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Copyright by Andrew Raymond Campbell 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Andrew Raymond Campbell Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: BOUND TOGETHER: BEING-WITH GAY AND LESBIAN LEATHER COMMUNITIES AND VISUAL CULTURES, 1966-1984 Committee: Ann Reynolds, Supervisor Henry Abelove Cherise Smith John Clarke Neville Hoad BOUND TOGETHER: BEING-WITH GAY AND LESBIAN LEATHER COMMUNITIES AND VISUAL CULTURES, 1966-1984 by Andrew Raymond Campbell, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2012 Dedication For feminists and queers; empowerment in misbehaving. Acknowledgements Bound Together would not have happened without the unequivocal support, the numerous gracious and empathetic comments, and the deep knowing of my advisor Ann Reynolds. As I type these sentences I realize ―advisor‖ seems an inappropriate word, as does mentor. Truly, you have been the choicest companion in this journey, and I can‘t imagine going through it under another‘s guidance. Thank you for your questions, your edits, and your ability to handle (and furthermore, in teaching me to handle) any number of situations – large or small. We both believe that the personal is political, but you have shown me the innumerable ways that the professional can be both personal and political. I look forward to our paths intersecting as often as possible in the coming decades. Outside of my direct work with Ann Reynolds, it was Chelsea Weathers, Laura Lindenberger Wellen and Tara Kohn who exhibited the inherent power of a community dedicated to making each other better. What we created was much more than a writing group – a mere parochial exercise in the improvement of rhetoric. The tendrils of what we did together will no doubt inform our work (individual and collective) for years to come. We are bound together, in process and affect. Now about that school… My committee members also gave important and invaluable feedback in a variety of ways, and so their contributions are manifold: Henry Abelove, Cherise Smith, Neville Hoad and John Clarke – thank you. I would also like to offer thanks to my many interlocutors in gay and lesbian leather, kink and academic communities: Gayle Rubin, Rick Storer, Jack Fritscher, Patrick Califia, Gwen Hardy, Viola Johnson (+ Johnson/Carter Library krewe), Chuck Renslow, Camille O‘Grady, Mark Hemry, Jennifer Tyburczy, and Jeanne Barney. The v Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago, The One Archives in Los Angeles, and the GLBT History Center (now museum) in San Francisco were important archival sources, and I‘d like to thank everyone at these institutions for their continuing commitment to preserving queer stories. The contemporary artists I discuss in this dissertation were generous with their time and energy, and I know I‘ve made a new host of friends: Monica Majoli, AK Burns, AL Steiner, Dean Sameshima, Christian Holstad. William E. Jones provided me with copies of L.A. Plays Itself, Sex Garage, and Sextool - his work on Fred Halsted is a joy. Emily Roysdon makes me think about my own movement(s), and I‘m so grateful to her for that. Jonathan Katz, Richard Meyer, Zanele Muholi, Kobena Mercer and Nicholas Mirzoeff made brief, yet important, interventions in my work. I would not be able to do such vibrant queer work without the support of a sizeable vibrant queer community at home in Austin, Texas. Chief among the queers is Kate Messer (friend, editor, DJ partner). Then, of course, there is the early support and encouragement of PJ Raval, and the inspiration afforded to me in watching the following queers do their thing: Queerbomb!, Rudy Ramirez, Queer Sol Collective, Ann Cvetkovich, Paul (Rebecca/Christeene) Soileau, Jayson Oaks, Jeanne Stern, Bruce Weist, Silky Shoemaker, Homoscope, Bug Davidson, Angeliska Polascheck, Raven, Stanley Roy, Erika Nix, Wura Natasha-Ogunji, KT Shorb, Minor Mishap, Jay Byrd, L.A. Brown, Gay Placers, Jay Hodges, Tiana Hux (MC Sweet Tea), Kyle Henry, Gretchen Phillips, Emily and Jodi (Drunk Dial), Maggie Lea, Tamara Hoover, Chainbow, Kevin Parks Hauser, Ben Aqua, Gery Henderson, Jo Labow (who is my ethnic twin), Aaron Flynn, Dandy Unicorn, Billy Beasty, Femme Mafia, Meghan Flynn, Risa Puleo, KC Crow Maddux, and Vince Pierce - amongst many, many more. There‘s a book in there somewhere – Six Years in the Queerification of the Austin Art World, or something… vi Katie, Lorena, Tony, Ashley, Brianna, Damon and Tammie helped immensely with self-care. New York provides constant surprise and respite: Amanda Smith, Justin Case, Lauren O‘Neill Butler, Jill Pangallo, Cathy Cervanka, The Ho-Hos (and NOTS), Lee Hallman. Boston is where my second family is: Rachel, Char, Ari, as well as Melissa, Leah, Nina and Jason. I take trips to Houston now to see Diane Meyers. Former advisors Frances Hasso, Wendy Kozol and Pat Mathews continued to inspire me long after I left their sight. Ann Johns deeply influenced my teaching. Halfway through my dissertation work I became a full-time member of the Art History faculty at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. The support and encouragement I received from the two chairs of the School of Art & Design – Erik Nielsen and Michael Niblett – was only compounded by the collegiality and friendship of my department. Erina Duganne, Gina Tarver and Alan Pizer are to be thanked for their patience, understanding and kind words throughout. My collaboration with Mary Mikel Stump garnered us some critical praise, but also solidified a wonderful friendship. Sarah Frey creates zines and mixes, and she reminds me of the radical power of laughter. Jeff Dell, Joey Fauerso, Barry Stone and Ben Ruggiero were important early supporters and continuing artistic inspirations. I have also shared close relationships with students who have helped me in the classroom – and their insights have proved as invaluable as anyone else‘s: Brenna Ansley, Christina Houle, and Lorena Portillo are to be thanked enormously in this regard. vii Claudette Murphree is a continuous inspiration in life and love. Her wit, oral collages, design sense, idiomatic wisdom, capacity for listening and spinning a fantastic yarn is unrivalled. I hope you know your love is returned to you tenfold. Cathy, Tom and Daniel: your gifts are innumerable and indescribable. I work to do you proud. viii Preface: Notes on Terminology There are many ways to linguistically name the representations of sex discussed in Bound Together. I have chosen ―leather‖ as the term under which I organize the heterogeneous and multitudinous practices discussed herein, practices that sometimes incorporate sadomasochism, power play, bondage, fisting, discipline, humiliation, flagging, flogging, fucking and so much more. To wit ―leather‖ also encompasses kissing, hugging, flirting, talking and other practices that are often seen as sexually benign. Within contemporary BDSM communities these seemingly benign activities are positioned as ―vanilla,‖ but these less-sensationalistic corporeal acts become, in fact, part of leather sexualities when coupled with practices usually associated with leather, or embodied by a self-identified leatherperson.1 A kiss means something different when it comes before, during or after a consensual beating. And as with all sex, it matters who is doing what with whom, and what they make it mean together. The main reason I consistently use leather, instead of another term, is its broad applicability and elasticity; as Gayle Rubin has aptly noted, many fetishes are housed under the umbrella of ―leather.‖2 The term enjoyed wide dissemination during the period which is the main focus of this dissertation, roughly 1966-1984. Drummer magazine, for example, one of the central archives of information I mine regarding leather communities in the 1970s and 1980s, was organized around a ―Leather Fraternity.‖ The masthead of 1 I often conjunct leather with the word that follows it to intimate the close identification in which leather is concatenated with people, acts, and communities. 2 Gayle Rubin, ―The Valley of the Kings: Leathermen in San Francisco, 1960-1990‖ (dissertation, University of Michigan, 1994), 37. ix the magazine reads, ―The one publication dedicated to the leather lifestyle for guys.‖ The International Mr. Leather contest, which got its start in the late 70s, indexes the term in its very title. I could pile on more examples. I also use leather as an organizing term because it is used by contemporary institutions which display and preserve the visual and material stuff that historical leather communities produced. I am thinking mostly of The Leather Archives & Museum, another archive I accessed during the course of research. But the term also applies to contemporary socio-political (and pansexual) organizations such as the National Leather Association as well. Of course, leather was not the only term used in the 1970s. S&M, SM, and sadomasochism were prevalent too. But these terms have their roots in a classificatory system that sought to pathologize sexual acts of dominance and submission. As many historians of sexual communities and cultures have rehearsed before, the terms Sadism and Masochism are the brainchild of Austro-German sexologist Richard von Krafft- Ebing who first used them in his 1886 aggregation of case-studies, Psychopathia Sexualis.3 In grouping together what he perceived to be like/similar pathologies, Krafft- Ebing was engaged in the creation of new taxonomic categories. Krafft-Ebing named two related but different desires, the desire to cause ―pain‖ and ―force‖ or to be willfully subjected to them, name-checking authors he felt exemplified those desires in their literary work – the Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. But Krafft-Ebing‘s formulations became, and much to the dismay of leatherfolks and non-leatherfolks, 3 Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis (Bloat Books, 1999).