Time For An Important Discussion
This week a review by Guy Baldwin about a highly controversial book on leather protocol posted to Leatherati. If you consider yourself part of the BDSM/leather/fetish/kink world in any way, I recommend you read it. I consider it one of the more important works of writing done in the scene in a long time, in large part because I think it’s spawning a scene-wide discussion that is long overdue.
I think most experienced kinksters with a BDSM/leather bent know that much of the touting of Old Guard protocols, history and so on is complete fiction. Perhaps that’s a natural tendency of people to romanticize their subculture’s past. Regardless, it’s fiction nonetheless and when it’s presented as fact it does damage. Personally, I try hard to never use the word Old Guard unless there is no other option. I consider it misleading and so mired in mythology that it makes it essentially a useless reference most of the time.
Guy has, along with some others who have raised questions about this book, mitigated much of the damage and perhaps this moment in time will be a tipping point where the entire scene starts getting real about our history and the silliness of holding everyone to other people’s protocols and ways of being kinky. Sexual rebels and mavericks don’t do well with rigidity and, in fact, thrive best without it.
Let’s use this moment to begin to stop referencing the Old Guard in the same way many fundamentalist religions reference their beliefs as the unwavering truth. Adherence to Old Guard as a standard is no different than someone blinded by religious ideologies and dogma based on mythology as opposed to fact.
I am a kinky man. Sometimes I’m a leatherman. Sometimes I might call myself something else. But I resist being called Old Guard or any other categorization that limits me more than empowers and frees me. Let’s all try to assess our fellow kinksters on their own merits and let’s resist the tendency we often have to categorize and compartmentalize. It typically hurts us more than helps us.
Please foster discussions about this within your own kinky local clubs, organizations and circles. This needs to be discussed. Let’s grab this moment and let it help us set right what I and many feel has been the usurping of the BDSM/leather scene by a relatively few folks that continue to spew misinformation and falsehoods regarding history. Let’s also simultaneously begin to once again adopt a more rebel and maverick mentality within our ranks. This means we need to embrace the individually unique manifestation of everyone’s kink. Just because someone’s kink looks different than ours doesn’t make it wrong. In fact, it probably makes it more correct, at least for that person.
Thank you to Guy Baldwin for creating the foundation upon which these discussions can now more openly take place. The time has come for this to happen.
11 Comments on “Time For An Important Discussion”
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Toby Wolf
February 3, 2012 at 12:19 pmThank you for adding to this… When I was young & green I really DID think, (for the short time it took before Sensei & elders cuffed me upside my head), that everyone had the same, (or very similar), experiences I had encountered and if they did’t, why of COURSE they were doing it wrong…chuckle…
I suspect that is a common experience among all of us in our youthful enthusiasm and starry-eyed wonder, (not to mention, at least in my case, respect and yes, even adoration for my mentor & the Leather Brothers of our tribe), to take on a ‘this is THE right way’ attitude. Its part of the experience of the freeing of our dark side into the light…its part of youth’s way of figuring out what is their individual ‘personal perspective’. I think, sociologically & psychologically, its also part of growth – identifying strongly with a particular tribe and ‘circling the wagons’ to defend that tribe…Its also strongly encouraged in so many ways by our xenophobic culture. However, I scratch my head at those older folk who seem to never have grown beyond that. Who demand others have a strict adherence to THEIR way/path/methods etc. Perhaps they have never developed the secure sense of self necessary to move beyond that?
In any case, I’ve encountered too many younger, (when in the heck did I start using that word for anyone under 40????), well meaning, good hearted, Leathermen who went on the bandwagon of that book, (and subsequent *academy* which the author publicly proclaimed was THE only accredited school to earn a Master’s Cover), who either a) were embarrassed because they had ‘been doing it wrong’, or b) used this knowledge to adjust their own behavior, rules, protocols, etc. & then blasted anyone doing it differently of being a ‘phoney’. Guy’s review and your blog post will hopefully spread widely enough to jerk some of them up short and make them re-examine the whole ‘old guard spoof’ of borg-ish assimilation….
peace
M. Wolf
Kassie
February 3, 2012 at 12:35 pmAs I said to Caro 6 months ago – there’s blood in the water and it continues to redden the streams.
People are tired of this mashed together fictional ‘history’ that people try to pass off as truth. If you need to write a book to ‘set the record straight’ or to finally demystify ‘X’, then you probably aren’t the right person to be doing it in the first place.
What people fail to remember sometimes, and Guy so aptly reminded us of, is that there are still lots of people who were there and have first hand knowledge of names and dates and places. And thank your deity of choice for that.
randy (aka tuck)
February 3, 2012 at 12:48 pmThe definition of old guard has always been suspect to me. It often seems like it means whatever [ ] is claiming it means (and mostly so that [ ] can get whatever he wants at that moment in time). It also begs the question is there a new guard? If so, what rules do/don’t apply?
To me, none of that matters except for the pact that I have made with my guy(s). That connection is what is hot, not some silly concept of rules.
Moloko Velocet
February 3, 2012 at 1:04 pmRace, why are you buying into this?
We know the TRUTH, and that TRUTH is that John’s book strikes close to home. He has exposed the secrets of the OLD GUARD to the world, and now people like you and Guy are deliberately spreading misinformation and myths about this all powerful and formerly mythical secret elite society that is not only responsible for manipulating all aspects of leather society, but also has deep ties into the OLD EUROPEAN HOUSES and dates back the time of the KNIGHTS TEMPLAR. You and your ILLUMINATI disinformation agents have lost the war, the TRUTH is out there, and now that we have access of the MYSTICAL POWERS of the OLD GUARD TRADITION we can become like GODS.
Race Bannon
February 3, 2012 at 1:17 pmMoloko, I sincerely hope your post is a humorous one and not to be taken seriously. If you did post it as a serious comment, then I respectfully disagree.
boy erik
February 3, 2012 at 2:33 pmLOL @moloko velocet.
as a designer in tech looking in from the outside at companies with serious design cred (apple, yahoo, sony, etc.) it’s easy to imagine that there’s a rich history built up over time so that the current design processes had their mettle tested and How It’s Done Noe Must Be The Right Way. looking deeper at the deliverables they create seems to back that up: they look so tight, so refined, so rich with meaning. then as a designer on the inside, you discover these were all myths. there is a sort of institutional knowledge that’s passed in written, oral, and even what appears to be psychic means, but it’s really just smart people doing what they love, improvising really well so that it appears to be a flawlessly choreographed piece.
Shuphrique
February 4, 2012 at 11:52 amMoloko is being bad again. Shame on you, Moloko, shame, shame.
(Heeheeheeheehee.)
Patrick Kellogg
February 16, 2012 at 10:38 amI think it’s a shame that Guy Baldwin wasn’t invited to be a member of the Council of Elders during the seventies. Maybe he didn’t know the right people. Anyway, it’s a shame he wasn’t a part of the Old Guard…. maybe it’s not too late for him to join. He should read John Weal’s book – it has a lot of really good details in it.
Race Bannon
February 16, 2012 at 10:59 amPatrick, how true. I’m sure Guy feels left out of what was clearly such an important San Francisco leather institution (not). 😉
Leslie Langsdorff
April 19, 2012 at 10:59 amI haven’t read the book, but old guard refers, at least to my understanding, to the 50-60+ Leather crowd. I used to think I was, too. Then I remembered, I’m too young to be. I like protocols, I grew up a military brat and very cut and dry, but there’s more to me than leather boots, slaves or anything else this life offers. I have to be me, all the other people were taken already, anyway.
Ghee Phua
September 13, 2012 at 7:40 pmI haven’t read the book so I can’t comment on it. However, from my personal understanding of what Old Guard is, I like it. I can understand that it isn’t for everyone. But then to each his own.
Rather than seeing the Old Guard ideas as a standard, or end all and be all, I would venture to say that it is an attitude just like the New Guard is also one. What I think is really more applicable would be whatever works mutually for the parties involved in the play scene.
And I agree with you that there is no one right way of doing anything. What is truly limiting or dangerous is whenever any idea whether old or new, holds back anyone from expressing himself or herself.