A Rap Sex Book Hits the Bestseller List

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," March 16, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Back of the Book" segment tonight, kiss and tell books are common in America. Many of them sell a few copies and just quickly disappear. But a book called "Confessions of a Video Vixen," about a young woman who worked in the rap industry and hooked up with some big names, has been on The New York Times best seller list for 20 weeks. Twenty. Why?

Joining us now from Los Angeles is the author, Karrine Steffans.

Ms. Steffans, what is the worthiness of the book? I mean, what do people get out of it if they read it?

KARRINE STEFFANS, AUTHOR, "CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN": Well, you know, first of all, it's Karrine Steffans. I'm sorry.

O'REILLY: I'm sorry. That's my fault.

STEFFANS: It's OK. It's OK.

You know, what the book — what it does is it starts a conversation. And you know, change doesn't happen without motion. And this is beginning to become emotion. And it causes emotion, and therefore, I think it's worthy, because it gets women talking about their feelings about how they're being treated, not only in a particular industry, the rap industry, the music industry, but also in their own lives and in their own neighborhoods.

O'REILLY: All right. So you want the conversation to be about how women are being used by powerful men? Is that the conversation?

STEFFANS: Well, not necessarily. I think that the conversation is there are a lot of us that have gone through traumas in our life, and things are being done to us as little girls. What we don't realize is that when we become women, we start doing those same sorts of things to ourselves. We start abusing ourselves.

O'REILLY: Yes, self-destructive behavior.

STEFFANS: Absolutely, which is what I had, and self-loathing, which we don't realize. And then what happens when you do that, when you get in a relationship, no matter who it's with, no matter whether it's in an industry, if it's in your hometown, that is a destructive relationship, and you allow people to misuse you. And you almost beg them to misuse you, because that's what you're accustomed to.

O'REILLY: OK. So because you had a bad childhood, which you do detail, you carry this into adulthood and allowed people to treat you poorly.

You know, I found the book a little depressing, I have to say. It was drugs, and all of this stuff, and you know who I really felt sorry for in the book? Your son. Your son. How old is your son now?

STEFFANS: Yes. My son is 8 now.

O'REILLY: He's 8. But you — when he was a little kid, you really neglected that kid. Didn't you see what was happening to him?

STEFFANS: No, at the time, no. I didn't see what was happening to myself at the time. And mind you, a lot of this takes place about six years ago, and so at the time, being 21, being a single mother, coming out of an abusive relationship, having to sneak away from my husband at 2 a.m. in the morning to run to Los Angeles for safety. No, I wasn't thinking clearly, correctly. And I was miseducated, and just ill-informed about a lot of things, including how to parent.

O'REILLY: Has the neglect of your little son at 2, has that hurt him at 8? Can you see — is he having problems?

STEFFANS: No. My son doesn't have any problems.

O'REILLY: None?

STEFFANS: My son sees — no. My son doesn't have any problems. He sees a psychologist, as I do, because that was my concern, especially as I went into writing this book. And it was self-discovery as I wrote it. So it's called confessions because I was confessing to myself, not necessarily to the rest of the world. And as I confessed to myself, I realized, "Wow, this kid must have some kind of trauma, as I have had in my young childhood."

O'REILLY: Yes, I was worried about the little kid. You know, those first few years are vital to any child.

Now, last question. You do name some big names in the book in the rap and sports world. And they can't be happy about that. Has anybody confronted you directly?

STEFFANS: No. And honestly, everyone is satisfied with what I wrote, because I left out so much. I was able to get away with it and not be sued or not get hate mail or anything silly like that, because I was very careful to tell how those people touched my life and not tell about their lives. You understand?

O'REILLY: I know. But they don't look good.

STEFFANS: There was so much I left out. There was more happy...

O'REILLY: No.

STEFFANS: Well, the situations weren't good. You know, our situations weren't good.

O'REILLY: But any of those guys can't be real pleased with that exposition.

STEFFANS: I've bumped into a few of them. I've bumped into a few of them, and everyone has given me big hugs and kisses and said congratulations.

O'REILLY: Yes. Interesting. Ms. Steffans, we appreciate you taking the time. All right? Make sure that your 8-year-old kid is well taken care of. All right? We're worried about him.

STEFFANS: He's great. Thank you so much.

O'REILLY: All right.

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