Shopping bag.

The young girl hailing from a small village in the Appalachian trail has become a modern-day priestess, illuminating the connection between the sensual and the spiritual, and rekindling the archaic belief in the sacrality of the sexual act. “The sexual energy is transcendental. There is something sacred about that and there is only one way to do that, to share that vibration.” Sexual ceremony has always been a way of communicating with the Divine, and the title of her new book, The Boudoir Bible, sounds like a playful takedown of Modern puritanism. Historically, along with religious marriage came the burden of monogamy, which she believes can be sustainable, if sufficient effort to spice things up is provided by both partners. In order to escape boredom, she recommends: “Don’t get sensorially bored. Learn as much as you can. Build a relationship that can continue to grow. Marriage is a license to make love to each other. You’ve got to be incredibly creative, but I think it’s possible with a powerful sexual bond. There is no need to seek elsewhere if you’re fully happy…Learn some new tricks!”

A question remains. How does she reconcile her praise of both bondage and women’s lib? Isn’t it contradictory to dress-up like a pin-up, literally images that are meant to be “pinned-up” on a wall, and yet argue that we can command the sexual game? Says Vernon, “I was one of those girls in the 80s that were fighting for their freedom. I am the daughter of a revolutionary, Anne Vernon, who sat at a whites-only counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960. I was wearing very strict corsets and high heels, and still fighting for my rights as a woman.” She argues that the pin-up look can be an asset: “I was very young when I was first corseted and put into very high heels. Suddenly I felt empowered. Let’s not confound being bound and constricted from a social point of view with something that is politically incorrect. Any woman who is wearing a corset or a beautiful garment is turning her silhouette into the absolute. It changes your attitude – and it makes you stronger, not weaker. Your power is also in your beauty! How do you feel when you slip into a 10cm Louboutin? You feel like a woman, no?” Undoubtedly so.

By Marie Winckler and Audrey Guttman for Semaine.
Photography by Giada Mariani.