Question 4:
Most of you have commented on some of the public resistance you've encountered in writing about sex. Have you also received flack in your private lives, and have all the sacrifices been worth it?
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 Most of the resistance I've experienced has not been from "the public" but rather from editors of newspapers, magazines and publishers who decide what people want to read. They send out the rejection slips. My first two books were published and distributed by me, and I rarely make it into the pages of national magazines. Several editors at publishing houses actually had good belly laughs when I said I wanted to do an entire book about masturbation. Even after Crown bought my book in '86, I was the one who kept it alive because they were always skittish about the subject. Now, when Crown refers to my book, Sex for One, as a ten-year classic, I quietly take a bow, knowing I deserve more than a measly eight percent royalty that's standard for quality paperbacks. Recently, I've been going through the same old rejection process with my Sexual Autobiography. I've been told if I turned it into a pornographic novel, they'd sell a million copies tomorrow. Like Susie said, it's very unladylike to enjoy fucking men, especially when it's not for love, not for marriage, not for children, but just for the pleasure of sex. The good news about being an independent is it gives me the freedom to do and say what I choose. The bad news is I'm working my tits off. But in many ways, I've learned as much from being a businesswoman as I have from being a creative artist and a sex pervert. It's a power rush being the CEO of my own company, and even though there's no retirement plan, I rather like the idea of dying with my boots on while a computer or a vibrator is humming away. Have all the sacrifices been worth it? Yes and no. Don't think there aren't days when I mumble, "Shit, why didn't I stay with fine art. The world loves artists, and by now I'd be rich and famous." As for my family, my father died before I had my first show of erotic art, but he would have hated it. My departure from a successful art career to grapple with sex broke my mother's heart. My two brothers haven't read any of my books, nor watched my video tapes. The ex-wife of one brother forbids her two daughters to speak to me, but I'm close to my other brother's daughter. Their second wives were the first women in Wichita to own electric vibrators, and we get along great. The rest of my nieces and nephews through marriage adore their Aunt Betty. Last October when I was visiting the Dodsons in Fall River Kansas, my twelve-year-old grand niece asked when was I going to do a video about teen masturbation, and could she be in it? Naturally I said "soon" and "yes." The old spirit of the West prevails. |
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