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My name
November 16, 2004
In the comments section of my last post, I was contacted by a man whose wife’s legal name is Dacia Ray and has been getting asked relentlessly if she has any connection to Waking Vixen. I’ve also gotten a number of emails (not all at once) that I’ve been too lazy to reply to about the origin of my pseudonym. And so I present to you, the story of “Dacia Ray” and how she came to be. But first, I must give you the nerd alert. Okay, you’ve been warned.
A number of years ago, while doing a shitload of research on nineteenth century history of sexuality, free love, free speech and abortion, I came across and fell in love with Victoria Woodhull. She was the first female stockbroker in New York, ran a business with her sister Tennessee Claflin, practiced free love, was a spiritualist, and ran for president in 1872. She created a good amount of scandal in late nineteenth century New York, especially with the paper Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly, which she ran with her sister. In 1872, Woodhull published an article she’d written exposing a sex scandal involving the much-beloved Brooklyn clergyman Henry Ward Beecher. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the preacher’s sister (yes, and author of Uncle Tom) then wrote a serialized story, My Wife and I, about a rather audacious newspaperwoman who she portrayed as a hussy. The character is a thinly veiled version of Woodhull, and her name is Audacia Dangyereyes.
Since learning all about Woodhull, I decided that if I were to ever do porn or sex stuff under an assumed name, that name had to be Audacia Dangyereyes. So when I first started this blog, it was under the name of Audacia Dangyereyes. My AOL instant messenger handle, audangyer, is the remnant of that. My first blog-related email account was audacia1872, before I acquired my domain name and all that. Yes, much dorkiness to be had.
But then I got my porn review writing gig, and they wanted a more regular sounding name, as mine was a bit of a mouthful. So, some rethinking was in order.
I often signed things as “Dacia,” a shortened version of “Audacia,” plus I liked the fact that the name was a province of ancient Rome that later became Romania. So I chose “Dacia,” rooted in an ancient culture I’m fascinated by, and paying homage to Woodhull, a crazy activist in another time period I love.
I chose “Ray” as my last name as another bit of homage, but this time to the surrealist artist Man Ray. My tattoo is inspired by Ray’s photograph “Le violin d’Ingres,” so I thought that would be fitting.
I like homage, because it gives me a chance to show my respect (and over-demonstrate my fierce nerdiness) but I also take these things and make them mine. How very postmodern of me.
Posted by Dacia at November 16, 2004 03:56 PM
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Comments
Growing up my best friend was named Dacia Ray, she passed away 3 years ago, and I was just googling her tonight to see if anything came up. I think it’s absolutely insane that there are not just 2, but atleast 3 people ‘named’ Dacia Ray. How do you pronounce yours? Day-sha?
Posted by: Erin at November 14, 2005 06:54 AM
