How Do The Leather Community and BDSM Overlap?

[cellis]

James

I am so glad that you are back. Perhaps you can help me understand what it means when a fem sub says she was trained in the leather community?

In always thought that the leather community was primarily for gay men... maybe I am mistaken about this.

I find this whole thing a little confusing and don't even feel I know enough about it to ask the right questions.

 

[WillowPuss]

I find this whole thing a little confusing and don't even feel I know enough about it to ask the right questions.

Me too.

But I am such an innocent - no really, I am!
I only found out about two months ago that a rainbow coloured flag flying outside a pub donates that it is a gay establishment. I just thought what a pretty flag ... *sigh*

(And when you have all stopped laughing at me ...... )

 

[James Blandings]

James

I am so glad that you are back. Perhaps you can help me understand what it means when a fem sub says she was trained in the leather community?

In always thought that the leather community was primarily for gay men... maybe I am mistaken about this.

I find this whole thing a little confusing and don't even feel I know enough about it to ask the right questions.

There once was a time when the term Leather meant really specifically a particular faction of gay SM that was more or less descended from a biker gang style. It is sort of but not exactly synonomous with what people now call "old guard". But that was long ago, and the term has broadened out, and many lesbians in the scene have adopted much of the code and style of leather, In fact, i would think more lesbians than gay men are into that nowdays in any sort of formal way. In recent years the definition has broadened even more, to take it heteros as well, so it's possible that the person you refer to is an exponent of the leather style. Basically , she is probably trained to be very protocol and service oriented.
Not all gay SM was Leather. We used to use the term Rough Trade more commonly to mean gay SM. My own early experiences were more in the Daddy/boy scene.

 

[cellis]

Thanks JB...

I have been doing some research on the web about this. There is a web site for the leather archives which was most interesting but not very helpful.

Needless to say the information provided there is a comprehensive history of the leather scene.

For those who are interested here is the web site:


Leather Archives

 

[James Blandings]

Thanks JB...

I have been doing some research on the web about this. There is a web site for the leather archives which was most interesting but not very helpful.

Needless to say the information provided there is a comprehensive history of the leather scene.

For those who are interested here is the web site:


Leather Archives

Well, the Leather Archives is a relatively new project, so i am sure in time it will become more usefull.
There's a good example of what we were talking about, Cellis, the leather Archive project is run, I believe, by lesbians.

 

[cellis]

Really...

I knew that the Gay and Lesbian communities helped to fund the Museaum and that Joseph Bean was the executive director.

I have been the oral history section and I have been quite interested in it.

 

[MotorCitySam]

Boy, I tell you, the more I think I have learned, the more I find out how much there is to learn.
Thank you for that link, I will do some reading there.

 

[catalina_francisco]

So much to learn, so little time!!

Catalina

 

[Netzach]

I'm on a leather history listserv which is very active and very lively, and few people can come to any singular agreement on the whole thing - what it is, what it was.

I would characterise certain things about the leather community as I know it now, these may not have been built into the 50's 60's origins of the community, but they seem to be characteristics I find there as it sits today. I consider myself a pretty mainstram pan BDSM person with a strong leaning towards a Leather personal style.

1. You find families. Hierarchical, sometimes, sometimes not, people have a strong sense of the boy or girl who was trained by Daddy Sir or Mistress such and such, who used to be Daddy Sir or Mistress's girl or boy. "Daddy's Daddy" or "Daddy's Ma'am" is a much more common notion than it is in other BDSM factions, and there's no need to paint everyone as a switch, who started as a bottom. Lineage is a big deal and knowledge is passed on from senior to junior sometimes in a formalized or ritualized way.

2. Service is the overriding expectation from a bottom, even more than "being controlled." Slaves are more often expected to *self* regulate and *self* police. And you'd better be useful and learn some skills if you're a boy/boi especially. Bootblacking is a popular one, but all kinds of household chores and management are expected.

3. There are shared rituals and symbols within subcommunities. I've heard 50 versions of "the right way to Texas pin someone" so I don't really believe this was ever done all one way, but within a city or a club, you'd find some uniformity.

I was a member of a mixed gender, pansexual, but mostly queer leather club from 1999-2003. Our membership included one man and one woman trained by people commonly described as "old guard." That's the extent of my connections to that community. I was sponsored into the club by the gentleman who was old guard trained.