I first became aware of Ducky DooLittle when she sent me one of her short story fanzines and a note that said something along the lines of "I thought I smelled sex!" Her post office box was about a foot above mine and our publications were all pretty redolent. We quickly became friends and eventually worked together on numerous projects: promoting each other's zines, booking each other for shows and collaborating on a panty fetish fanzine called Peek! We've both struggled with the freelance life over the past decade, during which Ms. DooLittle has transformed from a sassy Show World girl to a knowledgeable self-taught sex educator. Her writings have appeared in Oui, JaLouse, Axcess, Panty Play and Leg Show magazines. She is currently the contributing sex advice columnist for Carbon 14.
Ducky recently returned from a national tour with The Sex Workers Art Show and has begun her second series of seminars at The Museum of Sex. She is also on staff at Toys in Babeland as their Education Coordinator, handling sex ed workshops, staff training and outreach to universities and other community groups. Ducky is a very busy young woman, but she took a few moments to speak with us about her past, her present and her future.
ErosZine: You've come a long way since your fanzine days. To what do you attribute your success?
Ducky DooLittle: Wow, it's fun to hear you ask me about success; I really feel like I'm just getting started! I believe the reason I'm having some success has to do with the fact that I don't give up. I never give in. And after years of performing and writing, I'm beginning to feel really good in my skin and confident in what I'm doing.
EZ: It has obviously been a learning process.
DD: You are absolutely right. Each year I work to groom how I perform, how I manage the business side of being an artist, how I look, how I write; the most valuable thing I did was to take a break from performing for a few years. It gave me a chance to assess where I'm going and what I want in life. I know it sounds hokey, but it's true. I had spent years touring and taking every gig that came my way. That gave me no time to write new material or grow.
EZ: Which books have you read that helped you most?
DD: I love books! Let's see... as a writer, I loved On Writing by Steven King. I'm not crazy about his creepy tales, but this book has taught me a lot. As a sexologist I love American Sex Machine: The Hidden History of Sex at the U.S. Patent Office. As a feminist I'm nuts for Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes. I could go on and on. I read a lot of books!
EZ: You're teaching all sorts of seminars. Describe a few of them.
DD: I have been teaching for a few years now. I love to teach pleasure-based sex workshops about subjects like the G spot, female ejaculation, anal sex and foreplay. I teach a lot of great tips and techniques. My goal is always to give the audience a few skills they can take home and use that night and a few skills that will have a positive impact that will last the rest of their lives.
EZ: Which classes do you enjoy the most?
DD:The workshop that has been the most fulfilling is "Loving You: Female Sexual Self Esteem." It's so much fun to give women advice on how to find the sexy bombshell within them. I think it's also one of my favorites because it comes from my heart. I know I've been a pin-up and a peepshow girl, but I'm actually a very shy person. I have had to work very hard to build my own self esteem. It gives me great pleasure to share what I have found works for me.
EZ: What surprises you most when you're teaching your seminars?
DD: Having worked in the field of sexuality for 15 years, there isn't much that surprises me. But one thing that makes me very happy is when I get email from people who have participated telling me how I have changed their lives. There is nothing more gratifying! Sometimes the letters are dirty confessions about what happened when they got home from my workshop and other times they are love letters from individuals telling me how I helped to encourage them to have sex with the lights on for the first time in their life. I really have a love affair with my workshop participants. I make them happy and they make me so very happy.
EZ: Do you believe people are more sexually sophisticated than they were 10 years ago?
DD: Somewhat. I think the number one change has been the internet. I think it's so wonderful that people can find valuable information about sex in the privacy of their own home.
EZ: Do you think people are more aware?
DD: I believe sexual awareness is something that happens to an individual and I have a hard time assessing society as a whole. Some individuals feel like sexual experience and knowledge is their right. Other people are slower due to things like religion, culture or upbringing. I'll do a workshop at an Ivy League University and find some of the students are very knowledgeable while others don't know basic things like where their own clitoris is. I just do my best to reach as many individuals as possible and maybe one day have an impact on society.
EZ: Porn, sex toys and sex parties have become so mainstream. How has that effected what you do?
DD: I love it! It's been great. These parties and events create fun atmospheres where people (especially women) can get exposed to sexually related materials like toys, magazines or films. Often they may like something they saw and seek out more events and more information. I just like to remind people not to compare themselves or the kinds of sex they have to all of the imagery they see out there. Porn can be super-inspiring but it's not reality.
EZ: You've moved away from performance toward education. Do you miss it?
DD: Yes! I'm starting to feel like I need to get back on stage more. Teaching has really done amazing things for me as a performer. I'm more at ease in front of people and have a lot more stamina. My average workshop is two hours long. Recently I went on tour with the Sex Workers Art Show and had to do 20 minutes on stage each night. It was so easy compared to teaching! I could get up on a big stage, in front of 2000 people, and totally take them with me. It felt great.
EZ: Tell us about your recent tour with the sex workers.
DD: I had a great time. The shows sold out almost every night and we got standing ovations. Ten hookers, peepshow girls and dominatrices in a couple of vans touring America - it was a trip! The best part for me was getting to spend time with all the other performers. It's been a long time since I shared a dressing room with fellow sex workers. There was something very comforting about being with a group of people who I didn't have to explain myself to. We all had a certain understanding of where each of us came from. We've seen a lot of the same things, yet each person was very unique. It was magic.
EZ: How do people differ geographically? Or do they? Kinkier in the west? More repressed in the midwest?
DD: My favorite place had to be Huntsville, Alabama. The city is scary. There are lots of religious billboards and things, making it very clear that we were in the Bible Belt. Many of the billboards were written as actual quotations from God. They said things like, "I sent someone to cure AIDS, cancer and diabetes. But you aborted them. -God" I was freaking out! I felt like we, as sex workers, were probably pretty disposable people in these parts. Like they'd just as soon see us dead as have us come through their town!
But then we rolled up on the venue to find the nicest group of people making the show happen. They were so excited to have us that they made us home cooked food. The place was filled to capacity. What I learned was that wherever there are extreme oppressive forces, you will also find a passionate group of beautiful subversive people fighting for what they love. And Huntsville, Alabama loves sex workers. We didn't have to do much of anything other than be open, honest people who were not afraid to tell the world we are sex workers. The show was almost secondary.
Meanwhile cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York were very different. We still had full houses, but the audiences have more exposure to sex workers. People in these cites came to see a show. The wanted to be entertained and the fact that we are sex workers was definitely secondary to the fact that we are artists. It was cool in a different way.
EZ: What projects do you have in the works?
DD: This summer I'm writing a sex advice book. And early next year I will debut my first one-woman show. Like I said, I miss the stage. I'm looking forward to getting back on it in a big way!
Read more about Ducky and her adventures in sex education at www.duckydoolittle.com.
fiction
