Interview With Annie Sprinkle

By Danzine, Author: Teresa

I like Annie Sprinkle for lots of reasons. She’s been describing her experiences in the sex industry for the last ten years, hitting all the small stages from LA to NY to Europe. She’s most famous for showing her cervix and conducting a vibrator and incense masturbating ritual at the end of her shows. She speaks of those days in the past tense, but is still pursuing her Pleasure Activist mission. Her trip being more of a spiritual high, Annie has no shame when show and telling some of her work (of which included 200 adult film and videos, dozens plus porn magazines, working as a whore in Manhattan massage parlors). An artist of many trades, Annie (age 41) showed us how to make tit prints with ink pads...and our tits. Caught a small interview, only Danzine gets the full scoop.

Danzine: You’ve been in the business 24 years, how has it changed?

Annie: Oh it has changed so much. In 24 years it’s changed so much. Feminism has had a huge impact, AIDS has had a huge impact. I thi9nk the spirit of sex positivism has had a huge impact. I think the way women have changed...the one thing that hasn’t changed is the clientele (laughs), although there are some of them changing and growing, it seems that they have kind of stayed the same. Certainly women are more open, you see a million of sexworkers on talk show. I think more women take pride in their work than they used to.

Danzine: What advice to you have for women who want to work i the sex industry?

Annie: The main advice I have for women in the sex business is to beware of what I call S.W.B.O.- sexworker burnout. It’s a really hard job. It’s a lot about energy; you have to nourish yourself, and nurture yourself, take time away from it and be careful with your energy. It’s a hard job, and you can get burnt out. I’ve seen it all over the years. Take it easy, rather to have longevity and keep making the money at a steady pace, than get greedy and want it all at once and get hurt. You can hurt yourself if you aren’t careful. If you want to do other things, just go out there and do it. Other mediums, if you want to do a video, just learn how to make it. Be willing to make mistakes. When I look back, I made a lot of mistakes.

Danzine: How do you sum up your creative energy:

Annie: For me, I live my life and I want to tell everyone about it. Share my findings. I research and explore and then I share. I get enthusiastic about something and I want everyone to know about it.

Danzine: What part of [sexwork] has played in your spiritual growth?

Annie: My spiritual growth? I think I did learn a lot about sexuality from it. I wonder if I would have been a lesbian if I hadn’t been a sexworker, because I ended up having some hard feelings and some disrespect for men. I also fell in love with it. I also really saw how much more together and smarter I felt the women were than the men. I think it really inspired me to be a lesbian, partly. I hopefully would’ve been anyway. Although the sex business has been good to me, I want them [clients] to grow up, I want them to behave, to be nice. It just never seems to change.

Danzine: What is an energy orgasm?

Annie: It could be lots of things. Orgasm is a many faceted, complex subject. There are as many orgasms are there are people, and people are capable of all kinds of them. There are techniques you can learn, and practice that can teach you how to have one. All orgasms are energy orgasms, just some come from the clitoris or g-spot through sex, and some you can have with out genital stimulation.

Danzine: What do you need in order to have one?

Annie: Nothing! (laughs) Except to want to do it, be open to it and learn how to do it.

Danzine: At the workshop, you had words of encouragement; Let go of the ego, give yourself a try.

Annie: What happened to you?

Danzine: Once I started to relax and let myself go, I felt good. I didn’t hit orgasm, but I did cry.

Annie: That energy brings up all kinds of emotions,. and if you practice it, those things get cleared away.

Danzine: My compliments to your filmmaking. I know that’s what a lot of women I worked with are trying to do with erotic imagery...

Annie: Well, I don’t so much aim for the erotic anymore, because I did that for so long. There are so many levels to sexuality. In terms for filmmaking, it could be more conceptualizing, it could be a little more intellectual or political or feministic. I’d like to say something about erotic dancer, I think erotic dance is very, very spiritual, very holy and beautiful. I wish the environments were more beautiful and sensuous and supportive of the women who work in them.

Danzine was a progressive program running for nearly 9 years, starting out as a 'zine and eventually including needle exchange programs, a thrift shop, and international distribution of their printed 'zine. Founded by Teresa Dulce, Danzine continues to be an inspiration in spite of its sad closure in 2003.