Copyright

The terms "The Next Guard," "Next Guard," "Next Guard Leather," "Next Guard BDSM," and "Next Guard Protocol" are owned and operated by the owners of nextguardbdsm.com as purchased in 2007 and the intellectual property of this blog belongs solely to its contributors and shall not be used or copied without the express written consent of said owners. This statement is dated August 17, 2007.

Your Money - Your Loss

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BDSM 101 - Class 03: Leaps and Bounds

Hello class. This is Class 03 of BDSM101. Links to previous classes for this course are listed at the end of this post.

An note about the Laboratory Sessions for BDSM101. All the Labs for this course are self-initiated and self-paced. I urge you to review the class notes before undertaking a Lab, to follow the class instructions as closely as possible, and most importantly to use your head, and to use your common sense, and to try to keep a clear and predominantly sober mind when you take on a new goal, new scene, new Top, or new bottom.

Today I'll be be talking about Bondage. I'll discuss the iconography of Bondage, it's prime role in BDSM play, some simple guidelines for successful Bondage scenes, and the responsibilities for both bottoms and Tops when using Bondage in erotic play.

In Timothy L. Taylor's "The Prehistory of Sex: Four Million Years of Human Sexual Culture" the author illustrates his assertion that polymorphic sexuality has always been a part of human culture, with photographs of Paleolithic stone sculptures of women, made during the Ice Age (circa 26,000 years ago), with their wrists seemingly chained to each other. Similar sculptures represent women with their arms being held by straps tied behind their backs.

I have a hunch that human beings have been tying each other up or restricting each other with inanimate objects and bodily force for as long as we've been human. In fact Bondage itself could very well be one of the initial markers of our humanity, in that instead of the chasing off, or outright destruction of another being, there was a choice to use tools or confinement to restrict and control. Perhaps this was first done with trapping animals with cages or snares, and later was done with people. Perhaps there was an intent to commit violence later (i.e. rape), perhaps instead Bondage was used as a way to avoid further violence, to hold captives to trade later for example, or to restrict the antisocial behavior of another tribe member.

There's one form of bondage that Taylor describes that enabled our ancestors to fully walk upright, and freed the use of the arms from locomotion. That was the baby sling, a piece of leather, that confined an infant and restricted her movement, as well as holding her close to her mother or female relative to aid nursing, or close to her father or male relative to aid bonding. This use of a tool - the pappoose or baby sling - to emulate and echo the enveloped and nurtured environment of the womb points us to an ancient and deep-seated cultural significance, something that perhaps is tapped or alluded to in the particular comfort and euphoria that some erotically bound people experience.

Tying up another being asserts dominance. It hinders the bound one from freely interacting with the world and with time. Bondage can be both a nasty trick and and an act of creation or re-definition. There are all sorts of reasons to bind or confine another person, some benign, some malevolent. Malevolent reasons could include coercion, rape, torture, mutilation, humiliation, and murder. Benign reasons could include ritual protection during epileptic seizure, illness, or intoxication. Bondage is a part of the earliest cultural and religious myths: the trickster gods Prometheus and Loki are chained, the West African Anansi, sometimes depicted as a spider, creates the world and tricks and binds various animals to become the King of All Stories. Other Spider Deities with their particular Bondage talents feature in mythology all around the world as creators or tricksters, like the Oceanian Marawa, the Sumerian Uttu, the Japanese Inari, the Lakota Iktomi, and the Hopi Taiowa.

Bondage is a trick, it's a way to control a Trick, it's a way to create a new role for the bound one, it's a way to recreate for the Binder. The power relationship between the bound and the Binder could not be clearer. The hindrance of mobility and the ability to affect the environment renders the bound powerless. The responsibility and authority for the bound's well being, and the power over life and death now belong to the Binder. Look at that word "authority" . The person with authority is an author, a creator. Who creates and has authority over life and death? a goddess does, a god does. Bondage in its primeval ritualistic nature is playing at being a god.

Bondage is a common ritual in religious mysteries, for example binding hands with cloth or rope is often used in marriage ceremonies. In many traditions, seekers of divine blessings give themselves up for confinement or binding. In the worship of Mithras and Cybele, an initiate was shut up in a chamber beneath a killing floor, where a sacrificial animal's blood would rain down upon them. The Immersion Baptism of different Christian sects requires an initiate to bind herself, with arms crossed over the chest in the attitude of the dead, and to give up her mobility and her will to act, so that the priest or pastor, in the place of God, can take control over her life and death [by drowning] and give her a new birth, a new life, a new role - as one of the saved.

Sounds heavy, huh?

BDSM is about play, it's about taking these heavy cultural associations, these deep dark facets of our histories and our souls, and making something creative and exhilarating and illuminating out of them. As BDSM players we can sometimes treat the meaning and the thrill of Bondage casually and even with levity, but the mechanics of Bondage must always be treated with the utmost seriousness. Bondage is a very serious game. The bottom gives trust and gives up power. The Top takes trust, and takes up power. With Bondage, the Top receives more power than She actually needs. Her standing and reputation depend on what She does with this excess power. If She abuses it, She risks disaffection, perhaps social isolation, perhaps at the extreme end, even Her own incarceration and destruction.

With Bondage, the bottom gives up more power than he actually thought he would. The standing and reputation of the bottom rely on how he reacts to this diminution of mobility and ability to affect his situation. The trust he gives, his capacity to remain still, and compliant will aid the Top to do a much better and ultimately more comfortable and enjoyable job. Novice bottoms should not be gagged or hooded initially, (that should be one of the discussed limits with Tops.) Any use of gags or hoods is really a BDSM201 sort of activity, it's not for beginners.

A Bondage Top must be competent with the method or device that binds or confines. That's why I advise novice tops to learn from an accomplished Dominant as an apprentice. Novice tops can also teach themselves methods and devices, if they're willing to be patient and assiduous about becoming proficient, and if they seriously study the attributes and drawbacks of the Bondage methods that they plan to use. There's a whole continuum of value in Bondage. On one hand there's learning how to use simple velcro straps, and on the other hand there's the study of the elegant and complex Kinbaku-bi (Japanese style bondage.) There's the down and dirty use of a belt to restrain a bottom's arms behind the back, and then there's the very delicate and potentially risky use of the same belt around a bottom's throat. The aforementioned gags and hoods are a good example of devices that can be dangerous if not used or monitored correctly. Only after the Bondage has reached a plateau of stability, with the Top in continual observation of the bloodflow to extremities and the relaxed pace of breathing, should any sort of device be used that could possibly restrict an airway. Any use of such devices needs constant monitoring, a Top must be able to see and hear the effects of such devices at all times at close range.



The Exercise for this class is about the continuum of value in Bondage. In the graph above, the "Orb of Bondage" ;-), there are two gradients: Danger to Safety, and Coarse to Refined. Floating within that graph are 14 points. Each point signifies a type or method of Bondage. The task set before you is to devise and describe 14 different types or methods by their placement on the graph. I'll help you out with a couple of examples:

3. (Highly Safe, Highly Refined): In a Public Place, let's say a symphony concert, I walk the bottom into a stall in the mensroom, and after he locks the stall door, I tell him to take off, fold, and give me his pants, his underwear, and his cellphone. I tell him I'll be back when the 2nd act's done.

10. (Somewhat Dangerous, A Bit Coarse): After using handcuffs to restrain the bottom's hands behind his back, I take him for a ride to the country. When we get there, I use a nightstick to lift his wrists higher and cause his shoulders and head to lower, and then we go for a walk for half a mile. Then I put a black hood over his head, and walk him a quarter of a mile. Then I attach shackles to his ankles. I force him to walk the last hundred yards shackled, and then lead him up a railroad bed until he's in the middle of the tracks. There I force him down on his ass, and use a plastic ziptie to link the chain of the handcuffs to the chain of the shackles. I walk away, pulling out my knife to have it ready. And then we wait to hear the sound of a train.

Complete the other 12 points.


BDSM 101 - Previous Classes:

Class 01: Making an Omelette - Breaking Some Eggs

Class 02: Making an Omelette - Technique

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.

Easier Said Than Done

Anonymous posed an excellent question to Me:

"Do you feel that by not "coming out" as a Leatherman/woman is a sign of weakness?"

Obviously a person's standing is weaker if they have to hide or suppress parts of their life. Early Christians were weaker in the reign of Nero, and had to worship in catacombs. Africans forced into slavery were weaker when they had to disguise their own religions and culture as merely quaint customs. Native Americans, when forced onto reservations in the 19th century, were weaker when they had to use their arts to hold on to their language and religion. In the other day's New York Times, there was an article about contemporary Wiccans that have to keep their beliefs secret in a Bible-thumper neighborhood.

There's a long history of hidden communities in the world. Being open would have meant ostracism and death for them. But they devised ways to communicate and connect with each other. They were patient and valiant in their resistance to assimilation.

If you would jeopardize your job, or career, or your livelihood, or a child's security by being Out in Leather, then I sympathize with you, because many years ago, I got canned from a job for being gay and out, and it really sucked. It was hard. But I learned who My friends were, and I learned who among My family stood by me. Being Out got easier and easier. I also changed careers, and I was fortunate in My choice, that I can dress and act the way I choose.

I certainly understand a need to be circumspect and private about BDSM in public. At the grocery store, I like seeing people in boots and flagging a hanky, but I don't want to see someone in assless chaps at the checkout. But leather itself isn't as transgressive as it once was. I live down the street from a Harley Davidson dealership, and every weekend I see every shape, and size, and gender, and age of biker roaring up and down my street wearing leather. I remember seeing Pat Boone on an awards show wearing leather pants and a vest and a collar even and that was 10 years ago!

As far as BDSM, I've known people who enjoy the "kinkiness" of secrets, and we all have darkness in our characters, and things we feel we should conceal. I do think people play safer and healthier when they're open, and I've seen how living openly as a Leather/BDSM person enriches more facets of life than just sexuality.

What can you afford to lose if you embrace and display elements of your deeper nature? Can you afford to lose people that don't respect you? Can you afford to lose family members that would abandon you? Can you afford to lose a career that destroys your spirit? Can you afford to live a less materialistic life to focus more on the intangible?

In "No Peaceful Warriors!", Ambrose Hollingworth Redmoon wrote:

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than one's fear. The timid presume it is lack of fear that allows the brave to act when the timid do not. But to take action when one is not afraid is easy. To refrain when afraid is also easy. To take action regardless of fear is brave."

We Are Family - sort of...

I know that so many of My fellow gay men think that Leather is just a provocative and decorative and non-essential feature for a small segment of gay identity, the same way that they're dismissive of our other "fringes" like elder gays, or faery gays, or opera queens, or drag queens. The logo above is from a group at the University of California at San Diego, and the letters stand for "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Queer, Intersex, and Allies." (Originally I wondered if the "A" stood for "Asexuals".)

Often I see this sort of dismissive attitude towards fringe communities represented in the so-called "mainstream" gay media, which hypocritically uses titillating images of Leather People to attract viewers and readers, while not serving the BDSM community with a proportionate amount of content. There's also a fair amount of misogyny and even outright derision of lesbians, bisexual, and transgender people among gay men. So even in the parallel "Family" that I've joined with My own gay friends, there is a societal norm that doesn't necessarily value BDSM players, their variety, and their particular culture. Even around a gay Thanksgiving dinner table, there is conservatism and liberalism, white and black sheep - there's still plenty to hot-headedly argue about.

Our value to our birth family, our invented family, and our BDSM Family is that We stay honest to Ourselves, and that We stay honorable and compassionate towards others. We honestly make Our own choices, and we either honor, or have compassion for the choices that other people have made. Committments to honesty and honor come out of the military heritage of the Old Guard's founders, who lived their convictions openly and proudly. Honor and compassion for another person's difference was a hallmark of the New Guard, whose members were highly concerned not only with physical safety, but also the need to have a safe and supportive mental environment.

What I'd like to see the Next Guard espouse besides the qualities of honesty, honor, and compassion, is the Valiant. Being valiant or brave in the sense that Italians use the words "Bravo" and "Brava", meaning not only that a person is fearless, but that he's resolute, and determined, even audacious, even a bit showy. When we yell "Brava" after an opera singer sings an aria, we show her that we're enthralled [from the word thrall meaning a slave or servant] - we're slaves to her talents. A valiant opera singer like Maria Callas perservered and overcame her insecurities, and even if she didn't conquer absolutely every fan or critic, in recordings, she still holds our utmost attention.

Being the Valiant one of our families, the one who's got the nerve to try new things, and who has the cojones to stand up for someone who's weaker, who is gallant in defeat, who dares to live fully and out loud - those should be Our values, that's what we should give back to Our families, and perhaps We can inspire Our siblings and friends to become more dauntless and self-reliant by Our example. And what I'd particularly hope to see, is that the gear and the symbols that Leather and BDSM people use for themselves become associated with an Ideal Person, someone who possesses a valiant, honest, honorable, and compassionate character.