Leather subculture - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The leather subculture denotes practices and styles of dress organized around sexual activities. Wearing leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

garments is one way that participants in this culture self-consciously distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual cultures. Leather culture is most visible in gay communities

Gay community

The gay community, or LGBT community, is a loosely defined grouping of LGBT and LGBT-supportive people, organizations and subcultures, united by a common culture and civil rights movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality...

and most often associated with gay men ("leathermen"), but it is also reflected in various ways in the gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

, lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

, bisexual, and straight worlds. Many people associate leather culture with BDSM

BDSM

BDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...

(Bondage/Discipline, Dominance/Submission, Sado/Masochism, also called "SM" or "S&M") practices and its many subcultures. But for others, wearing black leather

Leather

clothing is an erotic

Eroticism

Eroticism is generally understood to refer to a state of sexual arousal or anticipation of such – an insistent sexual impulse, desire, or pattern of thoughts, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality and romantic love...

fashion

Fashion

Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...

that expresses heightened masculinity

Masculinity

Masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of or appropriate to a man. The term can be used to describe any human, animal or object that has the quality of being masculine...

or the appropriation of sexual power; love of motorcycle

Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...

s and independence; and/or engagement in sexual kink

Kink (sexual)

In human sexuality, kinkiness and kinky are terms used to refer to a playful usage of sexual concepts in an accentuated, and unambiguously expressive form....

or leather fetishism.

Popular and social origins

Gay

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

male leather culture has existed since the late 1940s, when it likely grew out of post-WWII

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

biker culture

Biker culture

Biker culture can refer to:* Motorcycle clubs, groups of individuals whose primary interest and activities involve motorcycles.* Outlaw motorcycle clubs, also called a one percenter clubs or motorcycle gangs....

. Early gay leather bars were subcultural versions of the motorcycle club

Motorcycle club

A motorcycle club is a group of individuals whose primary interest and activities involve motorcycles.In the U.S. the abbreviation, MC or MCC, can have a special social meaning from the point of view of the outlaw subcultures, and is usually reserved by them for those clubs that are mutually...

with pioneering gay motorcycle clubs including the Satyrs, established in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

in 1954; Oedipus, also established in Los Angeles in 1958, and the New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

Motorbike Club. Early San Francisco clubs included the Warlocks and the California Motor Club.

These gay clubs, like the clubs of straight motorcycle culture in general, reflected a disaffection with the mainstream culture of post-World War II America, a disaffection whose notoriety — and therefore appeal — expanded after the sensationalized news coverage of the Hollister "riot"

Hollister riot

The Hollister riot occurred during the Gypsy Tour motorcycle rally in Hollister, California, from July 4 to July 6, 1947. The event was sensationalized by yellow news reports of bikers "taking over the town" and staged photos of public rowdiness....

of 1947. The 1953 film The Wild One
The Wild One
The Wild One is a 1953 outlaw biker film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. It is famed for Marlon Brando's iconic portrayal of the gang leader Johnny Strabler.-Basis:...

starring Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

wearing jeans, a T-shirt, a leather jacket, and muir cap, played on pop-cultural fascination with the Hollister "riot" and promoted an image of masculine independence that resonated with some gay men dissatisfied with a culture which stereotyped gay men as effeminate. To that end, gay motorcycle culture also reflected some men's disaffection with the coexistent gay cultures more organized around high culture

High culture

High culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture...

, popular culture

Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...

(especially musical theater), and/or camp style

Camp (style)

Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...

. Perhaps as a result, the leather community that emerged from the motorcycle clubs also became the practical and symbolic location for gay men's open exploration of kink

Kink

* A twist or bend in something such as rope, cable, hair or IG curveKink or KINK can refer to:* Kink , a colloquial term for non-normative sexual behavior...

and S&M

BDSM

Traditions

Throughout the history of the leather subculture, a variety of traditions have been observed, often diligently. While most or all are based on military protocols and ritual, these traditions varied widely between regions, causing much debate today over which traditions are the "original" or "true" traditions, or whether the "romanticized versions of leather history" ever existed at all.

As time has progressed and BDSM has become more mainstream (see below), the traditions of leather has adapted. The first major evolution has become known as "New Leather" or "New Guard". However, even this is the subject of some disagreement, as many noted authors and historians assert that there is little or no substantive differences.

Today, the leather subculture is one of many facets to semi-organized alternative sexuality. Many individuals describe long periods of introspection leading to their choice to identify as "leather". Others do not necessarily associate their leather lifestyle with BDSM, and simply enjoy the sensory experience of leather.

Representations

The more specifically homoerotic aesthetics of men's leather culture drew on other sources as well, including military and police uniforms. This influence is particularly evident in the graphical illustrations of leathermen found in the work of Tom of Finland

Tom of Finland

Touko Laaksonen, best known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland was a Finnish artist notable for his stylized androerotic and fetish art and his influence on late twentieth century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images" by cultural historian Joseph W...

. The pornographic films of one of his models Peter Berlin

Peter Berlin

Armin Hagen Freiherr von Hoyningen-Huene is a photographer, artist, filmmaker, clothing designer/sewer, model and gay sex symbol best know by his stage name Peter Berlin. In the early to mid-1970s, Berlin created some of the most recognizable gay male erotic imagery of his time...

, such as his 1973 film Nights in Black Leather, also reflected and promoted the leather subcultural aesthetic.

Aspects of leather culture beyond the sartorial can also be seen in the 1970 murder mystery novel Cruising
Cruising (novel)
Cruising is a novel written by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker and published in 1970.The novel is about an undercover cop looking for a homosexual killer in the world of sadomasochism leather gay bars in Greenwich Village, New York....

by Jay Green. The novel was the basis for the 1980 movie Cruising
Cruising (film)
Cruising is a 1980 film directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino. The film is loosely based on the novel of the same name, by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker, about a serial killer targeting gay men, in particular those associated with the S&M scene.Poorly reviewed by critics,...

, which depicted aspects of the men's leather subculture for a wider audience.

Rob Halford

Rob Halford

Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is nicknamed the "Metal God" as a tribute to his influence on metal, and after the Judas Priest song of the same name from 1980's...

, the lead singer of heavy metal band Judas Priest

Judas Priest

Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...

, openly identifies as gay and wears black leather.

And lastly, perhaps no figure has more vividly represented the leather subculture in the popular imagination than the leatherman portrayed by Glenn Hughes of the Village People

Village People

Village People is a concept disco group that formed in the United States in 1977, well known for their on-stage costumes depicting American cultural stereotypes, as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics....

Association with BDSM

In recent decades the leather community has been considered a subset of BDSM culture rather than a descendant of gay culture. Even so, the most visibly organized SM community has been a subculture of the gay community

Gay community

, as evidenced by International Mr. Leather in the US (established 1979) and SM Gays in the UK (established 1981). Meanwhile, other subcultures have likewise appropriated various leather fashions and practices.

GLBT

The Leatherman's Handbook by Larry Townsend

Larry Townsend

Larry Townsend was the pseudonymous author of dozens of books including Run Little Leather Boy and The Leatherman's Handbook at pioneer erotic presses such as Greenleaf Classics and the Other Traveler imprint of Olympia Press.Growing up as a teenager of Swiss-German extraction in Los Angeles a...

, published in 1972, epitomizes the association of the leather subculture with BDSM. Townsend described in detail a community of gay males who wore leather and casually engaged in sadomasochistic sex with one another. Recreational drugs and alcohol were frequently used. Pairings were often just for one night or a few days. Participants often took a dominant role in one encounter but a submissive role in another (a practice known as "switching"). Townsend describes very little in the way of social hierarchy or organization within this culture, though he does convey a definite sense of community.

In 1970s leather culture, old guard leather culture is said to have existed as well. The old guard code emphasized strict formality and fixed roles (i.e. no switch

Switch (BDSM)

In BDSM, a switch is someone who participates in BDSM activities sometimes as a top and other times as a bottom or sometimes as a dominant and other times as a submissive. Partners may switch roles based on mood, desire, or to allow each partner to experience their preferred activity...

ing). Other old guard practices emphasized discipline, honor, brotherhood, and respect, and are said to have promoted a stricter lifestyle, education, and intra-community privilege based on successive ranks or levels.. In addition, a man would enter a leather family as a slave, then graduate to boy, sir, and finally Master. Rarely, if ever, was an individual allowed to "stay as a slave," although that might be the individual's leaning.

In the early 1980s and perhaps before, there was a rebellion against the old guard role rigidity. There was a new emphasis on choices, or identity: A person might identify as a slave or a Master instead of being forced to start from the bottom and work up. Despite initial resistance, there was an acceptance of these individual identities in the eighties, an era of pushing the edge in BDSM play. Men who lived in leather during the 1980s called their leather culture "new guard" although that term has changed again in the 1990s. New guard, or new leather, which describes an era in leather culture that started in the early 1990s, embraced switching and a greater variety of approaches to eroticism. An increasing number of pansexual clubs evolved as well.

Goth

Leather subcultural practices have also become a common, though perhaps not widespread, element of the goth subculture

Goth subculture

The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...

Demographics

Although gay men are the most visible symbol of the leather community, in 2010 there are numerous women who identify as leatherwomen - and women have the International Ms. Leather (IMsL) event as their corollary to International Mr. Leather (IML). Two examples are Joan Jett

Joan Jett

Joan Jett is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actress.She is best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts including their hit cover "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular...

, who has a leather pride sticker prominently displayed on her guitar, and Sandy "Mama" Reinhardt, who leads an international leather family and led the LGBT parade in full leather when she was the grand marshall.

Relatively few lesbian

Lesbian

women or heterosexuals were visible during the early emergence of the leather subculture. Pat Califia

Patrick Califia

Patrick Califia , born 1954 near Corpus Christi, Texas is a writer of nonfiction essays about sexuality and of erotic fiction and poetry. Califia is a bisexual trans man.-Biography:...

, who was a lesbian activist in the San Francisco leather subculture, is credited for defining the emergence of lesbian leather subculture. In 1978, Califia co-founded one of the first lesbian S/M groups, Samois

Samois

Samois was a lesbian-feminist BDSM organization based in San Francisco that existed from 1978 to 1983. It took its name from the fictional estate of Anne-Marie, a lesbian dominatrix character in Story of O, who pierces and brands O...

. Califia became a prolific contributor to lesbian and BDSM literary erotica and sex guides.

Although Samois may have been the first lesbian BDSM group, lesbian BDSM groups emerged in Los Angeles and New York in the early 1980s. Leather and Lace, a woman's BDSM support and social group, was founded in Los Angeles in 1980. The women of Leather and Lace learned the "old guard" traditions from the men of Avatar. Leather and Lace had a code of conduct, a uniform that could only be worn once a member earned the right. In New York, there was LSM. Only members of the club were allowed to know that LSM stood for Lesbian Sex Mafia.

In North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, with the possible exception of Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, gay men's leather culture continues to be associated with men above the age of 40.. As of 2010, this is changing. The kink/fetish/gear communities are merging with the leather community and there is an emergence of young leathermen and leatherwomen. In Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

younger men have combined the aesthetic and exploration of sexual power with the gay skinhead

Gay skinhead

A gay skinhead, also known as a gayskin or queerskin, is a gay person who identifies with the skinhead subculture, often out of sexual interest. Some gay skinheads have a sexual fetish for skinhead clothing styles, and some have a fetish for violence. Some are attracted to skinheads' outward...

movement and social-fraternal organizations like BLUF

BLUF (fetishism)

BLUF is an international fraternal organization of gay men and MSM sharing a fetishistic interest in leather breeches and uniforms. The leather breeches are worn inside tall leather boots known as jackboots...

.

Today, while some may still use the term strictly in the old-fashioned sense (i.e., the romanticized Old Guard), more than ever the leather subculture in the 21st century represents the activities of several major sub-communities. These include BDSM practitioners, whether high, low, or no protocol, and whether gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual, or pansexual. They also include people who have a preference for aggressive or masculine sexual styles; people who love motorcycles; people involved in kink

Kink (sexual)

In human sexuality, kinkiness and kinky are terms used to refer to a playful usage of sexual concepts in an accentuated, and unambiguously expressive form....

or leather fetishism; and people who participate in large-scale cultural and marketing events such as Folsom Street Fair

Folsom Street Fair

The Folsom Street Fair is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair held on the last Sunday in September and caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week"...

or leather-themed circuit parties.

Events

Numerous major cities host Leather Pride

Leather Pride flag

The Leather Pride Flag is a symbol used by the leather subculture since the 1990s. It was designed by Tony DeBlase in 1989, and was quickly embraced by the gay Leather community. It has since become associated with Leather in general and also with related groups.-History:The flag was designed by...

events, including San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair

Folsom Street Fair

The Folsom Street Fair is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair held on the last Sunday in September and caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week"...

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

's Folsom Street East, and Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

's International Mr. Leather.

Influence on mainstream culture

Styles of dress associated with gay men's leather culture also had influence on mainstream pop culture. It may be seen in the chains and leather or denim and leather look espoused by rock and heavy metal

Heavy metal fashion

Heavy metal fashion is the style of dress, body modification, make-up, hairstyle, and so on, taken on by fans of heavy metal, or, as they are often called, metalheads or headbangers.-Origins:...

bands. There are numerous popular images of Elvis from the 1960s fully clothed in black leather. 1970s rock acts such as Kiss, Black Sabbath etc. also wore an abundance of black leather garments. An early popular practitioner of this look in a heavy metal context was Rob Halford

Rob Halford

, the lead singer of the influential British heavy metal band Judas Priest

Judas Priest

. Halford (who is himself openly gay) wore a leather costume on stage as early as 1978, a look he described as originating in the gay leather subculture.

Museums and exhibitions

The 10000 square feet (929 m²), two-story Leather Archives and Museum

Leather Archives and Museum

The Leather Archives & Museum , based in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, USA, has much information and details on the beginning of the leather subculture and BDSM community...

, based in Chicago

Chicago

, has much information and details on the beginning of the leather subculture.

In addition to activities in Chicago, the LA&M serves the leather world by preserving material from various leather

Leather

communities, and sends traveling exhibits around the country.

In 2005, Viola Johnson

V. M. Johnson

V. M. Johnson is a leatherwoman, activist, author and archivist who embarked on her journey in the Leather/BDSM scene in the early 1970s...

started traveling with The Carter Johnson Leather Library [(http://www.leatherlibrary.org)] and telling stories from her 35 years of personal involvement in the leather subculture.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Popular and social origins

Traditions

Representations

Association with BDSM

GLBT

Goth

Demographics

Events

Influence on mainstream culture

Museums and exhibitions

See also

Further reading

External links