Posted on www.clusterflock.org : Clusterflock is adding a new feature — a series of interviews with people who have made a niche for themselves on the internet.

The first interview is with Susannah Breslin from The Reverse Cowgirl. I published a short fiction of Susannah’s many years ago at elimae and since then have followed her writing on sex, pornography, and the human condition closely. I am thankful for her willingness to participate as the first in the clusterflock interviews series and hope that you enjoy the interview as much as I enjoyed talking with Susannah.

Q:Tell us a little about the inception and history of The Reverse Cowgirl.

A:I launched Reverse Cowgirl 1.0 in late 2002. At the time, I was living in Los Angeles and working as a freelance writer and writing about sex quite a bit. There were things that I couldn’t “sell” to magazines–because they were too graphic, too weird, too out there. So, blogs were spawning, and I realized that was a place where I could write whatever I wanted about whatever I wanted. My biggest influence at the time was Daze Reader; these days, sex blogs are a dime a dozen. For personal reasons, Reverse Cowgirl went offline a year later, but I relaunched the blog, Reverse Cowgirl 2.0, nearly two years ago. I’m not interested in running a blog that’s a links dump for sex stuff; there’s plenty of that out there already. I write about sex-related things that are new, interesting, and in some way beautiful. Increasingly this year, I’m trying to make the blog more personal. So, I’ve been writing more about my life and my thoughts on the complex subject of sex.

Q:You’ve had some pushback from sex workers about your Letters from Working Girls blog (less so it seems from the Letters from Johns blog). Can you describe that pushback? Your reaction to it? Where it stands?

A:Letters from Johns and Letters from Working Girls are two online projects that I created to provide forums for johns and working girls who wanted to tell their sex trade stories anonymously. Several female sex bloggers don’t like the idea of Letters from Working Girls. They believe that I’m being exploitative, that I’m denying the women credit for their work, that I’m not the best person to be publishing the writings of sex workers because I’m not a sex worker. I think there’s plenty of room on the internet for all kinds of writing about sex; this is but one manifestation. My goal with these projects is to publish letters from johns and working girls about their experiences in the sex trade, period. I want the readers to draw their own conclusions about what they read there.

Q:You talked on The Reverse Cowgirl about the non-fiction books you were going to write and about how publishers eventually backed out. Can you give us an idea what those books would have been about?

A:Previously, I spent some time around the porn industry. After that, I spent some time drafting a series of proposals for nonfiction books about porn and about sex. The first of those proposals was for a nonfiction book on pornography. My favorite rejection letter came from a well-known editor at a major publishing house who passed on it by stating that he would have to leave this project to those editors whose values were less influenced by the radical Protestant movements of the 16th and 17th centuries. I would have to assume that the publishing industry isn’t ready for porn. Now, I’m back to working on a novel that’s based on my personal experiences in Porn Valley. So far, I say cautiously, it’s going well.

Q:Is there a unifying goal for the work you do?

A:I want to tell the stories that most people are afraid to tell. We live in a world where everything can be seen and anything can be had. In my opinion, the sex business is one of, if not the last, uncharted frontiers in 21st century America. I don’t really write about “sex,” per se. Rather, I write about the human condition through the lens of sex, which exposes us all. I’m interested in exploring the heart of darkness in our culture, which can be seen by entering the American sex trade.

Q:Is there a difference in how men and women view pornography? How men and women should view pornography?

A:Porn the product is mostly crap. And the fact of the matter is that men and women view porn however they view it. The idea that there’s some way in which men and women “should” view pornography, or that there’s “good porn” and “bad porn,” is a fallacy. By and large, men are the primary consumers of porn, and trend reports about all those women watching all that porn are greatly exaggerated. Men watch porn because they’re lonely, and they want to feel less alone. By watching porn, they can have a simulacrum of intimacy that, for a brief moment in time, makes them feel connected.

Q:From your experience in Porn Valley, how does the sex industry seem to impact the people, men and women, who perform? What is the lasting impact of having been a performer, such as you can tell? Is there a standard porn star?

A:I think Martin Amis put it best when he referred to the porn industry as a “rough trade.” As I’ve said in the past, it’s a lot to ask someone to get fucked in the ass for a living. Porn scenes aren’t easy. They’re tangled messes of bodies, two people fucking for the benefit of the best camera angles, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that leave little room for love. I don’t know what the lasting impact of being a porn performer is because I’ve never been a porn star; you’d have to ask a porn star that question. The reality is that porn stars are as diverse as the rest of the population. Someone like Nina Hartley sees herself as a bodhisattva, a healer in search of enlightenment, while there are plenty of girls in the porn business who are drug-addicted, self-abusing, slow-moving car crashes. I can’t say there’s a standard porn star. I know America believes there’s one because it’s easier on the conscience.

Q:How do you think writing as a woman about sex and/or pornography differs from writing about sex and/or pornography as a man? It seems there are a lot more female sex writers than men; is this correct? Any thoughts on why this is the case?

A:I think the main difference is that, as a woman, I have access that men don’t. Any man that approaches the porn industry will be faced with the fact that most people who live and work in Porn Valley will respond to him as if he is on a quest to get laid. That is a tough hurdle to get over. As a woman, I faded into the wallpaper. I think men are more inclined to identify with the men in the porn industry; as a woman, I’m more inclined to identify with the women. That said, there are a lot of female sex writers these days. Honestly, I don’t know why. All I know is that for me, sex shows us who we really are.

Q:What is your favorite pornography?

A:I think there’s been only one good porn movie ever made and that is “The Operation.” It’s an art house porn movie that was shot on infrared and stars Gina Velour, aka Marne Lucas. It’s breathtaking beautiful and unforgettable.

Q:What is your idea of an idealized pornography industry. Is it possible?

A:I think the porn industry is a meat grinder for the human condition. An idealized porn industry is like a better slaughterhouse.

Q:How has being on the internet effected your career?

A:I doubt I’d have a career without it. What the internet offers someone like me is the opportunity to say the things that others won’t. And that’s invaluable. And I think that, while complex and difficult, the truth is what people want to hear.

Q:How has writing about pornography effected you?

A:The act of writing about pornography can’t really hold a candle to my firsthand experiences in Porn Valley, which, to be frank, I think sort of made me lose my mind for a little while. But, I’m better now, thank you. I think the act of writing about the experiences I’ve had when I spent quite a bit of time around the porn industry has been cathartic. It saved my life.