The study surveyed 242,000 15-year-olds in 42 countries between 2004 and 2022. They found that condom use among sexually active teens went from 70% down to 61% for boys and from 63% to 57% for girls. You have to wonder if these teenagers think it’s weird that they’re getting STDs and unwanted pregnancies and if there’s anything that could prevent all that from happening. Because there is! it only costs a few dollars at the drugstore, or free if you take them from your stepdad’s nightstand. 

In the United States, multiple studies have shown that condom use among high schoolers has declined, down from 63% in 2003 to 54% in 2019—so this is not just a European trend. The CDC has said that teen sex in America is on the decline, but the WHO said its reports of teenage sexual activity have actually remained stable—it’s just the condom use that has dramatically decreased. The report says some of the sharpest decreases are in the UK, particularly Scotland and Wales. 

Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, says this is all largely due to faulty sexual education and the outright resistance of such educational programs in some parts of the world. He argues that sexual education does not lead to increased sexual activity but rather smarter sexual activity. Teenagers are going to be fucking regardless, so might as well make sure we teach them how to do it safely—and provide easy access to contraceptives.

It’s no wonder that according to the report, STIs have been on the rise across Europe. Syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea can be easily prevented if you just bagged it up, boys.

The post Teen Condom Use Is Dropping Worldwide Despite Rising STI Rates, Says WHO appeared first on VICE.

The unidentified couple was “getting busy” in their 2020 Range Rover, according to police, when something, perhaps a foot, an arm, or whatever else you could imagine, hit the shift and put it into drive. That’s when the vehicle began moving forward.

The issue, besides the unexpected jumpstart, was that the couple had parked right up against the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. 

I mean, if you’re going to get after it bright and early, why not do so with a river view?

The car ended up rolling straight into the water. Fortunately, the two were able to cut things short just in time to jump out of the moving vehicle before it nosedived into the river. Each person was able to get out unharmed, though there is no word on whether any of them were feeling blue.

Dive crews came to locate the vehicle and worked to remove it throughout the morning. Details were sparse, but we can only assume that the couple was the one who notified the police of what happened, which, if that was the case, had to be an awkward conversation.

A study a few years ago by University of South Dakota researchers found that a majority of college students (61% of men and 58.5% of women) had engaged in sexual activity in vehicles, despite previous assumptions that this behavior was declining.

For those unfamiliar with Philly, the Schuylkill River, which is the most mispronounced word in the city’s vernacular, runs through the city and goes straight into the Delaware River. It’s home to some of the best sights in the city, including the iconic Boathouse Row. 

So it’s no surprise that a couple in love would turn to that spot first. Perhaps next time, they’ll make sure to be more aware of their surroundings, but then again, we’ve all been there when things get hot and heavy and spatial awareness sometimes go out the window. 

Or in this case, into the river. 

The post A Couple Hooking Up in a Car Accidentally Rolled It Into the River appeared first on VICE.

No longer giving sermons, he soon became a “dungeon monitor” (tasked with ensuring there’s consent in kink-play spaces) and founded Switch Kitchen, which holds educational seminars and produces woke BDSM movies. In spite of what you might assume, the transition from the Bible to ball-gags “wasn’t a hard swap,” he recalls. “No-one has anything to hide here. I’ve experienced real community.”

Lex is just one of many atypical characters I’ll meet on this giant luxury yacht, hired out for a ‘fetish cruise’ to celebrate the annual Vancouver Fetish Weekend. Missionary-loving squares can walk the plank: only serious perverts are welcome aboard, and 350 of them make the cut. A crew of artists, porn stars, entrepreneurs, and strippers have gathered to embark on a three-hour pleasure voyage onto the high seas, far away from the bemused onlookers at the harbour gawking at the latex-clad, gimp mask-wearing kinksters. Some arrive with their play partners, others appear to be on the hunt for fresh meat. “Don’t diss anyone’s kink!” a poster advertising the house rules says. “It might not be your kink, but that’s OK.” Another directive reads: “Don’t get messy! No blood or body fluids.”

The organiser Isaac Terpstra claims to have been the first to bring this niche excursion to North America, providing attendees a uniquely buoyant sense of liberation that comes from being on a boat with the wind in their sails while being spanked silly into an adrenaline-fuelled altered state. “It’s a weird little paradise to find common ground, bond, and play,” he told me recently.

As the boatload of randy fiends sets sail from the harbour at a rate of several knots, leaving the prying eyes stranded on shore, all manner of lascivious activities start to commence—involving ropes, horsewhips, hockey sticks, giant insect swatters, suspension frames, workout benches, boxing gloves, and other paraphernalia.

Cruises of the vanilla variety are known for their endless offerings of “structured fun,” and for pampering guests with humongous buffets and extravagant stage shows. This X-rated version isn’t entirely dissimilar. 

An extreme but consensual scene ensues in which one woman, clearly trained in combat sports, beats up a younger lady on an exercise mat. “She’s scared, but a good scared,” says the play monitor, who is managing the ‘crash pad’ area on the second floor. A tidal wave of seemingly ceaseless spanking begins, with willing recipients splayed out across a number of benches. A young woman tied up with ropes hangs in midair while her dominator decides what to do with her next. An erotic dancer gyrates on a pole. A DJ plays sleazy techno reworks. It’s fetish pandemonium. Meanwhile, mildly disinterested security guards, speaking to each other in their mother tongue, patrol on the lookout for any serious transgressions.

Part of the appeal of bondage, domination, sadism, and masochism—that’s BDSM for any ingénues—is a quest for healing from traumatic experiences. This is explained to me by Lex, who is also known (to whom, it’s never made clear) as the “soft dom with a sadistic streak.” Last night, during another event, a man told Lex of being consensually spanked for the first time after suffering from an assault earlier in his life. “He came up to us, and he said: ‘This really healed me.’”

Like Lex, most people here go by pseudonyms. Some simply deploy their usernames from the BDSM community site FetLife. Marilyn, an attorney and former professional dominatrix, discovered BDSM in San Francisco in the 1990s when she met a drag queen at a nightclub and experienced a thrilling sense of adventure from wearing a skimpy rubber skirt. She met her companion—a nameless male gimp, who is not permitted to speak—in Montreal a couple of years back. “He brought his big bubble head,” she says. “He’s my big beautiful balloon today.” Deep intimacy turns her on, she explains. “People really knowing me, and me really knowing them. We all want to be known.”

The last four years of Marilyn’s life have principally been spent in Miami caring for her mother, whose health is in serious decline. “It’s been a very rich, fulfilling period, in a completely different realm than where most of my life journey has been.” On the cruise, she is back in her natural element and “gets to be a star” against a stunning backdrop—Vancouver’s sprawling, futuristic skyline gliding by on one side of the ship, and a range of snow-capped mountains on the other.

“Sometimes I break down crying while I’m being spanked. That’s why I fell in love with it.”

“I love men, I recognise how sensitive they are,” Marilyn says, while holding her gimp by his leash. She tells me that her partner of 12 years is back in her hotel room, while another man has also been enlisted to sleep on the floor and remain at her beck and call. Does she have sex with any of her subs? “No, it’s only for one person, it’s sacred. They’re not my slave. It’s got to be a relationship of parity.”

Her partner, a well-known sportsman turned pundit, I’m told, “loves” how Marilyn bosses around other men, while maintaining her strong boundaries. “Orgasms involving genitalia are fleeting things,” she says. “Here, we’re creating erotic, provocative, sensual, stimulating situations that will live in your mind for many years to come.”

Out on the windy sundeck, I watch as a man named Max gingerly emerges from an intense flogging session administered by Lex, blood trickling from his hip, lacerations carved across his back. It is an image that will remain etched in my psyche. Max met his wife through the BDSM scene. “We were both into latex,” he says. They divorced a year ago, though, and today he is seemingly in a throuple with another man and a woman. “The connection between sub and dom allows growth,” he explains. “It’s like therapy. It touches on early trauma. Sometimes I break down crying while I’m being spanked. That’s why I fell in love with it.”

Safety is a priority here. “Anyone who is known for violating consent in this subculture is immediately outcast,” says Fetish Dynasty, another male gimp, who is wearing a dog tag that says he is the property of someone called ‘Venus Deathtrap.’ He has been “in the scene” for 25 years and his love affair with latex began when he was a competitive swimmer.

“The feeling of ownership is very cool,” he says. “It takes away a lot of the confusion and doubt. The interpersonal dynamics of BDSM are very clearly structured. There’s no not-knowing what my role is here.” Venus Deathtrap, whose permission I had to seek in order to speak to Fetish Dynasty, allows us to talk alone for a couple of minutes before reattaching Mr Dynasty to his leash.

Despite all the pervy attentiveness and care on display today, the consent line does occasionally get crossed in the fetish world, mostly by accident. “If you hit a capillary during needle play, you’re going to bleed more and get significantly more bruising than the person was expecting,” says corporate executive and edge play educator, Speedy Rope Guy, or SRG, “but these are risks that we communicate first.”

SRG was introduced to Toronto’s BDSM scene by a former high school teacher when he was 20 years old. “He said, ‘So, I’m into Japanese rope bondage.’ I went, ‘So am I.’” The teacher took SRG to his first event and the rest is history. Now, he is a needle play expert, a painful practice which can leave genitalia blood-splattered. “Needles are actually something I was terrified of,” he says. SRG would be “the screaming child” whenever he needed injections, but the intense activity has allowed him to demystify that fear. “With kink, I can push intimacy to levels that a lot of people don’t get to truly experience.”

Most people have never got to experience the non-stop horniness of a fetish cruise, either.

The sun begins to set. We dance to the new David Guetta tune about women looking for men who work in finance, and Terpstra organises a group photo of all the attendees dressed as sailors. “Everyone say, ‘Semen!’” he shouts, reassuring worried folks that yes, bottomless nudity is permitted at the strip club afterparty back in Vancouver. I will sit and watch there later, as a woman dressed as a nun plunges a crucifix-shaped dildo into the vagina of a fellow sister as the wild crowd screams for more. To my regret, I never get to ask Lex whether this kind of heresy could ever lead him to repent.

Words by Mattha Busby, Photos by Paige Taylor White

The post Making Friends on the World’s First Fetish Cruise Ship appeared first on VICE.

In one video, @cherryapricott moans while swishing a white substance around her mouth, before proclaiming to the camera, “I love the taste of Greek yogurt.” Another sees @oliviafleur_x, who has over 472,000 followers on the platform, talking suggestively while moving her hand, half off-camera, in an unequivocally sexual gesture. One popular trend sees creators accusing viewers of holding their phones in their left hand before counting them down with breathy encouragement. 

The internet is littered with free explicit porn, pandering to every preference and fantasy. So why are subtler forms of sexual content all over TikTok?

When sex content creators initially flooded TikTok, the app’s format and algorithm rewarded them: its #foryou page serves up content that’s aligned with a user’s interests, making it easier for creators to be discovered and grow than on Instagram or Snapchat, which are primarily friends and follower-based. “I believe many of my followers happened to stumble across my content whilst scrolling the FYP, and something about me or the style of my content caught their eye,” says Olivia Fleur.

Adult creator Grace Grey, who runs TikTok account @gracegreyasmr, believes there’s an audience on TikTok because “watching a creator there feels more personal, and you can engage with the creator more than traditional porn”.

Indeed, most creators fill requests and respond to comments from fevered followers, offering a coveted OnlyFans-like connection for free. “Viewers enjoy the GFE (girlfriend experience) feeling of personal attention and closeness,” explains Olivia Fleur. Fellow adult creator Madeline Miller agrees: “There’s something about seeing someone that you could maybe meet or be friends with and seeing them sexually.” 

The sexual content on TikTok likely benefits from the stigma attached to hardcore porn. “Traditional porn and the watching of it can come, for some people, with a huge amount of shame and guilt attached to it,” Fleur says. “Scrolling through TikTok or Instagram when you’re horny feels far more innocent than heading straight to a traditional porn site.” (The app’s sex-themed ASMR-themed erotic videos aren’t even primarily visual, so at first glance, they appear relatively innocent.) The sense of surreptitiousness that comes with clandestine sexual content on a supposedly safe-for-work app also likely plays a role, as does the knowledge that the videos could be taken down at any second.

TikTok uses both an algorithm and a real-life team of moderators to redact videos that violate their strict community guidelines, even if their rules are somewhat convoluted. The app prohibits “sex, sexual arousal, fetish, and kink behavior” and “the use of sexually explicit narratives”, but it does allow for “seductive performances or sexualized posing by adults, or allusions to sexual activity by adults”.

Where precisely they draw the line between “sexually explicit narratives” and “allusions to sexual activity” is unclear. Nevertheless, according to TikTok, the app removed 95 percent of sensitive and mature themed content found to violate its community guidelines in 2023’s third quarter. 

“I do the first level of my clothing, fully clothed, on TikTok, and then I’ll take a piece off, move to Instagram, take another piece off, move to Twitter, and then take it all off, and I’m on OnlyFans.” – Madeline Miller

Grey, Fleur, and Miller say that this volume of censorship lines up with their experiences. “Any videos where I explicitly say something sexual or moan gets taken down,” says Grey. She and Fleur have had their accounts removed in the past and have had to cultivate new followings. Grey has multiple strikes on her current accounts, explaining that it’s not just the platform that takes issue with her videos but fellow users. Both Grey and Fleur have sometimes had videos reinstated after they appeal—most likely, Fleur suspects, after real people have reviewed them.  

According to a TikTok spokesperson, “While technology is more advanced at detecting overt nudity, there will always be borderline content that is more challenging for our systems to identify. Our moderators work alongside our automated moderation systems and take into account additional context and nuance which may not always be picked up by technology.”

TikTok is particularly prolific at moderating nudity, which its guidelines strictly prohibit. “Any form of nudity, even sometimes bikini videos, will get taken down,” explains Grey, who maintains that Instagram is comparatively lax. Miller agrees: “It’s almost like I do the first level of my clothing, fully clothed, on TikTok, and then I’ll take a piece off, move to Instagram, take another piece off, move to Twitter, and then take it all off, and I’m on OnlyFans.”

For adult creators, like the proprietors of any other business, social media is a means of self-promotion, helping them draw followers to more lucrative subscription-based channels. Grey shares erotic content on TikTok to drive traffic to her OnlyFans, because on TikTok, “it is relatively easy to grow a following quickly”.

But TikTok strictly prohibits creators from hyperlinking X-rated subscription services in their bios. As such, most creators link to their Instagram accounts, which link to landing pages like Linktree that transport followers to more explicit channels. 

Both Fleur and Miller claim that the censorship of their content has amplified in recent months, with their formerly lucrative TikTok-to-OnlyFans pipelines drying up. “Six to nine months ago, at least 80 percent of my subscribers came from TikTok. However, as the platform has changed so drastically, it is now more like 15 percent,” says Fleur. “At this point, my TikTok is completely useless. I think they’ve shadow-banned me after taking down so many of my videos,” Miller says.

The most pressing concern when it comes to sex-themed content on TikTok is that its demographic skews young: over half of 3-to-17-year-olds in the UK use the app (its minimum age is 13). Unlike Instagram, TikTok lacks an age verification process at signup, meaning children can easily evade restrictions by entering a fake date of birth.

Beyond takedowns, TikTok has measures to prevent young people from happening across—or seeking out and finding—inappropriate content, such as its Content Levels system. “When we detect that a video contains mature or complex themes, a maturity level will be allocated to the video to help prevent those under 18 from viewing it,” says the spokesperson.

Evidently, TikTok is taking staunch measures to erase sexual content and prevent young users from finding it. But according to Miller, it would be more “appropriate” for her videos to be age-restricted, which they’ve never been, than deleted entirely. “Sex has a way of being around you from a very young age in movies and media,” she says, “and social media is a part of that. It’s not just an app; it’s society.”

And she has a point: In reality, where humans go, porn will follow. 

The post The Battle Between TikTok and Adult Content Creators appeared first on VICE.

I’ve slept with a lot of dudes. I’ve had more pricks than a pincushion and I’ve had the complete spectrum of penis size. I had a partner with a micro penis, and then my current partner has a penis so big he has to order his condoms online because he can’t find any to fit him. How big? I’d say cucumber-ish. My first reaction was, ‘Wow, awesome.’ And then my second reaction was, ‘Jeepers, he’s pretty big—I don’t know if I can take that.’ I was very impressed.

When we first met, I was thinking, ‘God, I bet he’s got a small dick.’ He’s got quite small hands and he’s got a slim frame so the photos he was sending before the dick pics, I was thinking—he had his hand over his package—obviously he’s not very well-endowed, but it’s not always about that. I thought I would give it a go, so I guess my expectations were really low. When I did see it, it was like ‘Wow!’ My last partner, he was a really big guy and he did have a really impressive package as well, but I think sometimes that can be misleading. One guy that I slept with, he had a big frame but he had a really tiny dick. Like, not micro, but probably a little bit longer than a thumb. I guess that’s micro?

How to spot a micro penis

There’s absolutely no way to tell penis size but I always look at hands and feet and noses—you know: ‘big nose, big hose’. But my last partner, he had stumpy little sausage fingers—not proportionate to the size of his penis. He had massive feet, like size 13s, but he had a beautiful little nose. I guess none of those signs stack up.

To be honest, with my current partner sometimes it hurts. Like, we’ll be doing it in a particular position—like doggy-style—and I’ll go, ‘Ooh, ah, no, no, we have to change.’ Because it’s so long. It’s long and thick. I had another partner who had a really long dick, and it just didn’t fit me. In the end, the sex wasn’t enjoyable and the relationship didn’t last. It was only in some positions that it would be ok, but then it wouldn’t be satisfying me in that position. There is such a thing as too big.

The joys of thick dick

My current partner, when he lost his virginity, he couldn’t get a condom on. So in the end the girlfriend was like—maybe it was him, it was probably him actually—was like, ‘Let’s do anal.’ That’s what they started to do but that was too painful for her so they stopped. It was hard for him to actually have sex and relax without thinking about his partner getting pregnant. And it’s also risky sexual behaviour. Now that he finds them online, he always wears a condom.

I had another partner. He was a Cook Islander, and he had—he’s got my favourite dick. He had the most incredible dick. It wasn’t long, but it was substantial. A really thick dick. It was so satisfying. He had trouble finding condoms as well because his head was so big.

For anyone who comes across a big dick, I just think, well done! Lucky you! But some guys with big dicks think that’s enough. I had a partner who was a lazy root, because he thought his dick was enough. It really depends on the person. The guy with the micro penis, the sex was actually amazing because he was compensating for the lack of size in his penis. And he must’ve done research on good positions because, yeah, I had a really good time. It didn’t last, because I am a big dick person, but he was very good with his tongue.

 Big penis doesn’t necessarily = nice penis

Most guys with big dicks seem to be less like they have to prove a point or something. They seem a lot more relaxed. I find that men with small dicks seem to have a chip on their shoulder. I’m completely generalising here. Actually, there was one who had a smallish dick, but it was bent, so he could do some great things with it. Sex with him was pretty good. He was so proud of it. He didn’t care about the size.

I’m not big on anal. Like, I don’t mind it. I’ll do it on birthdays and Christmases, but not if they’ve got a really big dick. I won’t go there. At all. My current partner reckons he could blow my mind, but I’m not going there—there’s no way. He’s just desperate and I’m like, ‘There’s no way that’s going to happen.’

It’s the same as vaginas and breasts, they’re all completely different—shapes, sizes. We’re all unique, we’re all different. It’s not one-size-fits-all. As I said, I had a favourite dick, and it fitted my vagina perfectly. And his dick was not a big, long massive member, which we’re led to believe is the ultimate goal. If it’s too big to fully enter a woman, that can’t be fully satisfying. I’ve seen some huge penises in porn, and they don’t get anywhere near satisfied.

This article is supported by Durex. Always read the label and use as directed. Reckitt Benckiser, Auckland.

The post What I Know About the Average Penis Size From Sleeping With More Men Than I Can Count appeared first on VICE.

Claims that jelqing not only exists but is becoming a trend have swirled the internet for years, with explainers on Healthline and TikTok, the erectile dysfunction medication website Hims, reddit forums and Urban Dictionary, and clickbait articles. Over on TikTok, jelqing is a frequent reference on ironic incel looksmaxxing pages, where it sits alongside mewing advice and edits of the famously cheekbone-d Aussie model Jordan Barrett, who has become a looksmaxxing idol and meme thanks to his aspirational jawline.

In other words, the whole thing sounds like yet another niche in-joke among 4chan diehards that has escaped into the real world, sowing chaos and misinformation everywhere it goes. As for its real-world benefits: There are only a few suspect testimonies to its efficacy on Reddit, and even the subreddit AJelqForYou explicitly says that it does not condone jelqing and was set up to redirect men towards other methods of penis enlargement.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t some men out there who might have tried to take matters into their own hands and try it. Would that be a good or a bad idea? Urologist Anika Ackerman told VICE in no certain terms that trying to stretch your dick out “does not work and is not safe”.

“While traction devices are helpful for Peyronie’s disease [in which deep scar tissue forms in penile tissue] or curvature of the penis, on their own, traction devices will not increase length.”

In fact, jelqing can actually have the opposite effect. Anika explains that bruising, swelling and damage to blood flow can result in penile dysfunction: “I have had men see me with chronic penis pain from jelqing,” she told VICE. “This is something I do not recommend.”

Alternatively, she suggests: “Men should be happy with their length. Penises come in all shapes and sizes, and although there are implants or fillers currently used for girth, there are no well-studied techniques for increasing length.”

So for now let’s keep jelqing in the incel forums, and appreciate dicks in all their glory and variety.

@iamhelenthomas

The post Men, Please Stop ‘Jelqing’ Your Penis appeared first on VICE.

A new study, published in the Sexes academic journal and perfectly titled “As Long as It’s Not on the Face”, suggests people are less keen on cumshots than porn would have you believe. “No previous study has focused on viewers’ perceptions and preferences regarding the male ejaculation,” writes study author Eran Shor of McGill University. He surveyed more than 300 porn watchers from different demographics and cultural backgrounds and found that “most viewers either did not care about the male ejaculation or its placement or preferred for it to be in the female partner’s vagina”. More than this, Shor suggests that many of the viewers found cumshots in the mouth or on the face “disturbing”.

Now, I know better than to wade into the Feminist Sex Wars, but surely the fact many people find cumshots disturbing can’t be groundbreaking news. For decades, a host of feminist scholars have argued that, because pornography is usually made by and for men, it reflects  dominant patriarchal expectations about female sexuality, making ejaculation a particularly sticky (excuse the pun) subject. In her 2005 article, which Shor refers to in his study, Terrie Schauer of Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University argues that “since male performers are depicted discharging on their victim’s faces… breasts, or buttocks – i.e. on the bodily spaces that are signifiers of feminine difference – the cumshot metaphorically debases femininity”. 

Of course, this viewpoint is not shared by all women, or all feminists. But this hasn’t stopped the general narrative going something like: “Feminists probably think cumshots are degrading, but fellas must like them”. On the surface, porn-watching habits seem to support this idea. A 2021 study found that 24 percent of the most-watched videos on Pornhub included male ejaculation on a woman’s face. On the surface, it seems porn cumshots are a simple case of supply and male demand.

But this study reveals this isn’t the case. When asked about their preferences, it wasn’t just anti-porn feminists calling out cumshots, but a cross-section of men and women, both queer and straight. Shor reports that most of the interviewees did not care or had no preference (27 percent) or they preferred to see male performers ejaculate inside the female performer’s vagina (38 percent of all interviewees and 48 percent of the women in the sample). Only about 9 percent said they preferred to see ejaculation on a woman’s face.

For a few interviewees, particularly heterosexual men, this seemed to be less a question of taste and more one of, well, timing. Liam, a straight 25-year-old Canadian, told the study: “I’m not a big watch-until-the-end kind of guy, so no preference.” Ivan, 22, a heterosexual student from Russia, said similar: “I don’t reach that point. So I don’t care.” Others felt more strongly about where a boy should goo. Christine, 19, a bisexual student from France, said she preferred vaginal ejaculation, “where I don’t see it”. Julian, a 20-year-old queer man from Canada, said male performers should ejaculate “on themselves; just keep it to yourself”.

Look, I’m not about to jump on a table and proclaim that this sample of a couple of hundred people is resounding evidence that no one likes cumshots. But it does seem to justify my sneaking suspicion that a lot of porn out there is giving “13-year-old boy has just learnt what he can do with it”. Jizz! Spunk! Cum! What fun! Now close the tab, get back to maths homework, and don’t think about the girl washing her face in the bathroom sink. Is this just me being old-school, though? 

“I’m anti-cumshots, I think they’re kinda gross,” says Bethany, 28, whose name has been changed for privacy reasons, like others in this piece. Twenty-nine-year-old Fiona echoes this. “I think it’s gross and I don’t want that on my face, thanks.” These feelings aren’t just shared by women. “I think it’s disrespectful,” David, 31, tells me plainly. Others go for more practical criticisms. “It’s an inconvenience,” Tom, 34, says. “It’s not fair to make women wash their faces.” 

Fiona is of the opinion that the whole “cumshots are hot” narrative is a “lie spread by men”, borne out of cinematic necessity if nothing else. “It seems more like, ‘This is how we can visually show the dramatic conclusion of a porn narrative’,” she suggests. 

This brings us back to the sticky heart of the matter, because whether you love or hate cumshots in your own bedroom isn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things (you do you, hun). The interesting thing is why porn makes it seem like sex has to finish with, well, a finish like a cumshot.

“The prevalence of cumshots in mainstream pornography raises an intriguing question,” neuroscientist and human behaviour expert Eldin Hasa tells VICE. “If only a minority of viewers express a preference for this act, why are cumshots so common in porn?” 

One possible explanation, he suggests, is that the porn industry “caters to certain preconceived notions of what is expected, perpetuating the idea that male ejaculation on a woman’s face or in her mouth is a standard element of sexual encounters”. 

This is a vicious cycle, he adds. “The prevalence of cumshots in porn videos has the potential to shape viewers’ perceptions and expectations of real-life sexual encounters,” Hasa says. “From a sex education perspective, it’s essential to critically assess the depiction of sexual acts in pornography and address any misinformation or unrealistic expectations it may perpetuate.”

In sex educator Emilie Lavinia’s view, the real issue is how free porn sites function by algorithm. “Porn on tube sites plays to algorithmic patterns,” she explains, “so the more of something you see, the more you’ll be served. Because of this, a landing page on a free tube site that features cumshot videos will drive more clicks and drive up demand for those kinds of videos”. But this is, she argues, “a false economy.” Lavinia goes back to the recent study to make her point. “The study shows that the sample demographic doesn’t typically seek out this type of erotic content, but they’re served it nonetheless” on free porn sites, she says. 

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“A crucial aspect of this whole discussion is whether male ejaculation can be filmed and performed in a manner that isn’t regarded as debasing to women,” Hasa says. For Lavinia, this comes down to the intention and the language of the scene. “If the scene is intended to be humiliating, and semen is framed as being disgusting, you could very well surmise that the person receiving a cumshot is supposed to be humiliated by it,” she says. On the other hand, if the recipient is consenting and excited by the prospect, “this is probably a far less degrading scenario”. 

But, of course, porn is acting. “A lot of the issue with understanding the intention is not knowing where your porn comes from and not having any insight into the wellbeing of performers,” Lavinia says. “Which is why I maintain it’s best to pay for your porn and not use free tube sites.”

To bring this back to cumshots, there are other reasons to be sceptical of the idea that all jizz to the face, chest or mouth is inherently degrading to women. “We can’t forget that this type of finish is present in LGBTQ+ porn too,” Lavinia says. T6X87 describes himself as “a gay guy who watches a lot of porn and also makes porn” (T6X87 is his performer name). “There are reasons someone might prefer not to have cum in them,” he explains, ”the main one being that there’s a higher risk of getting an STI from someone if there’s that kind of exchange of fluids.”

If you look at porn from the 80s and 90s, during the AIDs crisis, T6X87 points out “the performers often look genuinely scared of the cum – it was shot onto people’s faces and bodies and they kept their mouth closed and tried not to get it in their eyes.” This has obviously changed a lot, but the fact cumshots can now be filmed without fear is still “quite novel and exciting”, he says. “For lots of us it’s a celebration that we have reached a point in the AIDS epidemic where those of us lucky enough to have access to PrEP, etc can now have sex without anxiety.”

In the end then, the important thing might not be the cumshot itself, but what you do with it. “In my opinion, it’s the benign amusement of seeing a person covered in cum and then labelling them a slut or a whore because they’ve received a load that’s misogynist,” Lavinia argues, pointing to the “slut-shaming” language used in SEO titles, comments and tube sites. Ultimately, the best thing to do is take all porn videos with a handful of salt. 

“Directors are the ones deciding what people see on camera and it’s important to remember there’s a small number of them relative to the audiences,” T6X87 points out. “Some might have some kind of artistic vision but mostly they’re doing what they think will sell.” Basically, the next time you load up some porn, remember the most important part of a money shot is the money.

The post New Study: Nobody Actually Likes Cumshots appeared first on VICE.

Subs and paypigs get off on being degraded by someone taking their money, and sex workers – a historically oppressed minority comprising mainly of women, people of colour and LGBTQ people – benefit. Are communist findommes flipping the system on its head? Are they the modern day Robin Hood? Or are they just trying to survive in a craven, profit-driven economy? We spoke to five radical findommes to find out.

Mistress Gravity

VICE: Hi Mistress Gravity, do you treat your paypigs differently because you’re a communist?
Mistress Gravity: I take into account the social status and class privilege of the submissives who approach me. I like to ruin the richer, not the poorer submissives. If I own a submissive, I want them to become better human beings and commit themselves to ethical choices such as becoming anti-speciesists and funding causes that I believe in. I expect them to oppose all genocides, read feminist theory and books that I like and ultimately choose their battles better. 

How does being a findomme fit your idea of being a communist?
Socialism is about producing and distributing wealth in the interest of all so that everyone can have access to resources, healthcare, housing, and a decent life. This is impossible in a capitalistic system where men in positions of power control everything and have a monopoly on all resources. I think findom can be a form of political resistance to this exploitation. An opportunity to reinvent gender power dynamics with a sense of social justice in mind. 

What’s a misconception about being communist and a findomme?
That BDSM shouldn’t be political. However, our feminist history recognised a universal truth: that the personal is political. When we contextualise the daily abuse and exploitation at the hands of the state and its agents, draining men of their blood money is not a bigger scam than how they acquired it in the first place. We are consensually tapping into their vulnerabilities because even they know that they owe reparations, especially to black doms. — @gravvitygoddess

Queen Rini

VICE: Does being a communist influence the way you humiliate a paypig?
Queen Rini: Yes, very much so. All of my subs get educated on Marxism and, to a further extent, Marxist feminism as well… I link them to my educational resources so they can read and dissect theory. They can also fuck around with the Poe Bot I programmed explicitly to answer questions on communism. My absolute favourite subs are the right wing goons that will claim they want to be politically dominated and end up being un-ironically ideologically destroyed.

How does being communist influence the way you spend the money you earn from findomming?
I spend my money like most normal people spend their money – bills, food, and hobbies. In addition to that, I funnel a good deal of it into mutual aid and donating to different organisations. I try to stay away from giving money to companies that are exceptionally damaging within the context of capitalism, but we all ultimately have no choice, but to participate in capitalism because we live here. Cue the “you hate capitalism, yet you have an iPhone” nerds.

Do you see being a findomme as a form of activism against capitalism?
I think a more useful question is: “Can it be a form of activism?” And I think, yes, absolutely it has that potential. If you centre your platform as a dom to facilitate the radicalisation of your subs, then you are pushing education and advocacy for the larger narrative of liberation. — @queen_rini61412

Lily Rosa

VICE: Why did you choose to become a findomme?
Lily Rosa:  I feel like its the ultimate fuck you to the capitalist structure we live in, but it’s also deeply rooted in feminism. I, like many women, have been dealing with the unwanted attention of men for an unbelievably disgusting amount of time. I built my career in the hospitality industry, I saw first hand how much harder things were for me as a woman. I finally reached my breaking point working for a large UK hospitality company last year and realised it was awful everywhere. You’re a number to these people and nothing more than a way to line their own pockets. Why shouldn’t I continue to exploit the system in the same way these multi-million dollar companies do, using all the gifts that God gave me?

How do your views on wealth distribution align with your role as a financial dominatrix?
My goal in life is really to live a pretty simple, off-grid lifestyle (or as close as I can get with a social media presence anyway) and funnel any extra money I have into supporting other young and marginalised people to do the same.

Which communist figure do you think would be a paypig?
Marx is a submissive paypig for sure, but I think any cis man who dubs themselves a feminist or communist has got it in them. — @GoddessLilyRosa

Mistress XXX

VICE: Do your paypigs enjoy submitting to a communist?
Mistress XXX: Right-wing, Republican, and conservative finsubs (I’m vegan so I don’t degrade pigs by lumping these guys in) get off on the shame of submitting to a leftist. They’re already ashamed of their shitty political views, and that shame coupled with the shame of sending money and submitting to a communist millennial hits the kink just right for them. They’re sending money to the same person they’d be calling a snowflake.

Read Next

I Did Work Experience with a Dominatrix for a Day

Which historical communist do you think would have been a good findom?
Engels would be my choice for a historical communist findom. It would be easy to say Marx because he was financially supported a great deal by Engels. But Engels seemed to take on the protective role that is so common in dominants.

What do you say to people who think that financial domination perpetuates capitalist values?
Every industry in the United States perpetuates capitalist values. It may be trite, but there is truly no ethical consumption under capitalism. Sex work has historically been a way for the oppressed to make money because it is difficult for them to do so in mainstream society. We need to eat too. I think tho, that Marx and Engels would chuckle to see a bunch of working class people draining funds from bourgeoisie losers. That is, of course, if they could get over the fact that so many of us are gay, trans, people of colour, and from other minoritised groups. — @MistressXuk

Goddess V

VICE: Does being a communist change your work?
Goddess V: Honestly, I think that being a communist allows me to have more of a humanitarian view towards paypigs (or submissives) — I know that they are just fellow members of the working class and that it is just role-play.

How would being a findomme be different under communism?
Living under capitalism has forced me to be in a position where I have to rely on sex work in order to survive. Under communism, something like financial domination would truly just be a role-play and for fun, as it was meant to be. Sex and money would be separate. 

Do you own the means of production as a findomme?
This is a very complicated question to answer. In one way, yes, I technically own the means of my own production, as there is no one that owns my labour as intellectual property. But I also technically “own the labour” of someone else? So it’s kind of a role-play of the capitalist system, only I am the one that owns the means of production and I own my “workers”.

The post The Communist Sex Workers Doing Financial Domination For Praxis appeared first on VICE.

Countess Diamond – a dominatrix dressed in thigh-high stiletto boots – kneels between his legs. She takes the man’s dick in her left hand. In her right hand is a thin wooden palette. She brings it down sharply on the head of the man’s penis. “Do you love me,” Countess Diamond asks, a grin playing around the corners of her lips. “Yes,” the man whispers from underneath his face covering.

“How much do you love me?”

“Too much.”

It’s safe to say this isn’t how I usually spend my Wednesday afternoons. But BDSM is as popular a pastime as climbing these days, right? A bit of light spanking simply doesn’t cut it in the Feeld era – now, it’s pegging and erotic rope bondage or bust. Yet despite people throwing around the words “dom” and “sub” with abandon, not many actually know what a professional domme’s work life entails. So, today I’m here as an observer, watching how a dominatrix like Countess Diamond works, with the full agreement of her and a client. Call it work experience; a shadowing day, if you like.

Roughly two hours earlier, just after 1PM, I’d arrived in North London and made my way to a block of studios near a retail park. The urban anonymity makes sense, given the nature of a dominatrix’s working day, but it also means that I almost end up in a woodworking studio after taking a wrong turn. Eventually, I find an unremarkable corridor and am welcomed into the dungeon by Diamond’s assistant, Eilidh. Actually, first there’s the entrance room, which is lined with sofas and plants, and has a makeup station, a bookcase and a tea zone. It’s calm and, dare I say it, cosy.

Diamond is in the adjoining room getting ready. This space doesn’t conform to what most people’s expectations of a dungeon might be, either – aside from the BDSM furniture and the whips and paddles hung on the walls. The skylights let the pale afternoon sun in and there are lush plants here, too. A candle gives the whole room a floral, lightly musky scent. Sure, there’s a photo of a woman in a gimp mask on the wall, but the space feels light, airy – even girly.

It all suits Diamond, who looks appropriately intimidating in her corset and thick-rimmed glasses. She gives me a little tour, pointing out the St Andrew’s Cross, the spanking bench and a mediaeval-looking contraption even Diamond isn’t sure the name of. It’s basically a leather body cage, she explains, which can be winched upwards, leaving the person inside dangling. “Maybe we can put him in there later,” Diamond laughs. I can’t help thinking that the whole room is sort of like an adult playground. “Of course, a good domme doesn’t need to use anything at all,” Diamond says, a glint in her eye.

The client, who I’ll call “John”, arrives at 3PM. He’s handsome, in a decidedly normal way: Trim, grey-haired, and dressed in a collared shirt and jumper like any stereotypical middle-aged manager. He’s brought Diamond a coffee, clearly remembering her usual order. Eilidh tells me this is something John always does – bring small gifts, like coffees or candles. This is his third session with her, and each time they’ve been out for dinner afterwards. They’ve decided to mix things up a bit today though, Eilidh says: Instead of dinner, they’re going to play crazy golf.

I can sense a nervousness underneath John’s cool exterior. I put some of this down to my presence, but, of course, he also doesn’t know exactly what Diamond has in store for him. “How are you feeling about our session?” Diamond asks. They’re both sitting on the bondage table where, in only an hour or so’s time, his dick will be whacked with a stick. “Slightly nervous, as always, but excited, is probably the overall feeling,” he says. She takes sips of her coffee and speaks very softly: “How are you in yourself? How are you feeling? Like, Christmas was tough, and life is tough, but how is it?”

The note of tenderness in Diamond’s voice makes me self-conscious. I was expecting to feel like a voyeur during the session – that’s essentially my whole role here, after all – but not beforehand. “Yeah, I’m alright. It’s alright,” John replies softly. “Go through the ups and downs but generally I’m alright.”

“Is there anything that you are desperate to do today?”

“No,” John says a little hesitantly, “I’m in your hands.”

“And you want me to push you as far as I can?”

John’s face flashes back to something like nervousness. “Part of the reason I’m here is to push my limit, or my preconceptions, and push my sexual boundaries. You saying ‘push as far as you can take it’ makes me nervous, because I know that would be quite far.”

“But that’s why it’s so important that we communicate really well,” Diamond says. “Because I do want you to go far, and so do you when you’re in the moment, so I have to keep an eye on that and check in with you.” A lighter note enters her voice. “The safe word today is going to be ‘French 75’, and that’s simply because the last time we went out I couldn’t get one at the bar and I got pissed off, so today is all about getting me a French 75.” This is clever, I think – using a small personal detail as a safe word. John seems to think similar, because he grins.

Diamond asks about any aches and pains and when he last got an STI check, and then starts to direct John towards the small bathroom at the side of the room, before she stops herself: “I would normally ask a submissive to go into the bathroom and undress, but I think I’d prefer to undress John myself.”

I take this as my cue to leave. We’ve agreed that Diamond will invite me into the three-hour session at certain intervals, when John’s in the right headspace. So I settle myself next door, near a space heater, and wait.

Through the wall, I can hear Diamond’s boots hitting the wooden floor, and then the sound of various kinds of impact. Diamond’s voice occasionally filters through, and I catch snippets like “Call you a puppy?” and “Heel!” Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games” plays: “I heard that you like the bad girls, honey, is that true?” 

After about 20 minutes, Diamond opens the door and beckons me in. John is face down on the spanking bench. Diamond brings a black leather flogger down across his pale back, which immediately glows pink. She does it again, her face a picture of concentration. “If it hurts, I want to hear it John,” Diamond calls out, and John offers up a groan. 

Diamond keeps going, bringing the leather down over and over, across John’s buttocks and back. Then suddenly, she stops and leans over John. She whispers in his ear, and reaches her hand down to his, stroking his fingers, which are still clenched in a fist. Again, I’m struck by how tender the gesture is – this moment of stillness, gentleness and care. I listen as John’s breathing slows.

An hour later, John is getting kicked in the dick. “You don’t think very well on your feet, do you,” Diamond teases. John is blindfolded, holding his arms out straight in front of him. Resting on his outstretched wrists is a metal pole. “If you drop anything…” Diamond threatens, and then whacks her foot back into John’s junk. 

“Everyone says ‘no limits’,” Eilidh says when I’m back next door, telling me about the questionnaires filled out by Diamond’s potential clients. We’re whispering to each other, even though I doubt John or Diamond would hear us over the sound of whips, sticks, groans and Lana del Rey still emanating from their room. “There’s watersports, blood play, torture – real, proper torture,” Eilidh continues. “Saying ‘no limits’, really it’s a lack of imagination.” 

I have to say I have some sympathy with the unimaginative subs out there. Even though I’ve only been here for one afternoon, I already feel like my imagination has been broadened. Certainly, my eyes have been opened to some of the ways a domme can carefully inflict doses of pain to keep a sub riding waves of adrenaline. 

“Drained, is probably the word that I would use,” John says, settling in next to me once the session is over. “At peace, in a lot of ways.”

“You’re probably still very much coming down,” Diamond says, from her cross-legged position on the floor at his feet. She’s pulled a jumper on and is drinking from a large water bottle. She looks a little drained, too. 

“During the session, you have times when the adrenaline hits and then goes away and then hits again,” John muses, “so although my mind’s at peace, my body is still dealing with some of the adrenaline and some of the processes it’s been through. Maybe it’s been trained to look for the next hit, or take the next hit.” All his sensations must still be pretty heightened too, right? “I mean, this environment is quite calm,” he says, “but I was just imagining myself going out onto the main road, where there’s so much going on… I’m perhaps not quite ready for that.”

Diamond cuts in: “There’s no way I’d send you out onto the street right now. You need to calm.”

John nods. “Right here I’m okay, because it’s calm, peaceful… cold.” He laughs, looking pointedly at the deeply unsexy space heaters Eilidh and I have surrounded ourselves with. Diamond has a question for him: “When you come out of a session, do you feel like, ‘everyone knows my dirty secret?’”

John pauses. “No,” he says slowly. “There’s a question of, is there something to tell on my face? But then you rationalise it,” he explains. “You just think, ‘They don’t know me from anyone else.’ And it feels – nice isn’t quite the right word,” he smiles, “but nice to have that secret. It’s my day, my secret. I take that with me.”

John does look at peace. The nervous undercurrent that was present when he arrived has disappeared. “It feels – again probably not the right word – but it feels cosy,” he explains. “I don’t feel the need to run out and tell the world what I’ve been doing. It’s my experience – I do it for me.”

I leave Diamond and John for their evening of crazy golf, and head back towards the train station. On the tube, everyone else stares down at books or their phones. When I get home, I make pasta and catch up on Traitors. I feel drained too, even though I was only watching someone’s body take a beating. For a BDSM work experience day, it was a gentle one. I’m not sure I’m ready to take much of it up in my personal or work life though – throughout the afternoon what I was most struck by was how much of a pro Diamond is. Kicking guys in the balls might sound like fun, but controlling every physical and emotional reaction someone has over the course of three hours is less of a walk in the park.

Despite only being a voyeur though, I think I know what John means about taking the experience with him – that feeling of re-entering the everyday world with a secret, charging things with a certain glow and bringing the world into sharper focus. “Nice” and “cosy” might not be quite the right words, but, as “Born to Die” loops inside my head, I think of how special it must feel to have such sustained attention paid to you. Sure, it might be a painful kind of attention, but today I’ve learned it’s also surprisingly intimate.

The post I Did Work Experience with a Dominatrix for a Day appeared first on VICE.

At the turn of the millennium, the Gold was infamous. It was the number one strip club in the United States. Pro athletes treated it like their personal playground. In boom times, its owner Steve Kaplan was making around $30 million a year. And to top it off, the Gold was fully nude. At the time, most strip clubs in the United States were either topless or – in the rare cases where nudity was allowed – BYOB. In Atlanta, the rules were different: It was all on show and there were liquor licences to boot. 

In 1999, the FBI raided the club and, in a sweeping indictment, federal prosecutors alleged that the club was a front for prostitution, credit card fraud and money laundering. They also claimed that club owner Steve Kaplan and his associates were connected to the Gambino crime family. During the trial, the prosecution alleged that Kaplan and his employees paid club dancers to have sex with athletes and other celebrities. As part of a plea deal, Kaplan confessed to racketeering and agreed to close the club.

At the centre of the scandal, and one of the subjects of the new season of Sex Before the Internet on VICE TV, was Jackie “Diva” Cook (then Bush) – the Gold Club’s highest-paid dancer and one of Kaplan’s closest associates. Today, Cook is based in Nevada. When we speak over Zoom, she’s sporting a fuschia fleece and thick-rimmed glasses, and her dogs bark in the background. You probably wouldn’t guess that she once faced over 100 years in prison, but if anyone has had a life full of crazy highs and true-crime-style lows, it’s Cook.

In 2001, as part of a plea deal, Kaplan confessed to racketeering and agreed to close the club. For six brief months in 2004, it became a church, but its champagne-soaked reputation remains. We asked Cook to take us back to the Gold Club’s heyday. 

VICE: The Gold was synonymous with champagne, so I have to start by asking about some of the champagne tricks you did there.
Jackie “Diva” Cook: You try and spice things up when you’re in that environment. And your goal is to make the most money you possibly can. One of the tricks we did was pouring it down your back – like the crease of your back – and the guy would be at the back of you drinking champagne from your butt.

Sometimes that champagne was about five grand a bottle, right?
The most expensive bottle is the Millennium Bottle, which is $20,000. It stands about four feet high, and about two feet around. It took two big floor men with pliers to get the cork out. For each bottle of champagne that you sold, you got $100. That’s just regular size bottles. The bigger bottles, like if you sold a Millennium Bottle, you got $1,000.

Dom Perignon at one point had to cut us off because they couldn’t keep us stocked. The way they distribute in the United States, each business, liquor store or club only gets a certain amount of bottles. Well, our orders were doubling and tripling and they were like, “we cannot keep you stocked”. So we replaced Dom with Perrier-Jouet.

Let’s wind it all back. How did you get started working at the Gold Club?
I’m from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, originally, and I worked at a couple of the smaller strip clubs there. This book came out every year, the Entertainment Guide. It’s all the strip clubs in the country. The Gold Club would always make the cover, because it was the best strip club in the United States – well, practically in the world. We would see this, me and a couple of the girls, and we were like, “Can you imagine if we ever got to go work there?”

At the time, my fiancé was visiting down in Atlanta. He flew me down so I could come and visit. I said, okay, I’m going to go audition. I went in there three times and walked out because I was just too nervous. Then the fourth time, my girlfriend drove me over there. She’s like, “Now get in there and go get that job”.

When I walked in, I guess I looked lost. The manager Norby, he was like, “Can I help you? Do you have an appointment?” I said: “No, I just got up enough nerve to come do it”. He takes me back to the dressing room, introduces me to Rose, the house mom. She’s like, “Just relax, sweetie, you’re beautiful.” The manager walks up, he’s like, “Okay, drop your sundress” – just straight in. I drop the dress. He’s like, “Turn around”. He looked at me, he turned to Rose, and he goes, “Give her any night she wants”.

Can you paint a picture of the Gold in its heyday?
Mix Las Vegas with Studio 54 in New York, and the Copacabana from New York, and you had the Gold Club. The club was set up as a Vegas-style showroom. We had a huge stage. We had skits that we did throughout the night. There were four times a night where we all had to put on tuxedo jackets, our bow ties, and you do a full walk down so the men can see all of the women that work in the club that night.

At first it was a little overwhelming. But after I got acclimated, I realized this is no different from what I was doing back home. It’s just on a grander scale. And once I got comfortable, the sky was the limit.

The club had a reputation for lots of celebrities coming in…
Anybody who’s anybody has been through that club. And I’m talking senators, congressmen, singers. Michael Jordan. Just everybody. When people downstairs on the main floor would hear that Madonna, Dennis Rodman, the Lakers are upstairs [in the VIP rooms], then guys are like, “Ooh, I want to get a room. Maybe I could get close and I could see them there…”

How much were you earning when you started out, and how quickly did that change? I’ve heard a story about a guy who gave you 50k one night…
It was weird ‘cause when somebody gives you that type of money, you’re still sitting there going, “Did that happen?” My first real night on the job, I made $900 and it blew my mind. Back in Milwaukee, I was lucky to make $150 in a night. 

But I realized the potential. So what I started doing was watching the VIP girls. I wanted to see how they were maneuvering, to get where they were. Once you can get a couple guys to take you up to VIP, you’re allowed up there more often, just to walk around. Once I figured that out, I was like, see you guys! When I first started doing VIP rooms, my rate was $1,000 an hour. And that’s just for me to walk in the door. That doesn’t include buying a membership and buying champagne and food and other girls – that was my base.

By the time we got indicted, and I was done dancing, I was making between $2,000 and $5,000 an hour. That’s a lot of money.

The club even had its own currency – how did you keep people willing to splash the “Gold Bucks”?
Guys could order that on their credit cards. It made it easier than having to go to the bank and get a large sum of cash to bring in with them. There were nights where a guy would call American Express to raise his limit on his credit card because he wasn’t ready to leave yet. In one year, I sold $359,000 worth of champagne. I found that out in the courtroom when we were on trial. The prosecutor stood up and he’s like, “Don’t you think that’s a little excessive? Don’t you think she’s manipulating people?” I’m thinking to myself, no. Like, what are you gonna do? It is what it is. 

The guy who gave you $50k wanted you to wear jeans with no underwear. What other kinds of requests would you get from bigwig clients?
I had an oil tycoon from Texas, and he liked me to dress like a librarian with my hair up in the bun, the glasses, and the sweater with the skirt. He didn’t want me to take my clothes off, he just wanted me to dress like a librarian. I had another guy who liked me to dress up as a businesswoman, like I’m a lawyer or something with my briefcase and the slim pencil skirt with the suit coat.

Very Tony Soprano and Dr. Melfi! Steve Kaplan took you under his wing, right? What was that like?
It was crazy, the night that Steve took me under him, and announced it to the entire club. He was like, “Walk with me”. So we go upstairs, we walk over to the DJ booth. Steve gets on the microphone and he’s like: “Listen up! Diva is no longer just Diva. She can come and go when she pleases. Nobody can fire her. You can’t tell her what to do. She can fire you.” The adrenaline and the ego boost was just ridiculous. I felt untouchable at that point.

Steve, for me, was the epitome of what a club owner should be. He was so empathetic. If you came to Steve and said, “Hey Steve, I didn’t make enough money to pay my rent,” he gave it to you. He did that for me a few times, when I first started out. 

You’ve already mentioned the trial, but what happened on the night of the FBI raid? Did you know you’d been under investigation?
It was a strange night. It didn’t feel right. I was like, “I’m going home”. I made a little bit of money. I was tired. I was drunk. I got to the edge of the parking lot to head out, and I look in the rear view mirror and all I see are men in black with these big AK-47s, gas masks on, storming the building.

I was like, “Oh my god, the club’s being robbed”, because on a nightly basis we had over $150,000 in the safe. I came through my front door and my phones are blowing up. It was Steve. He’s like: “The clubs being raided by the FBI right now. They’re at the office in New York. They’re headed to your house… But don’t worry. We all have lawyers. Everything’s good.”

The reason they came after me, is I was the closest to Steve. So they figured if they came after me, they would get him to fold faster and we’d be done. But the indictments were superseded three times. The charges were so wild, they were so ridiculous. They just kept adding more and more. I was looking at 177 years in prison.

All the phones had been tapped. Steve came to me one day, like, “I think we’re being watched by the feds”. Every time I answered my phone it would click three times, and I would hear this weird noise, and then I could talk to whoever’s calling me.

Well, there’s a clear sign that something’s going on!
Steve’s like, you’re not doing anything wrong. You legally work in a strip club. What are they going to do to you for that? But you have to prove that you’re not guilty… And it’s gut wrenching. They tried to say that I was a prostitute, and that I had people like Dennis Rodman paying for sex. Like, excuse me, I dated him for a whole year. 

How did it all end?
It went on for us for almost four months. Steve was paying everybody’s lawyers fees, right? My lawyer alone, Bruce Harvey, was $2.4 million for those two years. [Steve] got to the point where he was just tired of everyday the same thing – people getting up there and lying, getting proven to be wrong. He paid a $5m restitution and he did 13 months in prison for us, so that everybody could walk away. I don’t have a blemish on my record. You would never know that I was indicted.

But the Feds seized your assets – they took all your money?
I lost everything. I lived a good life, and I didn’t ever anticipate anything like that happening. I was just talking to someone who asked: “How do you go from that lifestyle to a basic life?” It’s called being humble, and the humility that you have to have within yourself to recognize, as quick as you can get it, you can lose it. But you can get it back again.

Clubs like the Gold don’t really exist in the same way anymore. How did you feel when the club closed, and how do you feel about it looking back?
Walking in that last time was bittersweet. It was painful because you’re looking at 400 people that just lost their jobs. Single moms like me, you know. It didn’t just affect us. It affected our family. It was just a sad day. When we walked out, we went across the street and sat in the car.  And we watched them walk up with the chains, and chain the doors shut and put the sticker on the front door. It was surreal. 

So much has changed since then – the birth of social media, for starters. What do you think about the way the internet has changed the adult industry?
If we had had all that back then, it would have been a whole lot of men in trouble with their wives! It was the era of privacy. We had a back staircase that we used to bring some of the big celebrities up through. Everybody’s been through there though, everybody. Keanu Reeves, Jerry Springer, just everybody. There’ll never be another club like the Gold Club, ever.

The new season of Sex Before the Internet premieres Tuesday, January 23 at 9pm on VICE TV.

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