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Interview with DebraJean Danger
interview by Jim Goad
Tuesday, January 21, 2003

photo courtesy of suicidegirls.com

Although technically a 'sex worker', 20-year-old DebraJean Danger exhibits none of the self-justifying goddess gibberish that has infected 99.9% of her co-workers like a psychic STD. The following transcripts are from an AOL Instant Messenger session conducted on January 20, 2003

She is currently one of the most popular models on the almost shamefully popular suicidegirls.com website. She also worked briefly as a stripper and lingerie model in Portland. She co-wrote the script for an independent film that starred Yours Truly as a seedy detective who wound up murdering her in a fifteen-minute improvised scene that was so rough and realistic, she was temporarily rendered unconscious. Whatta trouper!

JG: Some people would reckon that you've probably been sexually abused and aren't dealing with it in the healthiest way.

DJD: I was raped once, and I can't say it was the worst thing that ever happened to me. It was a chubby rockabilly guy.

JG: Did you ever think of pressing charges against him?

DJD: No, his penis was so small, that was punishment enough for him.

JG: Was it violent?

DJD: I had bruises in the morning, but back then I was drunk all the time, so who knows how I got them? Maybe others had rape experiences that weren't as mellow as mine.

JG: Mellow rape?

DJD: It was easy like Sunday morning. I just don't understand these women who make that the defining event in their life. These women who hate rape and rapists so much revolve their whole lives around it… it makes you wonder how much they really hate it.

JG: Personally, I think it's like war veterans... it was the most intense, and therefore the most interesting, thing they've ever experienced. Plus, they get a lot of sympathy and attention for their tales.

DJD: That is true. I think I would rather be raped than have to go to Vietnam.

JG: Well, yeah... It's like child molestation. Is it worse to fondle a kid's genitals once, or neglect them systematically their whole lives?

DJD: You know which one I'm going to pick -neglect- because if someone is neglecting their kids, then they COULD be getting f-cked and who cares? That's much sadder to me.

JG: So you wrote an article that said rape was funny, and a woman named Alexandra Paris responded rather harshly.

DJD: I think she got that ugly on purpose so no one would ever rape her again.

JG: She said you should be shot on sight and have your ovaries removed... did she say in what order that should happen?

DJD: No, but I'm thinking they would have to shoot me first.

JG: I'm always amazed how these people respond to 'sick' people by proposing that the SICKEST POSSIBLE THINGS should happen to them.

DJD: It's scary, it really is.

JG: I knock my head against a wall about it, but truly, they'll never see it.

DJD: They are just as sh-tty and guilty by their own standards as I am, but how can they not see it?

JG: Well, in a way worse, because they're so blind to it.

DJD: It makes me crazy. I just don't get it.

JG: Did you have any direct contact with Alexandra Paris?

DJD: No, never. Never met her or saw her until you showed me her yahoo group.

JG: I'm valuable that way.

DJD: This is a woman who reads something and wants to kill me. That's sick-- I make a joke and I should be killed? She advocates murder and forced surgery, which is rape if she ever bothered to pick up a dictionary. And she is a 'goddess'? What am I missing here? That Alexandra Paris person is so funny. Her photos are such a rape deterrent.

JG: About 99% of drag queens are more attractive to me as a heterosexual male.

DJD: That's good to know, Jim.

JG: That plays into a cliche about girls who are hysterical about rape... it almost seems like a request to BE raped, or at least to have people think of them in that context.

[the topic drifts to Exotic magazine, where we were both employed as writers until a recent brouhaha involving another columnist's article that began, "Strippers are garbage."]

DJD: So did you ever figure out why they put [author of the offending article] Morgan's real name and mother's name in the [following issue of the] mag, besides the obvious?

JG: No, probably the obvious. I thought that was f-cked-up to do.

DJD: I know, I think they hate me, too.

JG: I'm sure they'd never print [new editor] Viva's real name.

DJD: It would be funny to print up flyers with her real name and photo.

JG: Or the real names of all strippers in town.

DJD: That would be so funny. I think that's the first sign that strippers don't feel good about what they are doing-- the fake names.

JG: Yeah, I was going to put a line about it in "Biting the Whore That Fed Me", something like, "They're all so proud of what they do, they use fake names." Don't know why I didn't.

DJD: If someone is going to stalk you and kill you, they are going to do it regardless if they think your name is "Erotica" or Jenny.

JG: 'Aroma' is a good one. A friend came up with that one.

DJD: I like 'Minivan'.

JG: He also came up with 'LaShingle' [for a black stripper].

DJD: There are so many good ones… 'Tampona'.

JG: 'Goddess Menses'

DJD: My name be 'Tampona'.

JG: So, um, what got you into THE INDUSTRY?

DJD: Am I in it? I'm a homemaker now!

JG: Didn't you used to be a jack-shack girl in P-Town?

DJD: I did. I thought it was interesting. I never had boyfriends or guys who were interested in me, so it was such a shock to me.

JG: What was a shock?

DJD: That people would pay me to dance around with no clothes on and act sexy. It was a fun game to me. I never felt pressured into it or dirty like some people do. It was so interesting to see men jack off.

JG: Did you make a lot of money?

DJD: Not really. I was not serious enough for it.

JG: How long did you do it?

DJD: Let me think… okay, I started dancing a little at 18 and I moved away from Portland when I just turned 19. So I would say a year off and on of it. It was a long year.

JG: Was it just jack shacks, or strip clubs, too?

DJD: Both. Stripping I liked less.

JG: Didn't you do something with mayonnaise once?

DJD: Like I said, it was all a fun joke to me, so I would come out with my tampon string hanging out, or mayonnaise on my inner thighs… black my teeth out… give myself black eyes with makeup.

JG: How did guys respond to that?

DJD: They laughed. Men generally have a better sense of humor than women do.

JG: Were the tips better or worse with mayo?

DJD: Well, I can't say I was raking in the dough, so the same.

JG: Why was stripping worse for you than jack-shack modeling?

DJD: Let's just say I did not cut it as a 'sex worker'. You know how I am around people-- it's never pretty.

JG: Do you think it takes a certain personality type to succeed as a sex worker?

DJD: I do. I think you have to be able to turn a blind eye to reality in a huge way, so I guess lots of people would be good at it.

JG: OK... what reality do they have to ignore?

DJD: It's different for each person. It just seems to be the one trait that they all have.

JG: A departure from reality?

DJD: Yes. Like the world that they live in, I don't understand. I don't understand talking people out of money. I don't really understand acting sexy so people will give you things. I guess I'm just not a stripper.

JG: That's my whole problem with porn, too... the dishonesty.

DJD: They are all really socially savvy and I'm surely not. Nothing makes me want to f-ck less than seeing porn. It turns my stomach. Ick.

JG: How do most female 'sex workers' differ psychologically from 'normal' women?

DJD: I think normal women are whores with higher prices. Or maybe they just have something better to be doing.

JG: So you just had a new picture set on suicidegirls.com today. To some people, that would probably still qualify you as a 'sex worker' of some sort, although I hear they don't pay very well.

DJD: Haha. What the heck is a 'sex worker', anyway?

JG: A new term for 'whore'. It is to 'whore' what 'people of color' is to 'niggers'.

DJD: I think being naked and selling sexuality are two different things, I think that's why being a stripper never worked for me. I like to be naked, but I don't like to act sexy. I confused the two.

JG: I agree. I think cash is what messes it all up.

DJD: I like suicidegirls. It's fun and I have made some good friends off of the site. It's more like a livejournal with attractive people and good coding than a "Teen Sluts Drinking Cum" kind of thing.

JG: The scariest thing about suicidegirls is the member profiles. Just oceans of lonely guys.

DJD: You think so?

JG: It looks that way to me. They all seem in awe of the girls and come off really awkward.

DJD: It's half-girls and half-guys, so I guess it's a bunch of lonely people. Some people are totally like that.

JG: Don't they claim it's half-girls just because it sounds better? That's what I heard.

DJD: I don't think so, I think the male members outweigh the girls, but there are quite a few females I know personally.

JG: What does it feel like to know some computer technician in Kansas is looking at your pictures and jacking off?

DJD: Well, the funniest thing I ever read concerning myself was, "Even though she's quite attractive, I cannot become aroused looking at her photos, because I know she is intelligent."

JG: That is a funny comment.

DJD: Another one: "DJ is the cutest SG on the entire site. The girl most likely to be the next IT girl for the Tattoo Generation."

JG: Jesus Christ.

DJD: People masturbate to many things. Naked girls are just one thing. I don't find naked people sexy, but I have seen people on the bus I found very attractive and sexy. Should people stop riding the bus? I like people on crutches-- does that mean they should stop breaking bones because I find them erotic?

JG: In "The Suzy Evans Story," a movie whose script you co-wrote, the only sex scene involves a prostitute throwing up on a john.

DJD: Hahah.

JG: The only porn I find interesting is that which involves something most people wouldn't find erotic.

DJD: Like what?

JG: Midgets... sistas gotta piss... old women... scat. Anything that tends to make sex look a little more disgusting than it actually is.

DJD: I love daytime TV. It's the same thing.. I love the daytime TV where moderately attractive girls cry about rape.

JG: On daytime TV?

DJD: Oh, yes! Ever watch Montel?

JG: Didn't he die of muscular dystrophy or something?

DJD: Naw, he is still on. I watched him today.

JG: Another rape special?

DJD: Well, one of the girls had to eat dog biscuits out of a bucket that a boy pissed in, but that was it. It was teen violence day.

JG: Every day should be teen violence day. Guys like Montel and Geraldo are so much more pornographic than anything we've ever done.

DJD: I like it when 9-year-old chubby girls come out in tube tops. Their shows border on child porn.

JG: Ever been with a black guy?

DJD: No, but I gave one a nickel to go buy crack once.

JG: Do you think the industry discriminates against POC?

DJD: POC? Haha- I just figured out what that meant [People of Color]. No, it's not 1963 anymore. If someone is bitching about being discriminated against in this day and age, it's usually a ploy for attention.

JG: I had a friend who edited a Larry Flynt publication (not Hustler) a while ago. He said white porn stars hated having to do scenes with blacks.

DJD: Really? Why is that?

JG: I never asked him to elaborate.

DJD: Black people are cute. They look great on black-and-white film.

JG: Just as long as you have a light background. Otherwise, they get lost.

DJD: I'm trying to cast black people for this multimedia project coming up.

JG: What is this project?

DJD: Oh, it's a combo of film, paintings, photos, and a comic that is part of the story.

JG: Story?

DJD: It's a story of a woman who breaks out of a crazy bin to stalk this comic-book artist who has a character that resembles her. There is much more to it. She takes a bus trip through the badlands to find him, and on the way the line between the comic/paintings and film/photography becomes blurred as her mental health fails.

JG: Have you ever used the word 'empowering', either in public or in private?

DJD: Never! I had a weird dream that you were in. We were escorting strippers to their parents' homes--

JG: --to save them from themselves?--

DJD: ---and we stopped for some big cherry candy bars. The candy was the most memorable part.

JG: More memorable than strippers.

DJD: Yah.