Don’t forget that a flaccid penis can have an orgasm and be sexually pleased. Of course something that is more engorged with blood is going to receive more pleasure. It’s like when you sprain your ankle and the area becomes swollen, the feeling is more intense. Engorgement creates a greater sensitivity to the area. For men who are impotent or not, prostate play is a world of fun. A good sign of a good partner that can acknowledge that pleasurable sensation knows no shame or morality. What you and your partner do together willingly is absolutely okay. If you are a heterosexual couple and you have homophobic feelings, get over it, you’re with a girl, you are being turned on by a girl, your lover, touching your ass. It has nothing to do with becoming or being homosexual. It is a part of your anatomy to feel pleasure there.
LM: With this kind of play comes into practice the use of strap-ons.
Very popular these days. At Good Vibrations, the most popular movies are Carol Queen’s Bend Over Boyfriend Part 1 and Part 2. I think it’s a wonderful trend. If you really like your partner and they know what they’re doing then butt sex is the best. It’s so intensely pleasurable. There is so much intimacy. It can also work with a dominant/submissive relationship. The dominant can tell the sub to fuck them anyway that they want to be fucked, no matter who’s doing the fucking, it’s still by the dominant’s command or order.
LM: I have to say that you and Annie Sprinkle are my heroes for bringing so many issues of sex and sexuality to the public’s attention. I have dreams of being able to talk about all kinds of sex in a public forum and it not be shocking and for this to be able to happen anywhere in the world. The problem is too many people want sex to be a pretty, candy-coated package sealed behind bedroom doors and left under the covers with the lights off. How can we begin to change the public’s perception and bring all forms of sex and sexuality to light? What do you think the biggest obstacle is to this? How do you see others displaying positive, healthy, beautiful displays of sex and sexuality?
Sex is very primal and people need to start accepting and getting used to the fact that it is sticky, raw and messy. In the words of the great anal queen, Chloe, “If you’re going to have anal sex, you have to get over your fear of shit.” But that’s true with all kinds of sex, you have to get over your fear of mess. Sex is not for the tidy or the squeamish.
LM: How can we get the public to get over being squeamish and see sex for the beautiful thing that it is?
What worked for me is to acknowledge people’s fear about it, and realize and understand that when you’re talking to the public about sex, you’re talking to a bunch of 13 year olds. And they need be told that their desires, curiosities and ignorance is okay and their desire to be better at it is okay. Wherever they’re at is okay, what matters is they’re here now and that’s good. You have to start where you are. If they’re scared, start with, it’s okay to be scared. Scared is normal. In this culture how can they be anything but scared about sex? Fear can be alleviated by the alleviation of ignorance. Tell them it’s okay to not know. People come up to me and say, “Oh, Nina, what I wouldn’t do to me more like you!”. I don’t want them to be like me, I want them to be themselves. For me to be me, was acknowledging my exhibitionism, was on the way to appreciate that and making that work and being a public servant all at the same time. If I wasn’t an exhibitionist, then I’d be the happiest swinger you ever knew and if I wasn’t a swinger I’d be the happiest monogamous, sexually aware person you knew. Sex is being good to yourself, is a way to love yourself and a very precious thing. It doesn’t matter what form it takes. Once you learn who you are sexually then everything else in your life falls into place. You have to get centered. How our culture keeps people away from learning their center is to teach them to not like their own bodies, to not be satisfied with their appearance or personality. This culture robs them of knowing their bodies and feeling comfortable and isolating them from their genitalia. One of the greatest victories of her life was acknowledging that her pussy is no more special than say the bottom of her foot. It’s not that the sensations are any different, it’s that it’s all just anatomy. This is very difficult road for people to learn. The road to your body is through sexual activity, even if it is solo. The road to yourself, is through your genitals, pleasure and orgasming. It is in our nature that pleasure brings us to an altered state of consciousness. Sexual pleasure is meditative. Annie Sprinkle and Betty Dodson teach us this too. The hard part is that there is no shortcut and personal individual work that they have do by yourself, for yourself and nobody else.
LM: Another thing about is society is getting hung up on ageism and thinking that things have to be accomplished by a certain age, or that once a certain age is reached that pleasure changes or isn’t available to them.
A good person to read for insight about self-loathing issues is Cheri Huber. She has a wonderful set of books. If you are denying yourself pleasure then you have to take responsibility for where you are right now. When you get to a place where you are happy then love comes into your life. When you begin to love yourself then people recognize that and you can start receiving it. Self-pity will get you nowhere. Our society is sexist, racist, ageist, but I am a biological creature with all these amazing gifts of orgasm and I cannot wait for the world out there to change for me to be happy. I have all the happiness I need inside myself and I’m keeping it. I have denied it and avoided it for myself for too long. I have waited around for other things to be arranged before I gave myself happiness and I’m not going to do that anymore. It wasn’t until I stopped wallowing in all that self-pity and took matters into my own hands then things started to change for me. I’m not saying that it’s not more difficult if you are differently abled and don’t fit societal stereotypes, but we all have sex and we all have an ability to have an orgasm. Don’t wait around for another person to give that to you, give it to yourself. Don’t do it with resentment or self-pity, loathing or frustration, but as much as you can, each time, practice, practice, practice give more body pleasure to yourself and reinforce that you deserve more. Every time you do it, it gets a little bit easier. We have been taught to not like ourselves and it takes a lot to unteach that to ourselves. There is a lot of conditioning and everyone has their own kind of conditioning that they have to unlearn. I’m not saying anything new here and certainly, I’m not particularly with it, the only thing that separate me from anyone else in this area is that I was particularly motivated and you sound motivated too. All I can tell people about myself is that I give it to myself just as I can. My area just happens to be sex, while others have art, painting or public health or whatever. I’m just as true to myself as I can be.
LM: I got from Robert Graves book, The Blood Oranges, he says, ‘I’m a Sex Aesthetician” and I like to use that for myself. I like how it says I find beauty in all things sexual and want to create beautiful things with sex. I see this with you too.
Exactly, I take it upon myself, to do every sexual partner with as much love, respect and openness as I can muster at that moment.
LM: How do respond to people who think that you are a sex addict or that you have a problem with being obsessed with sex and this is a fairly new concept or phrase at least. I personally see sex addiction as something as similar as drug and alcohol addiction and that if it interferes with your daily life then you may have a problem.
I have sex because it makes me happy. I am not a sex addict because the more I do it, the happier, the more at peace and calm and fulfilled I am. I don’t do it when I’m drunk, I don’t do it to avoid other things, I do it to get to me. A sex addict is someone who uses sex as an escape just like you can use alcohol or shopping or whatever. An addict will abuse a substance to escape from the pain of reality. I refuse to have sex with anyone who is incapacitated with drugs or alcohol. I have not permitted myself to get into situations that are out of control. I have scared the pants off myself sometimes and those times aren’t as fun. I always learn something about myself every time I have sex.
LM: Another issue I remembered I wanted to talk about is women’s lack of understanding that they too can feel pleasure when having anal sex. Some women are under the impression that it’s just going to feel good for him because it’s tight. Like I read in Rebecca Chalker’s book, The Clitoral Truth, a woman’s clitoris extends all the way down from the crown, down around the lips and then spirals around the anus, extending those nerve endings to receive so much pleasure.
Oh, yes, it’s really incredible, the clitoris is just the tip of the iceberg. The nerve endings are incredibly vascular there are just all set to go and become engorged. And, I will tell you that you don’t ever want to assume or presume anyone’s feelings. Don’t touch the anus until you are ready to have it touched. But, if you want to know what an orgasm from anal intercourse is like, take the sensation in your clit and how it feels to be just on the verge of orgasming and you’re feeling incredible with all these sensations, take that tingly rubbing sensation and elongate it and hollow out the middle and tickle it on the inside. It feels like you’re clit is being fucked, that’s what being fucked in the ass is like. It’s delirious and fabulous. And you know how when you are being entered and need to breathe and relax the area, then you’re entered and begin to clench and release and clench and release and because you’ve relaxed around it, it’s mind-blowing. Anal sex should be pleasurable, if it’s not it needs to stop. Anal pleasure doesn’t have to include intercourse. You may never get past a finger or two, but once you can learn to go there with your partner then you will realize that it is worthwhile sex to have. The understanding that I’ve learned myself is to have trust in my partner and know that we’re both ready for it. Anal sex is very intimate. It may not be time in the relationship for that kind of stuff. It might never get past a finger, it might never get to a finger. It might just not be right for you. But, I tend to think, given the right atmosphere that some kind of mutually anal erotic pleasure can be achieved with any couple that really wants it, plays around, watches a few movies together and more importantly and difficultly, communicates together. Having anal sex means sharing their feelings, their fears, their experiences, judgments, attitudes and shame – it is very, very personal in a way that regular intercourse just isn’t.
LM: I’m so happy to be able to talk to you about this and I’m so happy that things are changing for people. It seems that more and more people are becoming more aware and they want to learn more about themselves as sexual beings. You are such an important person in that you teach people to become more aware. So, I’m wondering what you’ve been doing lately. Everyone saw you in the movie, Boogie Nights and though you stole the show. What else are you up to? I know you had a radio talk show, do you still do that?
I haven’t done the radio show for about ten months now as we were unable to get the program syndicated. That was something that I like to do. But, Annie Sprinkle is the bomb for going out there and teaching. And Betty Dodson too, her workshops for Viva La Vulva, etc. are fantastic (www.bettydodson.com). Thank you feeling so about me too. I’ve been coming out on camera as a leather player. I made my debut in an uncredited cameo in a movie, Slit City (Gwen Media) and then I did a movie that’s not out yet, an all girl dom movie, called Secret Obsessions. The only person that I will have sex with on camera for now is my fiancé. Any other excursions into fetish play that I do on camera will be as a dominant. I identify being a switch (playing the role as either the dominant or submissive). It works better for me that way. I’ve really been getting into my life as a leather player and it is really expanding my sexuality into a new area. Her eleventh educational tape is out now and soon her twelfth will be released.
LM: I’ve just read the cover stories in the October 2, 2001 issue of the Village Voice about new legislation being introduced that will limit our Constitutional rights for freedom of speech and statement because of the terrorist attacks. What do you think about that?
I really don’t think that will affect the pornography industry. I think it will be very low on the totem pole. Can you imagine Ashcroft putting time and money into tracking down the pornography industry when he has more important things to do? I would be surprised that it will be affected. We’ll see, but I don’t think it will become an issue.
LM: Thanks so much Nina! I’ll see you soon at the Queen of Heaven party.