AVC: A lot of people are still intimidated by the word "fetish." Why is the idea so scary?
DVT: They don't understand what it is. Some people might say, "Oh, I have a fetish for shoes, I like high heels, I like wearing them and I like looking at them." That's not having a fetish. A fetish is when you get a sexual turn-on from that object itself or from the act, from something that isn't normally sexual. I've always been intrigued by it, but it's easy to be afraid of it when you pick up a fetish magazine and you see someone in a gas mask on the cover in full rubber holding a riding crop. But once you get into it, you realize what it's really about, and that there are so many kinds of fetishes, and some of them are quite sweet, actually. I think it's very interesting, but it's very easy to be afraid of what you don't know. I think that's why people are afraid of it. But boy, I would love to have a boyfriend who had a fetish. It's really fun to indulge someone's fetishes.
AVC: Someone in Indie Sex jokes that sometimes the only difference between Hollywood and pornography is lighting and costumes. Is burlesque just stripping with better lighting and costumes?
DVT: It's something I say a lot, and it upsets a lot of burlesque performers, because a lot of them are so busy trying to explain how they aren't strippers. But I've always said it, and as much as other burlesque performers hate me for it sometimes, we're strippers. I'm not ashamed of being a stripper. Gypsy Rose Lee was called a stripper; it's not a bad word. It's where modern-day striptease started. It's the same thing, it's just a different kind of styling, and maybe there were a little more theatrics involved, a little more glamour.
It's great that we have lapdance clubs, it's great that we have pole-dancers running around in bikinis, I think it's really hot. I think it's great that there are different kinds of sex being presented out there, from pole-dancing to lap-dancing to burlesque dancing. I just think I'd be doing a real disservice to strippers everywhere if I sat there and tried to explain why I'm better or different than a stripper, because I am a stripper, I'm proud to be a stripper. I've done lap-dances, I've worked in strip clubs. I don't like to candy-coat it, and I know a lot of people do, maybe because they don't want that stigma of "stripper" attached to them, so they use "burlesque dancer." I kind of feel bad for people who feel that way, that they have to constantly validate what they do by saying they're better than someone else. A lot of people get upset with me because I'm at the forefront of this movement of burlesque, but I've been a stripper since 1990, and I don't need to prove to anybody that what I'm doing is okay. I've been through it all, I've been fired from jobs because I was a stripper, I've had my family upset with me. I'm gonna stand by what I am and what I do.
AVC: Even though you're proud of having been a stripper, most people probably wouldn't label you as one any more.
DVT: Well, some people do, and I think it's really funny when people think they're insulting me by saying "I don't understand what she does, she's nothing but a stripper," and I'm thinking, "That's totally okay for you to not understand what I do, I take it as a compliment, you're not calling me anything I haven't called myself." If you ever watch the movie Gypsy with Natalie Wood, the whole ending is her talking about how people might be making fun of her for being "nothing but a stripper," but she's the one having the laugh on everyone.
AVC: You mention in Indie Sex that there's something especially intriguing about seeing sex in the movies, even though it's easy to go out and get a porno. Why is there such an aura around Hollywood sex?
DVT: I think one thing that's really interesting about the series is, you see all kinds of sex, and I like that in the movies you can see really romantic, glorified sex, and then you can see dirty, raunchy sex, and then you can see boring sex. The fact is, we all have all three of those in our lives, and it's not always going to be any one thing. In a porno, it's given to you one way. But there are pornos that are geared toward women and a little more romantic and stylized, and they go a little slower, and then there are people that like their amateur porn—so I think now I have to disagree with what I'm saying. [Laughs.] We see all kinds, there's something for everyone if you look hard enough. But I think it's great that in these independent films, you have a great storyline to go with the sex.
AVC: Could it also just be that we like seeing celebrities naked?
DVT: That's one thing I think is really interesting. I get asked a lot about how what I'm doing is different from being a prostitute: "You're getting paid for your body," or whatever, or "It's anti-feminist!" Listen, when they get these famous actresses in sex scenes, they negotiate like you wouldn't believe over how much is a nipple worth, how much is full-frontal nudity worth. It's really a serious business. Of course we want to see our favorite stars nude, we want to know more about them, we like to imagine that maybe that's what they really look like when they're having sex. I have my favorite stars that I would love to drop in on them having sex to see what it's all about, there's a fascination to that.
AVC: So it's a voyeurism thing?
DVT: I think for a lot of people, it's a voyeurism thing, but for me, I'm curious to see who's willing to go that far for the film. When I see an actress or an actor who seems like they wouldn't go there, and you see them going all the way with the sex scenes, to me, it seems really brave and exciting, like that's the kind of person I'd want to hang out with. Someone who's willing to go the distance for the film.
AVC: You got a lot of publicity this past year for your marriage to and divorce from Marilyn Manson. How do you feel about what he's been saying about your relationship?
DVT: I think it's unfortunate that he's had to exploit our divorce for the sake of record sales, but you do what you gotta do, I suppose. I think most people at this point understand what happened and what they're dealing with when he's doing interviews drunk and offering journalists cocaine. It kind of tells you what I might have been up against. I'm just trying to put it past me, I'm happy to be a single girl and have that drama out of my life.
AVC: So you're taking advantage of being single?
DVT: Yeah, I've been taking it slow, because I didn't feel the urgency to go out and find someone to make me feel better or to make me feel sexy. I'm lucky that with what I do, I get to get dressed up and do my shows, and people tell me how great it is. So with that part of my life, I didn't feel like I needed to go out and find some boyfriend really quickly. I've just been taking it easy with dating, and I'm trying to stay single as long as possible, because I've gone from relationship to relationship, and I want to enjoy the single life for a while and see what it's all about.
AVC: Besides your shows and website, are you working on any new projects?
DVT: I'm working on my second book, which is about glamour and eccentric beauty. I felt like there are a lot of beauty books out there that tell you the right way to wear your makeup, and I want to tell people how they can create glamour in their lives, and that breaking the rules is sometimes the best way. I don't work with a stylist, I don't work with a glam squad to get me together for the red carpet, I really enjoy the time it takes to do it myself, to choose my clothes and do my own makeup and my own hair. I think that I have a lot of female fans who want to know how they can create '40s waves and paint a perfect cat-eye themselves. You look at the red carpet and say "Oh, it took 12 people to get them there," and it did, but they didn't need to have 12 people. If you really set your mind to it, you can do it yourself. I want to remind people of a different kind of glamour, a different look, and breaking the rules of fashion. I wanna break the rules. [Laughs.]
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