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Sadie Lune
Pleasure Activist
Sadie Lune is a
dozen women packed into one spectacular package. I can’t recall when I
first met her, but I do remember thinking, “Who is that hottie?”
Dynamic and attractive, when you see her in a crowded room, it’s as if
there’s a spotlight shining on her alone; she is positively electric.
She’s also entertaining and engaging and a wild combination of
childlike and mature, an old soul who really knows how to enjoy
herself. She has worked in almost every aspect of the sex work field,
from stripping to modeling to pro domming; look for her by her domme
title: Maestra. In between her myriad vocations, she finds time to
organize community insanity like Paul Reubens’ Day and volunteer with
the Center for Sex and Culture. Sadie Lune has a lot to say. Here’s a
window onto her world.
ErosZine: You appear to be a Bay Area Renaissance woman. What all have you done? Domme work, dancing, what?
Sadie Lune: Well I’ve only lived in San Francisco for two and a half
years, so I haven’t had time to do everything yet. But so far I’ve
worked as a professional dominant, fetish model, courtesan, go-go
dancer, private dancer, burlesque performer (usually snake dancing),
photographer’s assistant as well as doing some interesting one-off jobs
like subculture tour guide, anatomical model for workshops and a few
video shoots and radio shows. I also do a lot of pro bono work like
event and workshop organizing, interning and volunteering for the
Center for Sex and Culture, and occasionally writing for the Spectator
magazine. I work on my artwork and writing as well, which I hope to
have exhibited soon, when I finally matte and frame everything. One of
my favorite jobs in the past few months was working as Nina Hartley’s
demo model for a two-day workshop on Intimacy for couples over
Valentine’s Day weekend. I was having a hard Valentine’s Day, but
getting fucked by Nina Hartley for the edification of a group of
couples, and then getting paid for it, well, that certainly made my
lifetime.
EZ: You’re also a student? Tell us about your curriculum.
SL: [Laughs] I’m an eternal student. I’ve studied at five different
bastions of higher learning at this point, and who knows how many I’ll
go through before I’m done. Right now I attend a small, very
California-type college that leaves a lot of room for building your own
curriculum, which is great for me. I concentrate on Gender and
Sexuality Studies (surprise, surprise), which I study from a
sociological perspective, as well as Fine Art. Recent classes that I’ve
taken for my concentration include Thinking Sex, Manhood and
Masculinity and Contemporary Gender Theory. Fun stuff to study,
especially in San Francisco, where there are so many accepted gender
and sexuality options! I am also continuously attending workshops for
the exploration and betterment of my sexuality and BdSm skills. I just
recently completed Cleo Dubois and Sybil Holiday’s Erotic Dominance
Intensive for Professional Dominas, which was incredibly powerful and
insightful, and earlier this year I ‘graduated’ from Carol Leigh,
a.k.a. Scarlot Harlot’s Whore College. I’ve taken workshops on
Edgy Age Play, Knife Play, Suspension Bondage, Making Your Own
Singletail, Hand and Mouth Sex Techniques, Sadistic Blowjobs…the list
goes on, and I love to learn!
EZ: Where did the title Drunken Redhead Slut #1 come from?
SL: Ah, the Drunken Redheaded Sluts. Hopefully this won’t be my only
legacy. The DRSs (as we call ourselves because it’s less syllables to
slur) began in Delaware of all places, approximately four years ago. I
was an organizer for Playa del Fuego, a freak-oriented arts festival
held twice yearly in the sticks of Delaware. Playa del Fuego is known
as a “Regional Burn,” meaning that it is the East Coast festival held
in the spirit of Burning Man, so many BM participants are among the
attendees, and we bring theme camps and set up events for a long
weekend. Anyway, aside from helping organize the event, I hosted a
theme camp called the Labia Lounge, for sexual exploration, especially
for the ladies. I had been talking online to a crazy cool New York
drunkard named Jamie Slater, and as I was leaving the Lounge one
evening this fire engine-topped pitcher of sarcasm with a drink in her
hand approached me and asked if I was me. An (in)famous friendship was
immediately forged with Jamie, and since we both had unrealistically
red hair, and our initial bonding was over alcohol, I deemed us the
Drunken Redheaded Sluts. Well once we had a name like that, EVERYONE
wanted to join. Jamie and I had an argument about who should be #1 a
year or so later, since thanks to the internet the ersatz gang was
growing in popularity and we were both mothers of this hiccupping
Hydra. Jamie convinced me that I was #1 since I came up with the name.
Initiation for wannabe DRSs is required to receive an official number,
and requires feats of extreme drunkenness, gender blind sluttiness, and
proof of redheadedness, even if it means I have to spray your pubes
with red hair spray. Personally my carpet, drapes and doilies are
rouged to match. Madame interviewer, I believe you too are one of the
few official DRSs, though I’ve heard you drunkenly grumble that your
number isn’t low enough. Honestly, I think I was just trying to get
into Jamie’s characteristically tacky pants when this whole thing
started. She did end up kissing me once, but I’m mostly in charge of
the ‘S’ part of DRS.
EZ: You’re also the founder of Paul Reubens’ Day. Tell us about that came about.
SL: Well Paul Reubens’ Day is officially a Drunken Reheaded Slut
production, since Jamie and I organized the first one together, in
2003. Paul Reubens’ Day is a celebration of fallen children’s TV star
Paul Reubens, a.k.a. Pee-wee Herman. Some friends were drinking and
talking about porn, and I was complaining that I’d never seen porn in
an actual porno theater. Of course this led to discussing the
outrageously bogus bum rap that Paul Reubens got in 1991 when he was
arrested for masturbating in a porn movie theater. We decided that some
sort of commemoration was in order so we set to throwing together the
first Paul Reubens’ Day.
EZ: How did this year’s event go?
SL: This year was the third annual PRD (jeez, everything I do has a
three-letter acronym!) and we had a blast. Each year we pick a
different neighborhood of San Francisco to terrorize, I mean, educate,
and this year we went through Union Square and SoMa. The day started at
1pm and we seemed to gain Pee-wees and FOP (friends of Pee-wee/Paul) at
every stop. We did the Tequila Dance in Union Square, rode the Carousel
at Zeum and entertained countless leather daddies at all the bar stops.
It was great! We had a fantastic Jambi the Genie and ended with a
Pee-wee Porno Party, which was a benefit for the Center for Sex and
Culture. This year we finally got all three porn flicks that were
showing when Mr. Reubens was arrested, and we even made our own short
film “Secretar-wee,” based on “Secretary.” At midnight, all the
Pee-wees still standing staggered off to Midnight Mass with Peaches
Christ (www.peacheschrist.com) to watch Pee-wee’s Big Adventure on the
big screen. Peaches Christ graciously welcomed me on-stage and
presented me with a lovely gift bag, but all I had to give her was an
Ants on a Log. Mmmm…celery and peanut butter! (www.paulreubensday.com)
EZ: What does “pleasure activist” mean to you?
SL: Pleasure Activism is what I feel my true vocation to be. It’s a
commitment to creating, sharing and welcoming pleasure to the world
through my thoughts and deeds. It is something I constantly aspire to.
It means I help the political fight for sexual freedom rights, I teach
all I know about giving and receiving pleasure physiologically and
emotionally, and I never stop searching for more, deeper information to
share. I felt like a very lucky Pleasure Activist this spring at the
Forum XXX, the International Forum for Sex Workers in Montreal. It was
an amazing experience, I felt so proud of the work towards
decriminalization and in some cases legalization or destigmatization
that my colleagues had done and many of us are still working on. It was
great to be in workshops with Sex Workers and Activists from around the
world and hear all of the commonalties and differences of their
stories. It was very inspiring. Not to mention sexy as fuck. All the
pretty strippers and whores and Dommes and subs and masseuses, man it
was a smart and yummy scene. If anyone is interested in expressing
their pleasure activism by helping the decriminalization movement, I
recommend checking out www.swop-usa.org.
EZ: You’ve been working with The Center for Sex and Culture recently. How is that going?
SL: I adore “The Center” as I call it. It’s my new favorite place in
San Francisco. The Center has so many of the unique and wonderful
characteristics of the SF ideal: it’s a non-profit run by a member of
one of the most successful co-ops in the city (Carol Queen and Good
Vibrations) and a queer couple who happen to have hetero genitalia.
It’s an open space of many purposes, mainly as a publicly accessible
library of sexuality and a community center for the sexually diverse
and interested. As a Community Center, the Center acts as a venue for
benefits, play parties, workshops, community, support and political
group meetings, performances, art exhibits, photo shoots and almost
anything else you can think of that explores eroticism, sensuality and
sexuality. It is an incredible atmosphere to work in and help people do
things they never had a place for before. Plus, I get privy to such
opportunities as the demo model gig for Nina Hartley I mentioned
before. Working with Carol Queen and Robert Lawrence is really a joy
for me and absolutely fantasy fulfillment. When I was a stripper going
to college in Baltimore and I started taking gender and sexuality
courses and reading third-wave feminist sex positive writing by all of
these amazing women and transfolk and men, many of whom lived in San
Francisco, I had an epiphany. Reading the works of Annie Sprinkle,
Carol Queen and Scarlot Harlot helped me realize that sex work could be
truly healing and fulfilling work, and I felt like I had a path before
me that I had to explore more deeply. I feel incredibly lucky to be
able to work with them and help them as much as I can. It doesn’t hurt
that Carol and Robert indulge me and my bizarre whimsies like getting
extra event insurance so a bunch of drunk Pee-wees can take over the
floor beneath the Center space and play and drink and watch porn and
Pee-wee strippers. Where else would this vision be so supported?
EZ: You’re like a Gen-X Annie Sprinkle. To me, anyway. How do you see yourself?
SL: Well, oh my goodness, thank you so much. That is one of the best
compliments someone can give me. I consider Annie Sprinkle as one of my
patron Saints, along with Jon Waters, Mata Hari and others. I
have a Charles Gatewood photograph of Annie from the year of my birth
on my altar. Anyway, I had an argument with a friend about whether or
not I was actually Gen-X, but he convinced me that I was and he’s a
geek and knows about memes, so I believe him. I guess I see myself as
someone who wants to change people’s lives, to show them their own joy,
to open them to each others and themselves. I am constantly striving to
reach people, whether one on one professionally or personally or in
groups, during performances and workshops. I think that the validity of
many concurrent perspectives is something lost on our culture and I try
to see and to show the many layers involved in human experience. I like
sex and don’t think there is enough pleasure in the world, so I try to
help through my work, my art and my life. I am an artist, performer,
entertainer, student and teacher, and I respect the dynamics and gifts
of power, service and submission in many realms. I try to act as a
healer, for myself and for others. I’ll tell you one thing, though:
besides her countless other amazing qualities, Annie Sprinkle is
waaaaay nicer than me. I’m more of a riding-the-line-of-offense,
sarcastic, morbid humor type.
EZ: Tell us a little bit about your background.
SL: I grew up in Baltimore, the daughter of academics. I went to a
private, non-religious all girls’ school, which is a direct correlation
to my schoolgirl fetish. I was always the “weird” one since I was
little, interested in the occult, fantasy and science fiction, and as a
young girl I read a lot, played outside a lot and fantasized about my
friends a lot. During High School my only social outlet was being in
plays and I also enjoyed creating with visual arts. I was very, very
depressed from about age 6 to age 21, and was hospitalized several
times in my late teens and early twenties for treatment. I was a very
good student, but my depression was a huge obstacle to my academic
career. I went to one of the Seven Sisters colleges right after high
school, but after only a few months I was told that my depression and
its symptoms (cutting, crying, etc.) were too serious for me to be
allowed to live in a dorm with other students. They wanted me to move
to a cot in the Health Center and I said, “Fuck that. I am not going to
feel better about myself living in the nurse’s office.” So I left
college and went home and started doing sex work.
EZ: So continue with your sexually adventurous history. How did you arrive where you are now?
SL: I had sex with girls and fell in love with a girl before I had sex
with boys, and yes sometimes my girl and me were wearing our school
uniforms. I have always been sexually aggressive, hungry and curious. I
fantasized about being a sex worker before I got my period. I started
playing with BdSm with the first boy I fell in love with when I was 17.
I considered myself a lesbian until that boy and then realized that I
was pansexual (capable of loving someone of any gender) and kinky.
These days I like the umbrella term “queer.” Then I became a stripper,
which I had thought about for quite some time, but didn’t know how to
get involved, and moreover, thought that I was too fat and ugly to be
hired. I developed a crush on a beautiful goth girl who worked at a
strip-club on “The Block.” She took me to her work and I was hired that
day. I became a more formal student of sexuality and then I had my
epiphany. I also discovered polyamory as a healthier alternative to
infidelity with my partners.
I’m known for being insatiable, but I think I’m just usually attracted
to mostly straight girls or geek boys stuck in their heads. I have a
very dashing drag king persona. I love, love, love popping peoples’
cherries, whether big or small, common or esoteric. (Look for the DRS
Cherry Popping Express, coming soon!) I love needles and knives,
breaking irrelevant taboos. I like boys who will dress like girls and
want me to fuck them in the ass and girls that will let me tie them up.
I have been a proud slut for eight years and a sex worker for seven.
Sex is one of the three great passions in my life.
EZ: I’ve had the pleasure of watching you, um, in action. Are you an exhibitionist as well?
SL: You’re talking about my Annual Bar Fist (we all have our holidays
and traditions) at Burning Man? I think all performers are
exhibitionists. At least all of the good ones. Yes, I have always been
interested in performing, in being watched. I enjoy making a spectacle
of myself. I haven’t been shy for a very long time and I’m loud and
domineering and strange by nature, which can be good characteristics
for performers, though watch out when they run amok. I’m terrified of
coming off as “that girl who just wants more attention.” I’d like
my actions to be deserving of attention rather than wanting. I think
some of it came from being depressed and leaden so long; people look at
you, they talk about you and ask you if you’re okay a million times a
day, even though you wish you could be invisible under a blanket
somewhere. Well I got tired of pretending I was “okay” and I guess
decided that if I was going to be a minor freak show anyway, I might as
well be an entertaining freak show.
But sexually, yes, I enjoy being watched. I am an exhibitionist/voyeur
switch, though I usually have more chances to “exhibit” to eager
voyeurs professionally than personally. I always keep an eye out for
peepers as I am visibly naked a lot at home, but so far, no dice. As a
voyeur, though, this is one of the best possible places to live. The
climate is good for spontaneous clothes-dropping and the town is full
of exhibitionists. In San Francisco I get to watch everywhere I go!
EZ: What photographers have you posted for? Any interesting tales?
SL: My “All Time Favorite” (to use a phrase from sex worker jargon)
photographer to work with is Larry Utley. He is incredibly sweet and
gracious and is also very open to all of the models’ ideas. I like his
somewhat classic, pin-up style; he’s been called the Norman Rockwell of
fetish photography. He was very considerate and helpful when I was
getting started on the West Coast. Some other favorites have been
Karima Cherif, Marius M., David Steinberg, Michelle Serchuck, Leon
Sapperstein and Asheley Fontenot.
My first magazine feature porn shoot was done at an outdoor festival
with a photographer, Karima, who I met only two or three days before.
She had planned on doing a shoot at the festival, but the model couple
had cancelled and she asked me if I would be interested and had someone
to shoot with. It was so exciting and unexpected, but I thought that my
boyfriend at the time would be too shy to shoot pornography with me. To
my surprise he did it and it was a really magical experience for me, to
suddenly have this opportunity outdoors in the middle of nowhere with
the shy boy that I loved. That shoot kind of started my love of rope
bondage. Speaking of which, I did a really intense suspension shoot
with JD of the Two Knotty Boys and Leon Sapperstein. JD bound me with
red rope so that I was sitting in lotus position, but suspended three
feet above the ground, and Leon did a “light painting,” where he used a
small source of light in a dark, long exposure to draw on the film with
his light source. He drew a lotus blossom coming out of my hands and
above my head. That was a really cool shoot, but the light paintings
require minutes of absolute stillness for the extremely long exposures
and even though JD did a fantastic job on the bondage, I couldn’t take
as much of the trussed up lotus position as I would have liked.
EZ: Have you appeared in fetish videos?
SL: Yes, but so far just a couple. I would really like to do a lot more
topping for films and videos. I’ve been a cheerleader bottom in one of
Redboard’s “Virgin Kink” videos. Hey, it was at your event that my
12-foot ass was projected on the wall! I come out of the bathroom only
to see my ass, larger than life, getting beaten on the wall at one of
the San Francisco Mondo Porno parties. That was a surprise, having my
“Virgin Kink” shoot used as visual effects!
Plus I’ve done some video work for Xtrordinary Talk!, a website that
caters to submissive lingerie fetishists. I have a great time working
with them because I consider myself somewhat of a hosiery and lingerie
fetishist, and I really enjoy the gamut of “below-the waist parts
and accessories” fetishes, except that the word “panties” gives me the
creeps. That was tough in the video shoot, because panty fetishists
tend to want to hear the word “panties.” Ick.
EZ: Have you done anything else “on film”?
SL: Yes, I’ve had some parts in some independent films and shorts. I
even shot a rap music video once; I was one of the “party girls,”
though the only one with a chain on her face if I’m not mistaken. I
play a re-programmed Domme in a short called “Freak” about near future
sexual fascism. I had a scene with my friend Allison in a porno-mentary
about dykes and their dildos called “Dildo Envy.” I am getting ready to
do a scene in a feature length film about BdSm and various
complications. I will be topping for that, which should be lots of
fun. Oh, and a somewhat interactive porn-art-graphy film called
“Pomegranate Goddess” is in negotiations with several of the European
Museums of Erotica right now! I play the seductive, innocence-stealing
Pomegranate Goddess, which was fantastic because I love pomegranates,
their symbology and place in mythology and their fertile scarlet
sensuality. Licking the juice off of hot naked ladies wasn’t bad
either.
EZ: San Francisco is a pretty sexually liberated city. Is that why you gravitated there?
SL: Definitely. I learned a term in one of my classes, “sexual
migrant,” that I think describes me perfectly. I wanted to live
someplace where I wouldn’t be the only “out” sex worker anybody had
ever met, the only person who knew what “polyamory” meant, and
someplace that I might have more luck with the ladies. Since I was 18,
the gents have been pretty easy, but the ladies, especially on the East
Coast, can be elusive. Plus in SF there are so many more choices than
just ladies or gents! When Bush got “re-elected” (quotation marks based
on the fact that I suspect that election didn’t have much to do with
Bush’s second term) I was horrified and worried and decided I would
move to Europe for a while. However, once I started thinking about it
more and doing more research, I came to the realization that San
Francisco is the world hub for radical sexuality! This is like the
conceptual sexual nexus, the Fertile Crescent for perversions and
gender-fuckery. The world might get its time from Greenwich, its
fashion from Paris, its attitude from New York and its fake boobs from
L.A. , but it gets its ever-expanding sexuality and the cultural
analysis to go with it from San Francisco. I would still like to live
in Europe, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to leave this comfy womb of
radical sexuality and acceptance, yet. In a couple of months they’ll
probably refuse to allow anyone to leave their state of residence, “to
protect our freedom” and I’ll be kicking myself.
EZ: Do you think it’s the kinkiest city in America?
SL: Why ask me when our internet audience knows all, sees all and tells
all? Tell us, Intor-net, what say YOU?!?!?!?
EZ: What about Burning Man? Is Black Rock City the kinkiest city in the US?
SL: It’s definitely too hard to get laid at Burning Man. Even if you
bring fresh specula and baby wipes and offer them some. I mean, I’ve
gotten fisted by presumably nice strange ladies there two years in a
row, but I mean, I have to bring it to the point of performance art to
even get that going on. Last year on “Threesome Thursday“ I set up an
octo-some and then passed out before anything happened with anyone.
Apparently everyone else was too shy and dejected to take the reins at
that point, and then they were all disappointed in me the next day. My
first year I got harassed by a fellow member of my village for being a
sex worker and told that I couldn’t actually be in love with my
boyfriend, with whom I was very much in love, because of my job. Last
year, after a man in the bar of my camp, Whiskey and Whores, found out
about my profession he propositioned me, which I refused because I
didn’t want to engage in business at supposedly commerce free Burning
Man. Just because more people are nude or partially nude, wearing
skirts is practically required of bio-boys, and people take a lot of
ecstasy, doesn’t make Burning Man participants anymore sexually
advanced, enlightened or open-minded. While it definitely affords the
opportunity for personal sexual expression in public or private, and
offers many sex-themed camps, harassment still abounds and ignorance
still presides. The upshot is that being there is such a delusional and
barrier-breaking experience that the very fact that these sexual venues
are available and obvious means that otherwise ignorant or judgmental
people may stumble upon something, in their vulnerable dubious state,
so exciting, beautiful, intriguing or transcendent that it may open a
door to acceptance that would have otherwise remained unchallenged. The
next time I go, I want to go with my little sister.
EZ: Do you have any unusual projects in the works?
SL: Nope, just same old. ;) Okay, well, I’m taking a break from
organizing to concentrate on work and some visual art projects that I’m
working on—and hopefully some damn websites! But I highly recommend
checking out the Center for Sex and Culture’s web site for fun and
frisky things to do and learn, as well as an excellent place to donate
money or erotica collections. I also strongly encourage any
philanthropists out there to donate some money to the St. James
Infirmary (www.stjamesinfirmary.org). The Infirmary gives health care,
testing, safer sex supplies and many other services to Sex Workers, who
usually don’t have access to affordable health care or insurance.
Also, I am performing in my first full play since high school, “Batman,” in October at the Dark Room Theater
and I am verrrry excited! I will be playing Catwoman, which is another
fantasy from childhood bizarrely realized. The show will be hilarious.
If you are interested in a professional modeling or Domination
appointment, email me at: redsadie11 (at) yahoo.com, but I will not
tolerate indiscreet or disrespectful correspondences. Thank you Madame
Ehmann, for the lovely interview.
EZ: And thank you, my dear!
[Written Sept. 2005]
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