This week, we sat down with sexual folklorist Dixie De La Tour, host of Bawdy Storytelling, to talk about the importance of storytelling, and how sharing ideas can lead to more creative kink scenarios. We also discussed the value of sharing sex-positive content when social media appears to be heading in a direction that’s sex-negative.
Origins of Bawdy Storytelling
We dove into Dixie’s Radioactive Spider Bite Into Kink, which didn’t actually begin with kink— Dixie’s passion lies in storytelling. For almost 13 years, Dixie has curated stories of sex, kink, body image, and gender to bring people together. Originally, she was a sex party producer for many years, and one day she was invited to a storytelling event about Burning Man. She realized how much she longed to tell her stories, which happened to all be about sex and kink. Without a place to share these stories, she began telling stories outside of bodegas to people on the street, until she founded Bawdy Storytelling. This is when she fell in love with storytelling, and began coaching people on how to shape their own. Now, Bawdy has been established for 14 years. This makes Dick reflect on his time in a band when he and his bandmates would play perverted songs outside of bars during sets, and more people would end up gathering outside than watching the bands playing inside.
It’s important to Dixie when she’s coaching people on stories to make sure the storyteller conveys what the story meant to the person. This way, it’s not just people talking about things like the first time they got fisted, but rather, something people are able to connect with. She talks about how through the podcast, she’s realized how much people are interested in putting in their earbuds and learning about people’s dirty secrets. Something that comes with that is that she’s heard many times about people who listen to the podcast at work and suddenly their headphones come unplugged, and dirty stories are suddenly broadcast to someone’s office (something we also frequently hear about Off the Cuffs). It’s also fun to think about people who work in labs or factories doing the same task all day, but all the while they’re listening to dirty stories. She also talks about how important the liveshows are to her, because her goal is to help people connect and form relationships, which isn’t possible if you don’t leave your house.
Bawdy Storytelling and Kink Creativity
Next, we move into discussing how storytelling brings out often suppressed creativity in people, which prompts Dick into telling a funny, potentially offensive anecdote about himself, Lexi, and Andrew Gurza of Disability After Dark. The experience made him start researching Damsel in Distress porn, which Dixie accurately refers to as “Snidely Whiplash porn.” Lexi didn’t know who Snidely Whiplash was, which leads us into talking about the importance of explaining kink terminology while storytelling, because it’s important for everyone in the audience to be on the same page as the storyteller.
The Importance of Sharing Sex-Positive Content
Next, we move into the more serious topic of social media heading in a direction that’s sex-negative, and what that means for creators, as well as people who want to consume sex-related content.
Dixie feels somewhat lucky about recent crackdowns on sex content, beccause she’s often considered more of a storytelling production than a sex production. However, she’s had to refrain from using certain words, which she explains doesn’t feel fair. She wants people to have an accurate idea of what they’re walking into with Bawdy, but that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do. Additionally, it’s extremely difficult for both of us to get any sort of traditional advertising, because brands generally don’t want to be associated with non-family-friendly content.
Dixie explains the importance of supporting creators through Patreon. Without Patreon supporters, podcasts like ours and Dixie’s wouldn’t exist, because we’re forced to be listener-supported. To have people that want to make sure that we don’t get shut down is really meaningful. Dixie also talks about how important it is that we don’t get shut down, because without communities of people that talk about specific sexual interests, people can often feel alone and shameful of their interests. There are also so many interests people would have that would go undiscovered if it weren’t for things like sex podcasts that direct people to where to find that information.
Finally, Dixie answers your questions about the logistics of running Bawdy, whether or not certain types of stories fluctuate in frequency based on world events, and what makes for a good story pitch.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this one, you’d probably like episodes 039, 017, and 108.
Check out the episode of Risk! that both Dick and Dixie appeared in!
Here’s a video of Dick’s Risk! performance.
Here’s a video of Dixie’s Risk! performance.
Dixie’s links:
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Be sure to check out this week’s featured podcast recommendation, Disability After Dark.
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More by PODCAST JUKEBOX:
Queers Next Door | Being There
Will Sean Podcast? | The Goth Librarian Podcast
Drinks with God | ProudToBeKinky | NO LOVE LOST
