Pussies and Wussies

Yesterday on the Joe.My.God. blog, Joe had a post on the recent controversy with the ban of partly transitioned Female to Male (FTM) transsexuals from participating in the Chicago Hellfire Club, which was covered by Heather Cassell in the May 24th Bay Area Reporter.

I'll say right up front that the only ban I would support in any club or organization is an Asshole Ban. I would much rather hang out at a Leather Play Party or Leather Run or event with someone that was competent and respectful of Leather and BDSM traditions than with the quite a few IML contestants, who, though quite fetching in their brand new leathers, have about as much interest in Leather traditions, and BDSM sex, as cats are interested in where their cat food and cat toys come from. I don't know why the Hellfire Club Leadership is so freaked out about Men with Cunts, it's not as if the Inferno hasn't been attended by cunts before, because I've certainly met a few of them. Ba-dum-dum-ping! [rimshot and cymbal - Hello Ladies and Germs - is this thing on?]

Gentlemen and Ladies, I have met Vaginas, and to paraphrase some wonderful old school African-American preacher man or another - "God don't make no wrongful sexual orifices." A vagina as sexual orifice is quite nice. Cozy. Almost if it had been designed to be a pleasure to be in, imagine that! Women aren't My preferred sexual partners, but it wasn't because they had vaginas, in fact if you could find Me a hot kinky sub that had a vagina to go with his (flesh and blood) dick and ass I'd sure like to take him out for a spin.

Wonderful women, along with children, horses, dogs, convertibles, swimming pools, RVs, vacation homes, and moving dollies - I love all of these, but I don't want one Myself, instead I want My friends to have them and to take care of them, and to invite Me on an infrequent basis to enjoy their company, sort of like a roué uncle that jets in for a few hours for a visit, distributes presents, holds a baby until it poops, hands it back to the father, and then calls a cab and jets back off to Monte Carlo or Tahiti.

It's really annoying to Me to see gay men, and especially Leathermen express misogyny and trannypanic. If Old Guard Leathermen were sexual outlaws, and fought and fucked their way to freedom, and had the strength to define themselves by their own standards, then why can't some gay men and Leathermen encourage and support other people to do the same thing?

The argument behind the Hellfire Club ban on FTMs is that the play space is male only, and that any sort of feminine influence or energy will spoil the whole scene. Faggot please. In the first place there are plenty of nasty and proficient Leather Tops I've met who are masculine in many important ways, and feminine in others. Like when they open their mouth and a purse falls out. Secondly all sorts of dumb stuff can spoil the whole scene that has nothing to do with masculine energy, like for instance - a bottom who isn't cleaned out properly, or somebody having an epileptic seizure, or someone who's fucked up on crystal, or someone who's wearing a thong when it's clearly an abomination. Thirdly if your masculinity is so fragile that you blanch and lose your lunch at the sight of female genitalia, then "Gurl, you ain't that butch as all that anyway." And Fourthly, if you as a Leatherman think that being a good Top or Master doesn't sometimes draw on traditionally feminine qualities and feminine sex energy then You Sir, are an Ignoramus, and You're probably a lousy lay.

Oh, but I hear some of you say "But it's not fair! Womyn and Wimmin music festivals have banned men and Male to Female trannies and Leatherdykes who flag or represent for years! Shouldn't we have something for us, just for us too?" Oh Really. You're sticking up for Segregation. Oh yeah, that works. Not. And two wrongs don't make a right either. And frankly totally feminine music without a little male energy is about as interesting as a sack of hair.

But you say "Cultures lose their strength when they assimilate and homogenize! And if a lady looks at my pee pee it won't stay hard!". You've got a point about assimilation, because tribes do lose their cohesion when they're not isolated, and some sorts of beauty are lost, you're right. But conversely, a hell of a lot of ugliness is made obsolete and discarded as well. The Catholic Church is a good example of that, it's an institution that is replete with beautiful art and architecture and literature. And as progressive Catholics over the centuries have resisted the Vatican, they've caused cracks and schisms over the years, and so the Catholic Tribe has consistently lost power and influence.

So you say "Yeah, but we're already besieged as Leathermen as it is - we've got to protect every shred of Old Guard Tradition that we can." Oh Really. Old Guard had it's glorious moments, but it wasn't exactly a Perfect Utopia. I respected My Mentors and listened closely to their lessons, but about half of them were functional alcoholics, and I wonder sometimes if AIDS hadn't claimed so many so early, that maybe drinking or smoking or drugs or heart attacks would have taken them a few years later. It was a culture of excess after all.

Not that I was so crazy about the pansexual New Guard either - all those fucking demonstrations and sash contests - sheesh, and all those new terms and honorific titles that were such a pain to remember - Lord Whatever - Goddess Whosis - boi wheredidthatcomefrom.

Anyone that knows Me knows how important Leather culture and BDSM history is to me. I started Leather Flash Mob here in Houston, which has been followed by Leather Invasion in New York and Men in Gear in San Francisco, just because I wanted to see Leather people out and visible and having a good time. I don't want the Leather Scene to die, or to just be confined to Vacation Weekend Events, or to peter out with one on one Internet generated encounters. I want Leatherpeople to live out loud every weekend in every town, and a few weeknights as well.

Mistress Tiffany came up with the Next Guard Leather BDSM meme. She asked Me to join her to write and figure out what the Next Guard could be. It's going to be something, because for anything to survive in this world, it's got to evolve, and that goes for Leather and BDSM as well. I know for damn sure that it will have a sense of humor, which was sorely lacking in both the Old Guard and New Guard ethos.

In the year 2525, if Man is still alive....will people even wear leather per se? maybe using animals will be taboo by that time. But I know for certain, that even if Leatherpeople of the Future aren't wearing literal animal skins, they'll have plenty of ways to play with bondage and discipline and sadomasochism and fetishism, because human beings have always done that and always will.

Lolcat image by Phapster

The Wild and the Tame

Mistress Tiffany wrote a comprehensive article on "Protocol positions", and to Her post: "A protocol analogy" someone asked if Her protocols were Leather or BDSM protocols.

What's so Next Guard about Mistress Tiffany's article about protocol positions is the synthesis between the ancient BDSM, the historically recent Old Guard, and the remotely ancient and contemporarily fashionable Yoga. Yoga, especially it's emphasis on breathing and on the experience of the present moment, is an excellent discipline for all Next Guard Leather and BDSM people, and especially those who identify as submissives.

Let's look though in more depth about the historical bases of protocol positions.

Big "L" Leather is different than little "L" leather. Big "L" Leather is a culture: a set of rituals and customs and attitude. Little "L" leather is a fetsh for the actual leather object: whip, shoes, boots, hat. Whereas leather has been a fetish for human beings since we lived in caves, Leather originates from the nascent gay American culture in the years after World War II. BDSM though is something that we can trace throughout human history. We can find postures and attitudes and language that reflect BDSM eroticism in sculpture, and pottery, and painting, and literature that goes back thousands of years. And in every culture that makes artifacts - Egyptian, Chinese, Mayan, Persian, Celtic, Greek, Roman... Historians often hesitate or refuse to attribute a sexual, consensual BDSM framework to ancient art, but artists make art, not historians. The natural tension and dramatic oppostion inherent in BDSM Powerplay often make it an irresistible subject for artists, even if historians choose to look the downplay, ignore, or obfuscate it.

All the way back to the Story of Gilgamesh, erotic and epic poetry celebrates the heros and heroines that struggle for love, who suffer, aquiesce, surmount, and triumph, in love if not in life. Sometimes the language about Powerplay is direct, and compares lovers to masters, mistresses, and slaves. Sometimes the imagery is indirect, but it speaks to our deepest erotic sense, and we know there was sexual dimension to the power differential between lovers, or between celebrants in a ritual, as in the famous frescos in the Pompeiian Villa of the Mysteries. [the artist David Dashiell, 1952-1993, referenced these frescos in his monumental Queer Mysteries.]

In those frescoes, we can see different people whose postures reveal their status in the ritual. There are some submissive postures that would fit right along side those that Mistress Tiffany described. These dominant and submissive postures are ancient, and not even necessarily exclusively human. The language of the body expresses power states for all vertebrate animals. Indeed many yoga positions take the name of animals - besides Downward Facing Dog, there are countless others; Crow Pose, Eagle Pose, Monkey Pose, Cobra Pose...

But Leather Culture is fairly recent. When Old Guard traditions began, in the years after World War II, the memory of military protocol was still fresh, and there was a continuace of military bearing and carriage in Leather Play. Tops often acted like Drill Instructors and bottoms acted like fresh recruits. Whereas I think dominant and submissive postures are not only eternal with human beings, but with most animals, the then recent memories of Standing at Attention, Parade Rest, Avoidance of Eye Contact, along with all the typical Boot Camp humiliations (push ups, holding a rifle above the head, using a toothbrush to clean a toilet or floor, etc) all became Play rituals for the early Leathermen.

Conversely though, for many Old Guard members of the early motorcycle centered clubs, and also for the men dishonorably discharged out of the military, and further, those men that scorned the military and the blind acceptance of authority, there was a whole new outlook and set of postures and language. These men, and also women and transpeople, were performing a set of postures, and using language that wasn't merely negligent or lazy, instead it was intended to be socially and politically provocative. They were surly, smart-ass, wise cracking, slouching, shuffling, sexy. It's the way detectives and heros in Film Noir movies act, or the way Marlon Brando and his gang acted in "The Wild Ones". It was a rebellion of the individual against societal norms. Sticking it to the squares. Flipping off the Man.

-"What are you rebelling against?"

- "Whaddya got?"

I enjoy seeing men perform both sets of Old Guard Postures. Respect is a turn on, and sometimes insolence that I can dominate and reform is a turn on as well. I've found that gradually formalizing My own posture often results in a subsequent formalization of a sub's posture, even without recourse to words or a physical response. Then with subtle actions, like the ministrations of a dressage horseman, I can refine the posture to My liking.