Gtom www.thetimes.co.za- A steamy novel by ex-stripper and former porn editor Karin Eloff has raised temperatures as it lifts the veil on the underbelly of the sex industry.
Eloff, who studied towards a degree in psychology at Rand Afrikaans University, before removing her kit at strip clubs around the country, astounded people when she became the first woman editor of pornographic magazine Loslyf in 2005 — appearing nearly nude on the front page.
The petite redhead is sending ripples through the country again. This time it’s her sex-and-drug-drenched memoir titled Stiletto, which will be launched at the Cape Town Book Fair today, that is raising eyebrows.
In the book, she apologises for using the father of her child, soapie star David Rees, who acts as Niek in Egoli, as “a mere sperm donor”.
She also talks about snorting cocaine before swirling around poles at strip clubs, where she earned up to R3000 a night — spent mostly on cheap red wine, a boob job and drugs.
“I started hating men. All men. Men, I decided, had one wonderful function: to produce sperm. Emotional support or friendship is not to be expected from the bastards. Men can be decorative and functional, but they’re dumb and unreliable,” she wrote.
Eloff said in an interview this week that Afrikaans men treated her the worst: “Unfortunately, Afrikaans men were my worst experience. I’m not saying they’re all like that. Indian and English men were more gentlemanly.”
Eloff’s direct approach has received a mixed response. Johann Hamman, a tour guide from Dundee in KwaZulu-Natal, started a group on the Facebook site in protest: “Not all Afrikaans men spend their time at whorehouses or strip shows and beating their wives ... I will not let a retired whore get away with these insults,” he wrote.
Eloff responded: “I’m writing about my experiences and find it interesting that people react so emotionally.”
The 35-year-old mother’s jade eyes glowed as she recalled meeting Rees. “There was an amazing energy, an animal attraction. We were both on drugs and boozed. I told him that I wasn’t on the pill and wanted a baby.
“I wanted a child without a man. I realise that I was very selfish ... I was angry and bitter, but that has changed and I think David is a wonderful father.”
Rees is proud of his former lover. “Some people may not have the stomach for her book but I think it’s great,” he said. He added that they had a “beautiful relationship” and often met to discuss matters relating to their five-year-old daughter Wanya.
Eloff said Wanya inspired Rees and herself to clean up their act. “David went to rehab for nearly two years. She was the reason I left the sex industry.”
In the book, she recalls performing up to three times a week at Hillbrow’s notorious Summit Club. “The club’s management gave strippers a free drink with each performance — a little something to swallow after snorting your line of coke,” she wrote.
Nowadays Eloff works in the media industry.
