Dita Von Teese
Podcast Transcript Season 1 Episode 9
Interviewer: Liz Goldwyn
Liz Goldwyn: Hello, welcome to The Sex Ed. I'm your host, Liz Goldwyn, founder of thesexed.com. Your number one source for sex, health and consciousness education.
My guest today is Dita Von Teese. Dita is an author, model, designer and performer, but she is best known as the "Queen of Burlesque" having repopularized the art form back in the 90s.
Dita and I first met in 2005 when we both published books about burlesque. Although we had been circling around each other since the late 1990s, when our respective interests in strip tease were first hatched. Since then, she has become one of my best friends. I sat down to chat with Dita about the first time she discovered kink, how a 10 year stint in a strip club can prepare you for the real world, and the unbridled joy of taking a pie to the face. So, without further ado, here's my conversation with Dita Von Teese.
Liz Goldwyn: Thank you for coming in and doing this with me.
Dita Von Teese: Oh yeah. You know I always like to talk sex with you.
Liz Goldwyn: Yeah. We've talked about a lot of sex in our day, actually.
Dita Von Teese: For sure.
Liz Goldwyn: Here with Dita Von Teese, who is an author, a burlesque and fetish queen, and a lingerie designer. I'm wearing your underwear right now, (both laugh) and she's wearing one of her own dresses. She also designs clothing, multi-talented Renaissance woman, and one of my best friends who's someone I always ask for advice in my personal life, as well as professionally. (Dita laughs)
Liz Goldwyn: I know that you were a lingerie sales girl at 15.
Dita Von Teese: Yes.
Liz Goldwyn: But how did you first get into fetish? Was it fetish before stripping or?
Dita Von Teese: I guess it was actually. Well, I think, you know, working in the lingerie store from age 15, I had a big interest in undergarments, especially what people wore under their clothes, in other times.
And so, of course, I, you know, started wearing garter belts and corsolettes and all this kind of, at that time, rare lingerie for a 15-year-old in the 80s. I set my sights on getting a corset. I became very interested in retro style and pinup style. And I would see pictures of girls in corsets, and I wanted one. And really, at that time, there was really nowhere you could just, like, I had no idea where I could get a corset, but somebody somewhere gave me a number. And they said, "Here, go to this place and you can get the corset." And I was like, "Okay," thinking I was going to a lingerie store or something. So I went to the store called Versatile Fashions and they were in Orange County and it was a little, like, tiny storefront, blacked out windows.
And I walked in and it was this fetish world that I'd never seen and didn't expect to be thrown into. Of course, I saw the corsets immediately. I befriended the gentleman working behind the counter pretty quickly because I was so intrigued and he was so lovely. I'm still friends with him now. His name's Jim Thompson. He's a very lovely man. And I just started asking him questions. And, he showed me the first pictures I'd ever seen of Bettie Page. I just got, kind of, wrapped up in this world. I ordered my first corset, was introduced to fully-fashioned seamed stockings, which is a big fetish thing. The same kinds of stockings that Betty Page wore and the same kinds of stockings that were made in the 40s and 50s and found out there was this whole world of people that were obsessed with these things.
And I just sort of became obsessed with the retro, nostalgic fetish idea. I started looking at the the bondage photos of Irving Klaw studios and the art of John Willie and also perused the fetish magazines of that time, like O Magazine and Skin Two. And I was already dressing and styling myself in a retro way. And then I had the idea about becoming the modern Bettie Page. There was nobody doing it at that time, not in a serious way, you know, people would occasionally imitate her, but I had decided I was going to be a famous fetish model and I was going to do it in this like 1940s and 50s style.
Liz Goldwyn: You were approaching it from a research perspective back then, or were you getting involved with it in your personal life as well?
Dita Von Teese: Originally, it was more because I had a love of the look and the style, and as a natural blonde from a farming town of Michigan, I always had a desire to be something that was the opposite of what I was born.
So that's when I started dying my hair from blonde to red, then to black, I had an obsession with the image of the femme fatale. So I think it was, for me, aesthetics and I became involved, the first times that I was actually tied up or spanked or any of these things, it was kind of like more professional.
Liz Goldwyn: It was on a photo shoot.
Dita Von Teese: Yeah. Photo shoots mostly. I had a boyfriend at the time, of course.
Liz Goldwyn: Are you 15 at this point, are you a little older?
Dita Von Teese: No. I'm a little older. I forgot that part of the story. I was like, "Well, I worked in lingerie store at 15." I was 18 when I went to go to this fettish store. And when I first started posing for the pinups.
Liz Goldwyn: What did the boyfriend think?
Dita Von Teese: I had a few different boyfriends over the course at that time. So as I was evolving and getting deeper into it and becoming more famous for being a fetish model, I had different boyfriends. At that time, I was surrounded by fetishists. You know, I was like, I was really famous in the scene. And so I had-
Liz Goldwyn: Very quickly you were famous? Like early 20s?
Dita Von Teese: I don't know. It's hard. Yeah. I was like 21, 22. It's in those early years, those early 90s and I became known in that world pretty globally. I was on the covers of all these magazines that I had looked at when I was 18. Started being on the covers of those and being flown to London to perform at their fetish parties and for a magazine, Marquis, that used to bring me over to Germany quite often. So I was thrown into these fetish clothes mostly. I mostly posed in the clothes, but I-
Liz Goldwyn: Do you want to explain, for the layperson, what fetish clothes are?
Dita Von Teese: I had a fetish for corsetry and fully fashioned stockings, which are a very special kind of stocking, which has no Lycra and are very different than modern stockings.
And there's a whole world of people out there that are interested in it. So I first became interested in these symbols of ultra feminization, like the corset, which shapes in an hourglass shape that is not natural, which enhances the feminine figure even more. So I was very obsessed with things like red lipstick, long red nails, super high heels, the corsetry, bullet bras, all these things that kind of made a woman more womanly. I felt like that was the thing that I was truly obsessed with. And I was.
Liz Goldwyn: Mhm-hm (affirmative). And still are.
Dita Von Teese: Yes, it's never left. I found that I liked playing the part of the submissive more than I liked playing the part of the dominant. And so I started meeting all these different women that were either dominant or submissive or both. And I felt more that I enjoyed the submissive feeling. I liked playing the damsel in distress. I liked being tied up. I liked being objectified.
Liz Goldwyn: You're talking about personally and professionally now?
Dita Von Teese: Yes.
Liz Goldwyn: Okay.
Dita Von Teese: But I found that I would be asked to step into the role of a dominatrix, but I didn't feel it came naturally to me.
Liz Goldwyn: Did you feel that a lot of personal power in being submissive?
Dita Von Teese: I think so. I mean, but mostly I liked getting dressed up. I liked feeling that I was being worshiped, kept, cared for like a treasure, but I think a lot about why is it that I always enjoyed that. And I think I'm a very visual person, which is not that common for a woman to be super into the visuals of sex, traditionally. But I liked sex more when I was dressed for it. And I enjoyed these pictures in my mind of dressed up sex, dressing up for pleasure.
I would be hired for things, like bondage photo shoots, and I enjoyed all of that. But now all these years later, like 20 years later, I don't feel like I'm missing it.
Liz Goldwyn: You done it. (Liz laughs)
Dita Von Teese: So, I don't... Yeah. It's sort of like a lot of things that I did because it would be fun to try it. But at the time when I would be tied up, I'd be tied up by the best in the world, you know. So it was hard to find, and I think if I were in a relationship with someone who was really kinky, I could get into that of course too. But once you've been around the people that are really, like, the high level of the knowledge of fetishism, it's kind of hard to want to play with the novices. So in dating, I didn't want to play with the novice boys.
Liz Goldwyn: Well, because it can be very unsafe.
Dita Von Teese: One thing that I was always known for, and people-- sometimes I'll meet people now and they're like, "God, you were so professional in that world back then, even back when you were 20." And I was. I was just very, you know, hyper aware of who I would let do what to me. I was professional. I didn't want to be someone who--
Liz Goldwyn: And you had clear boundaries.
Dita Von Teese: Yeah, I had very clear boundaries. And I never had any moments that I felt in danger or that it had been overstepped. I mean, there were a few things that I tried that I was like, "I'm not doing that again."
Liz Goldwyn: Like what?
Dita Von Teese: I did a tickling fetish video once and I was like, "I'm not doing that. That's not my thing." I just didn't like it. I might've liked it more if it was with girls involved, but I just was bugged by the guy, didn't like him. I felt like he was somebody that I didn't trust or like.
Liz Goldwyn: You didn't feel comfortable.
Dita Von Teese: Yeah, it wasn't fun for me.
Liz Goldwyn: That's a key thing is trust. Right?
Dita Von Teese: Yeah. And working with people whose personalities I like. I still know the bondage masters that tied me up back then. And they're, like, really great fun people that I like that I feel like I have something in common with them. And all these years later, there's people that have capitalized on my current fame, you know, trying to like make more money off of me now, 20 years later. So there's people that didn't do that, that are just like, they haven't been trying to like sell me down the river. So that matters too.
Liz Goldwyn: Yeah. You've told me a couple stories. So I wanted to ask if there was anything that really scared you, but you showed me one photo that I felt so claustrophobic, as your friend, looking at this photo where you're in a full body suit with a face mask and a fur coat on.
Dita Von Teese: See that was a moment and it was super stressful to me. So this is this amazing leather couture designer that worked for Mr. Mugler back in the day. I mean, he's like the most amazing leather-maker in the world, just a genius. So of course it was like, "Yeah, I want to do this." You know, so, we had maybe like 20 some fittings for this one piece vinyl. He turned me into a rubber doll. They had this visual of wanting to make a Elizabeth Taylor rubber doll. And they were dressing me all up. And I did get this thought, there was only two tiny holes, one for each nostril, and the rest of me was completely encased with the fur coat and not being able to really see what was going on, and mind you, I'm working with all these amazing people, like, that are very respected in the fashion world. They're not even from the fetish world. And I, you know, I got really claustrophobic.
And then there was another time that I was doing a bondage photo shoot where I had full latex catsuit on again and hogtied and one of my friends was sitting there and she was watching because she came along with me and she started commenting like, "Wow, gosh, you know, is there a vein popping out of your hand right now?" She started freaking me out and then the mental side of it got the best of me and I had to be cut out of the ropes. And that was like the only time I'd ever had to be cut out. It's so mental. And that's the other thing that it goes back to, in the process of being tied up, the person that's doing this to you, I'm usually having conversations and they know how to have the right conversation with you. I mean, it's the same way in the bedroom, but a different kind of conversation of course, but there's a whole process of how it's done, you know.
I just got tied up for the first time recently for a Die Antwoord video that I just did with them for a song that I sang on. And I brought my old friend, Jim Weathers, back in to tie me up and it was like, "Oh, here we go again. Here's the little light banter and the, 'You have an itch. Here's my finger.’" The claw finger comes out and you just rub your face on it. It's really, (laughs) it's like this whole thing. It gave me a flashback of those bondage days.
Liz Goldwyn: I remember you telling me one story about how the Japanese Rope Masters were much more intricate and-
Dita Von Teese: They want reality too. They want real suffering.
So I did a photo shoot... I wish I could remember his name right now. And, they had my friend’s, well, Nina Hartley's husband, Ira Levine, there to kind of police the treatment of the models with this famous Japanese bondage master. And so he was there to make sure the girls were okay. And I always remembered that. And I remember there were some other girls on the set that were the real pros, like the girls that would be strung up by their hair hanging from bamboo poles, like really extreme bondage. And I never did anything like that. I was more of the damsel in distress, but there's girls that are amazing at doing extreme bondage. And I always found them fascinating. I love to watch.
Liz Goldwyn: Yeah. It's really interesting what you say about the conversations that would happen on set that they're like the conversations in the bedroom, because I actually think people aren't having those conversations in the bedroom enough, especially now, especially with young people and even in our generation probably have more conversations about boundaries and trust and what you're comfortable with on set being tied up than you do in a personal situation, which is fascinating.
Dita Von Teese: It's never easy to have those conversations, you know, especially when a relationship is new and you're trying to be, you know, you're showing just a certain side of yourself and you want to be really cool, and you don't want the relationship to end because you've offended them or because you're not into something they're into. And I feel like as you mature, you start getting over all that stuff. You know what I mean? I don't know about you, but the way that I was when I was 20 and how vocal I am now about what's okay and what's not okay or what I want, is different. I mean, I don't mince words. And-
Liz Goldwyn: You had good training, though. On the job.
Dita Von Teese: Yeah.
Liz Goldwyn: I know. Also at the same time, when you were in your fetish career, you would make videos by special request for fetishism.
One of my favorite all time videos is the pie in the face.
Dita Von Teese: I would occasionally do that. I think I probably made three custom videos, but I used to get scripts for them all the time. And that was the best part. I mean, sometimes-
Liz Goldwyn: People or just fans would write you letters?
Dita Von Teese: Well, people would ask if I would make a custom video. They'd submit a script, and that was one of my favorite things to do is to read these scripts because some of them were so crazy and so amazing. One of my favorites that I had ever read was about me littering, dressed up in diamonds and furs and walking through a beautiful forest and littering, just, like, with no regard for anything. So, and just like, just the way that this script was written was amazing. I probably made… there are two-
Liz Goldwyn: Did you do it? Did you litter in the forest?
Dita Von Teese: I didn't, but I wanted to. I hope I have that letter somewhere. It was so amazing. I didn't do it because he--Oh! And then he had a terrible one too. He had a few scripts, but one was wearing a white fur coat and clubbing a baby seal in high heels. And I was like, "Whoa, dude." (Both laugh) I was like, so you can see why these videos didn't get made.
Liz Goldwyn: Yeah. Really anti-environmentalist on your hands.
Dita Von Teese: He was really like, yeah, intense. But, so, I remember making two custom videos and one was also a video of me, again, the fur coat thing comes along all the time, rolling around in a bunch of fur coats on the phone, ordering more fur coats and, "Send the bill to so and so," whatever the guy's name was, but just a lot of fantasies about, like, bitchy women using a man. I felt like I got a lot of those. So the ballet pie-face video was definitely a favorite.
Catherine D'Lish, my co-star in that ballet pie-face video, she just sent me a snapshot the other day of the DVD of that. She said, "Look what I just found." My sister filmed it. I got a script from a gentleman and I was like, "Okay, this one I'm doing."
Liz Goldwyn: Was it good money?
Dita Von Teese: And he has- I want to say that, I mean, I wouldn't do it if it weren't good money, like I want to say, I'd get paid like $5,000 to do these videos, you know. So that's why I didn't do very many. I was just very like, “I can't be bothered to go through all the trouble to rent the ballet studio.” Anyway, so he wrote a specific script again. He wanted ballet pink tights with seams up the back, black leotard, hair in a bun with a hairnet over it. He was very specific about this hair net. And he actually told me that part of his obsession with this was his sister and her friends and their ballet class. And he had a pie-in-the-face fetish. So he wrote this whole script about taking ballet class and I'm teaching a student and she's not doing it right. And so I reprimand her. Then she gets upset and gives me a pie in the face.
Liz Goldwyn: What kind of pie?
Dita Von Teese: Cream pies, of course. We had coconut cream pies. We had banana cream pies, all kinds of pies. So we played out this little scene, my sister filmed it for us and it's a nice piece of filmmaking.
Liz Goldwyn: It's a great piece of filmmaking.
Dita Von Teese: And you really haven't lived until you've had a pie in the face. You think you're ready for it, but you're really not. You're never going to be ready for it. And actually, a few years later, because I remembered that feeling of having a big, expensive cream pie thrown in your face, it reminded me of-- have you ever laughed so hard that you peed your pants?
I mean, you can't control it. I hadn't laughed that hard since I was on LSD or something like 10 years before. And I was laughing so hard and me and Catherine had the best time that day putting our pointe shoes in the pie. And then a few years later when I was getting a divorce, I was having a really, like, bad day. And I had just moved into my new little house and was not very happy, where I was really sad. And I had no furniture because I had left everything that I had with my ex-husband. And I had this idea. I was like, "Why don't I just invite my friends over and everyone's going to take a pie in the face because nothing will make me feel better than that right now." So I did, I went to Marie Calendars and I ordered a few hundred dollars worth of pies.
And my friends all came over and made outfits out of trash bags. And I made everyone team up and take a pie in the face from their best friend. It was legendary. It took me forever to get the pie off the ceilings and everything. But I suggest everyone try taking a pie in the face.
Liz Goldwyn: Liberating.
Dita Von Teese: Yeah.
Liz Goldwyn: So you're a huge fetish queen at this point. At what point did you start stripping?
Dita Von Teese: It was around the same time. I was working in the LA underground scene. One of my boyfriends early on, he was a big rave promoter and put on some of the biggest parties here in LA between 1989 and 1995. I was a go-go dancer and performance artist there first. And then he took me to a strip club. It was actually like a bikini bar. It wasn't topless or anything or nude. He took me there and I was like, "This is amazing. And these girls, look how much money they're making. They're making way more than I make go-go dancing." So I started moonlighting there.
You know, so imagine I'm working in the rave scene on the weekends, I'm working in the department store first in the lingerie department and then in cosmetics. And then after work, I would go to the strip bar and I was just having the time in my life. I was making tons of money. Working in the strip bar was an eye-opening experience. It was fun. I really credit my entire career to those years in the strip club. And a lot of times when I meet girls that want to be burlesque dancers, they ask me what my secret is. And I'm like, "I think it was that 10 years working in the strip club. I know what sensuality is."
Liz Goldwyn: It was that long? 10 years.
Dita Von Teese: Yeah. Because I mean, I worked there as like a house dancer for years and then I became more known and I started posing for Playboy, becoming more famous for my shows and touring strip clubs in the US, headlining the big super clubs that would bring in stars. So, I did that and it's really how I developed my shows, you know. It's how I saved my money to make bigger and better shows too.
Liz Goldwyn: The tips?
Dita Von Teese: Yeah. And then of course posing for all the pinups. I was a very busy young girl.
Liz Goldwyn: Let me bring it back to Gypsy for a second. I'm going to bring it back to Gypsy Rose Lee and her record, Psychology of a Strip-Tease. There's a very specific psychology of a strip-tease and it means something different to everyone. As you've gotten well-known and performed all over the world, we've talked a lot about the toll that it can take, sometimes psychologically, on you, especially, I remember when you were performing in Vegas, it was really hard on you, the audience's projection. How do you cope with that? Do you develop some sort of invisible barrier between yourself and the audience when you're starting out young in the strip clubs? How do you kind of keep your center?
Dita Von Teese: I think it's ever-changing. When I was in a strip club, I was dealing with people that were not necessarily there to see me. And I would say that, generally in the strip clubs, I wasn't your typical girl. I mean, you have to imagine it's, like, the 90s and it's Orange County and it's blonde, blonde, bikini babes galore. And then I walk out with a corset on and stockings on and opera length gloves and black hair and white skin and red lips, and I was really like a freak there. There was nobody, but that meant people came to see me from all over. But, you know, I used to say, "Well, I don't get a dollar from 20 guys. I get a 20 from one guy." So I went for quality. So I was very much, like, in my own world. I got off on being intimidating.
I wasn't even 21 when I started working in the strip clubs. So, to me, it was like, I wouldn't be like that now, but I was like, "I'm going to be the opposite of blonde, Heather Sweet from Michigan. I'm going to be, like, intimidating and wicked." And it was super fun. And I used to love even pretending that I didn't even speak English in there. So it was very different than what I do now, where I've come to realize my vulnerability and my generosity of spirit is why people come to see me. I never walk out on stage with the intention of being intimidating or bitchy or better than everyone. I walk out there with something different I want to give people, but that comes from doing shows since I was 20 years old and learning about myself and learning about what makes someone sexy. Being intimidating or trying to be sexy or they're thinking you're pretty, is not what means that you're sexy.
Sometimes it takes time to understand that. So, I think it's very different, the kinds of shows I would do, who the audience was. Are they there to see me? Are they not there to see me? It changes all the time. And, the difference between what has happened in the last, maybe, five years that I would notice is if I was having an argument with someone I worked with and I was feeling like they think that I'm stupid or if their concerns about me or what they would put on me, I would start thinking the audience thought that of me and I'd have to like go, "Whoa, they bought tickets to come see you. They love you. They don't hate you. They don't want to watch you fail." And I started noticing that I was turning the audience into that person that was bothering me offstage.
So, I had to overcome that. I've never had stage fright, but when I'm not on stage a lot, I wonder if I can do it again. Stage time is so important. You can't just put yourself in a glass box and then expect to be as good as you were. The more shows you do, the better you can become. So I get nervous when I haven't been on stage, and I feel like I'm dusting myself off. And, "What if I can't do it? What if people think, 'Why is she considered the best burlesque dancer in the world?'" There's so many burlesque dancers now. And so I would start going, "Oh God, these girls are better dancers than me. And they're younger than me. And they're all these things." And then, just, you know, then I would go onstage. (Both laugh) And then I would be like, "Oh yeah."
Liz Goldwyn: You're in your element.
Dita Von Teese: Yeah. In my element and doing the work that it takes and getting rid of all those weird, insecure feelings and remembering why I do this.
Liz Goldwyn: Do you see a distinction between the way that you see yourself and the sex symbol that you've constructed over so many years?
Dita Von Teese: I have a hard time relating to the image. People are always reminding me of it. I don't have a very good perception of how the world sees me. I guess I don't really think about that sex image because I feel like, you've been to my shows, so many women are there. So when people say, "What's it like to be a sex symbol?" I'm like, "I don't feel like I'm a sex symbol. I do what I do. And I think a lot of women are coming to see me and gay men are coming to see me." And it's like, "I don't feel like they're looking at me as so much a sex symbol, but maybe like, inspirational for their own sex life." That's my perception. And maybe that's just because of that's what I see, are all these mostly women when I walk out there. So it's hard for me to be like, "Oh, everyone thinks I'm a sex symbol. They want to have sex with me. They want to fuck me." I don't ever feel like that, you know. I don't know. I just don't have that male following that I had when I was in my 20s.
Liz Goldwyn: Well, you were also in strip clubs.
Dita Von Teese: (Both laugh) Yeah. It feels different. It's a strange evolution.
Liz Goldwyn: What do you think the biggest misconception is about you or what you do?
Dita Von Teese: Well, I don't know what people think of me really. Maybe because when I sit down in interviews and the first questions really are, "What do you like on your off time? Do you ever wear jeans? Do you ever just, like, slob out?"
Liz Goldwyn: The answer to that is no. (Laughs)
Dita Von Teese: Right. So I think because people always ask me that, do they think I just sit around eating bonbons and floating around in a robe and putting on lipstick all day at home, like, "Oh, all I care about is glamour." You know, but I work really hard.
Liz Goldwyn: You do. And I've seen you plenty of times without makeup, but you are really careful. And I think it's very interesting how you do have a very carefully crafted public image. And then you have the Dita slash Heather that I know who's-
Dita Von Teese: Right. Which I feel like I want that to come out when I'm on stage and so on. I give them just enough of it. I feel very much like I don't have a Dita Von Teese, like, "Oh, I have to get in touch with the Dita Von Teese," before I go on stage, I feel very much like Heather Sweet from Michigan, like, "Oh, yay. I just tripped over my shoes." I think it's fun. And it's funny. And I have a good time and I don't mind when people see Heather Sweet come out either.
Liz Goldwyn: It's authentic. (Dita laughs)
Okay. I'm going to ask you this question, which I know you've had trouble with in the past when you're asked in interviews, but this isn't a normal interview, and we've talked about it so many times, about this word feminism, and whether you consider yourself a feminist.
Dita Von Teese: I do because my definition of feminism is really being able to do whatever you want to do and not being held back by your gender. I've been often accused of being anti-feminist because of what I do, but usually that's by people that don't see who the audience is because it, being a striptease star, maybe would seem that I was being used by men. But even when I did have a male audience, I felt pretty empowered being able to make my own way and do these fun feather fan dance shows in strip clubs. Like I was having the time of my life.
So I couldn't really understand why what I was doing could be considered anti-feminist. You know, we all have different definitions of what it is to be a feminist. I think I was quoted once as saying, "Yeah, I'm a feminist. I like to be as feminine as possible," but ended up kind of like annoyed people, because I usually don't like to deal with the question because people have a lot of opinions on it, but I've been in the like sex and fetish industry for so long. And I just think that, you should never have a right to tell someone what makes them feel empowered versus degraded. We all have our different boundaries and whether it's in your professional life or your sex life, I think it's ridiculous to tell someone what it is for them. And we should respect each other you know.
Liz Goldwyn: There's a lot of power in our sexuality as women and has been since the times of the goddesses, since Lilith, and somewhere along the way, I think we started pointing fingers, especially with women who do work in the sex industry. And I think that's one of the things I love about you, is that you're out there celebrating it. And I find that, for me personally, my opinion is I would say, "You're a feminist."
Dita Von Teese: Thank you. I think all the racy things I've done in my past made it possible for me to do what I do today. Occasionally, it's like you didn't see Dita like this before she did these racy videos. And it's like, "This is all part of who I am." And, you know, my idols like Bettie Page did the same things that I've done. I don't really like that slut shaming thing, or like, "You don't deserve to be famous because you did this racy thing." That's part of what made it an interesting story. And I wouldn't change a thing. Well, I might not have signed as many model releases as I did. That's the only thing I would change.
Liz Goldwyn: Well, I think that wraps it up unless there's anything else you'd like to share?
Dita Von Teese: Nope. I'm like, "Ooh, I gotta out of this one without talking too much about sex. Didn't I?"
Liz Goldwyn: That was Dita Von Teese. You can follow Dita at Dita Von Teese on Instagram or Twitter or on her website, artoftheteese.com. That's art of the T E E S E dot com. To see more Dita, visit thesexed.com, where you can watch a video of Dita, myself and Nina Hartley discussing sex positivity at the Hammer Museum.
Thanks for listening to The Sex Ed. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts and be sure to visit us at thesexed.com. I'm your host, Liz Goldwyn. This episode was produced by Idea Farmer in association with Fanny Co. and edited by Rob Abare. Alyssa Venetucci did our sound recording and Eddie Ryan was our line producer.
Special thanks to Josh Beane. Louis Lazar made all of our music, including the track you're listening to right now.
As always The Sex Ed remains dedicated to expanding your orgasmic health and sexual consciousness.
Thanks again for listening.