Dawn Eden used to put out for any old rock star. Now she’s saving it for the King
Author, conservative blogger, committed celibate, and Christian firebrand Dawn Eden is full of paradoxes. She’s a seductress who hasn’t had sex in almost four years. She’s a former rock journalist who often bedded her subjects but is now waiting until God ordains her in marriage before having sex again. She’s a ’60s pop-music historian who runs around with people who might consider rock to be the devil’s music. She was fired from the most right-wing newspaper in town (Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post) for being too right-wing, but not before writing some classic front-page headlines, including “Hurt in the Line of Doody” (about a courthouse clerk injured when a toilet collapsed below him) and “The Lady is a Trump” (about the Donald’s third wife).
In her new self-help guide/memoir, The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On (hitting shelves December 5), the born again virgin offers advice on going from “insecurity to purity.” Radar caught up with the feisty Ms. Eden for a rousing discussion on being sexless in the city, why homosexuals should abstain from acting out on their gay impulses, and confessing masturbation to a priest.
RADAR: You were fired from the New York Post after what they referred to as the insertion of your “rabid anti-abortion views into the paper.” What happened?
DAWN EDEN: I was working as a copy editor, and I was given a story to work on about women who had uterine cancer who were having what the reporter called “miracle babies” through in vitro fertilization.
What’s the problem with that?
At some point the story said, “One woman had three embryos implanted, two took, and now she has miracle babies.” I did what I considered balancing it. Where it said, “two took,” I added, “one died,” and I deleted the expression “miracle babies.” I did not ask an editor to approve that change, which was wrong … I was acting out of anger or zeal.
The writer of the piece, Susan Edelman, accused you of sabotage. Col Allan called you into his office and screamed that you were a “liability.” Yet in your book you thank both of them.
Yes, without them the book wouldn’t exist. In a funny sense, I owe them everything.
That’s noble, in the Christian sense of turning the other cheek.
It’s much easier to turn the other cheek when you’re coming from a point of victory. But I was thankful that what they had meant for evil became good.
Your book is a self-help guide designed to assist people in leading chaste lives. Do you advocate the use of chastity belts or testicle locks?
You’re kidding, right?
HOUSE OF PAIN Eden back in her Post years
Well, they’ve made them a lot more comfortable since the days of the Crusades.
It’s never something that occurred to me, because it goes against the whole idea of chastity. As soon as you attach the word “enforced” to chastity, then it’s stifling. For me chastity is truly liberating. It’s like the old Tampax ad: You can go swimming, you can go sailing, you can do anything you want and not be bound by this idea that something is a waste because I can’t meet the right man.
Do you date?
Yes. Not very often, and not in a while. It’s something that I’m open to. One advantage of having written a book on chastity is that most guys know from the outset what they’re getting into.
Or, rather, not getting into. You write in your book that you won’t have sex again until you’re married. Why is that the demarcation? It seems artificial.
Sex by its physical, emotional, and spiritual nature represents a permanent commitment. If it’s being done within a context that tries to separate the emotional and spiritual nature from what it really represents, then it is wrong, it’s telling a lie with the body. When you have intercourse with someone, you’re telling that person, This is what it would be like if we were really united. But if you’re not really united, then it’s a lie.
Let’s cut right to the chaste, if you will. How long has it been since you got laid?
The last time I actually had sex would have been March 2003. But the last time I was naked with a guy was December 2003.
That sounds like Clintonian parsing. Where do you draw the line between sex and being chaste? Fellatio? Manual manipulation? Kissing?
Kissing happens. But I think it has to do with what the goal in mind is. If the goal is to try a guy out to see how far things go before we have to make a certain decision, what that’s telling me is that this man is something to be possessed, something to be had.
Do you currently have a boyfriend?
No.
That’s hard to believe, given the whole no sex thing. Have you had one since taking your vow of chastity?
Yes, I had one last year, for six months. Like me, he wanted to wait until marriage before we had sex.