Katherine Frank
by Evan Scott
Okay I'll bite. I go to her web site www.katefrank.com. At the top was her picture. Whoa nelly! A pretty twenty something blond was definitely not what I was expecting. I was thinking more along the lines of a Sue Johansen or Dr. Ruth. Nothing is cooler than a 60 year old women saying in an accent, “you hold zee manz penus vit your sum und forfinga und sgveeze gently…”. I double-check the URL, sure enough, it's correct. I perused Kate's site and her Curriculum Vitae (I remember a time when they were called resumes ;-). This is when I found out she has a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University. The “CV” was nine pages of degrees, college teaching, publications, manuscripts, honors, fellowships, grants, TV, film and radio appearances, invited talks, and papers presented. Damn!
I Googled the book G-Strings and Sympathy. That's when I found out Kate actually was an exotic dancer at the time she researched the book. Her regular customers were the interview subjects. Now I'm really intrigued. I just MAY have accidentally been in a strip club…uh more than once, but really I didn't look (hey if he can say he didn't inhale). Anyhow, no insult intended but, the usual strip club dancer is not more than a high school grad with not much in the way of ambition beyond that.
A woman who breaks the stereotypes is just what we like for SUITE so we decided to do an interview to find out more about her. Needless to say you'll probably see some of her work in SUITE sometime in the future.
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ES: Uhhhh, what's a “Postdoctoral Fellow” and what do they do?
KF: In my situation, it's a chance to do research without any teaching responsibilities. It's like being a student again because you have an opportunity to take courses, or learn new methodologies, or focus on mastering another area of research.
ES: It's amazing. You've done *a lot* of research papers and I've read a few. This isn't shallow Woman's Day writing. It's true academic work. You obvious spend a lot of time and energy on research, analyzing sexuality, and relationships. How does this affect your sexuality and relationships? i.e. does it invade your private life? Or is it the other way around; you've reached the holy grail of a successful working career…where your work is also your hobby?
KF: I think it's both. My research definitely invades my private life -- right now, I spend my days interviewing couples about their sex lives and marriages, reading the research that is available on those topics, and writing articles about it all. I can't help but continually reflect back on my own marriage, my own beliefs, during this process. There are some benefits -- I've learned a lot about relationships and try to incorporate certain things into my own marriage. The more I've learned about different sexual practices and ways of living, the more open-minded and understanding I've become about many other people's sexualities -- even if they do not appeal to me personally. There are also some hazards to this particular kind of sex work -- there are days when I theorize about sex from 8:30 in the morning more >>
