The Ties That Bind Nov 13-26, 2014
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THE ISSUE THE TIES THAT BIND From Sparta to Weimar Germany, kink has always been part of our sexuality JP LAROCQUE PHOTOS BY N MAXWELL LANDER Master Tony leads me down a darkened hallway And according to professional dominant and were actually fighting in the war. Men who had Meanwhile, underground leather culture in his apartment, stopping before a single door. BDSM educator Scarlet Riot, consenting to gone overseas had camaraderie and a fraternity, thrived in many major cities where gay com- “Would you like to see my playroom?” restrictive or controlled experiences has always and they loved each other — not in a sexual sense, munities had sprung up after the war, including We enter what was once a bedroom, but that provided significant emotional relief to people but in that they looked out for each other.” New York and San Francisco. Mr Leather and Mr has now been transformed into something very who led otherwise stressful lives and were sub- “And a lot of men, when they came back, Drummer contests were established early on, diferent. A leather sling hangs from the ceiling ject to strict socioeconomic divisions. couldn’t go back to their old lifestyle simply and magazines like Physique Pictorial popular- before a closet filled with various types of leather “Giving in to some type of physical anguish has because they enjoyed the hierarchy of things. ized images of the male form that were overtly fetish gear. Erotic artwork and posters hang on been an important element of many antique and Some men appreciated having a superior ofcer homoerotic. the charcoal-grey walls, surrounded by shelves modern faith systems — passion plays, fasting, or someone who would clean their boots and that “It ran under the radar of pornography be- lined with dildos and buttplugs of various sizes. adolescent rites of passage,” Riot says. “And we’ve kind of thing. Things blossomed from that, and cause it had men posing in thongs, but they were In the corner is an antique examining table, and [also] seen this in the ways people challenged the gay men within the community eventually doing things that were incredibly masculine,” beside it are a series of medical trays, plastic col- the stigmas attached to certain sexual practices branched out on their own, founding bike and Master Tony says. “There was wrestling. There lection containers and metal briefcases contain- throughout history.” leather clubs.” was roughhousing. Guys on bikes, that kind of ing electro-stimulation equipment. French philosopher the Marquis de Sade, It was also around this time that the subcul- thing.” Tony, International LeatherSir 2009 and whose 18th-century libertine politics and sexual ture started to enter the mainstream through The magazine also ran artwork by Tom of a representative of the Rough House BDSM practices drew the ire of the Catholic Church, the work of photographer Irving Klaw, whose Finland. The artist had served during the Sec- dungeon parties, has clearly put work into the wrote extensively of sex acts that often incor- damsel-in-distress pin-up photographs featuring ond World War, and his time fighting alongside space. I marvel at the quantity of items in the porated violence and blasphemy. His “sadistic” model Bettie Page were quite popular. German soldiers in Russia inspired much of his room, ofandedly describing it as a veritable works, along with Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s “In the Western world, BDSM started mak- artwork, which fetishized men in uniform. museum of erotic play. Venus in Furs, heavily influenced much of the ing an appearance outside of counterculture in “A lot of Tom of Finland’s stuf has actual Nazi “Well, I’ve been collecting for a long time,” he power-associated erotic practices that would the 1940s, with Page’s erotic photos making the photographs that he’s touched up to be sexual- says, proudly. be referenced in Victorian literature. rounds with elements of bondage and restraint,” ized,” Master Tony says. “So their cock would A long time, indeed. To explore the roots of Scholars trace modern BDSM to a few key Riot says. “The reserved sexual attitudes of the be hanging out, that kind of thing. And roman- BDSM culture is to interrogate the fundamental sources in the 20th century. The sexual pro- time did not inhibit the interests of the kinksters, ticizing the britches, the boots, the uniform and dynamics of human interaction. Dominance and gressiveness of pre–Second World War Weimar as is evident by the countless fetish-oriented that hyper-masculine image. There’s something submission, restraint and role-play have been Germany was an extension of a European fetish magazine titles published at the time.” more exhilarating about that than seeing people present in both erotic and non-erotic practices culture that had been in play the first few decades “When pin-up girls and posters like that cuddling in bed.” throughout much of recorded history and across of the 1900s, while a distinctive heterosexual started happening, I think that’s when things With the shifting social mores of the 1960s diferent cultures, with examples of it in some kink culture rose up in the United States during changed,” Master Tony says. “People were look- and ’70s came more extreme forms of sado- of humanity’s earliest texts. Flagellation was the Depression Era. But it was after the Second ing at things more sexually than they had prior masochistic sexual behaviour within the un- regularly performed as part of religious ritual World War that things really started to take to that. Look at the work of Russ Meyer. I mean, derground leather community, as described in in ancient Sparta, for instance, and evidence of shape, with the birth of the leather community the women in his films looked like they were Larry Townsend’s Leatherman’s Handbook and physical aggression in erotic play dates back to and the beginnings of a gay subculture. cinched up in corsets, and their breasts were depicted in the photos of Robert Mapplethorpe. the sixth century BCE and is referenced in both “That war was romanticized,” Master Tony huge and pushed out. And, of course, look at Petronius’s Satyricon and the Kama Sutra. says. “And it was romanticized by the people who Marlon Brando in The Wild One.” Continued on page 12 ! 10 NOV 13–26, 2014 XTRA! TORONTO’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS MORE AT DAILYXTRA.COM XTRA! NOV 13–26, 2014 11 WHIPS Salò, or the 120 Days Cruising (1980) THE of Sodom (1975) Al Pacino plays a cop on the hunt for a & QUIPS Pier Paolo Pasolini’s masterpiece, Macho Sluts, serial killer murdering men in New York’s A semi-serious based on the book by the Marquis de by Pat Califia underground SM scene. Before it became a selection of Sade. With graphic depictions of rape, A queer-friendly collection footnote for one of James Franco’s odious BDSM films torture and murder, the film has been of short stories exploring art projects, this film was controversial for and books banned in several countries and isn’t sadism and masochism. its depiction of gay life at a time when the ISSUE —JP Larocque for the faint at heart. Pick it up! community was starved for representation. ! Continued from page 10 The culture developed enough of a repu- tation to inspire the 1970 crime novel Cruising, about a serial killer stalking gay men on the leather scene. The book BDSM & THE LAW was famously adapted into the 1980 thriller starring Al Pacino. The 1980s and ’90s saw BDSM culture Lawyers, educators say affirmative consent is key shift even more into the mainstream, with musical artists like the Euryth- HG WATSON Cossman says, they are decided on the mics and Madonna employing fetish absence of consent. “BDSM gets impli- imagery and themes in their works and Is BDSM more like a fist fight or a hock- cated in this but not really,” she adds. mainstream films like 9½ Weeks, Body ey fight? In a case where a person was rendered of Evidence and Exit to Eden portraying That’s just one of the questions at the unconscious through autoerotic as- BDSM erotic practices. heart of the legal debate over BDSM phyxiation in 2011, the Supreme Court “BDSM has also made many appear- — one that some sex educators and determined that you cannot consent ances in mainstream film and television, community members didn’t even know in advance to something that might on episodes of CSI, films like 9½ Weeks needed to be had, until University of happen when you are unconscious — and Secretary, and has been explored by Toronto law professor Brenda Coss- you must be able to actively give your Oprah and on Dr Phil,” Riot says. “My man wrote an article in The Globe and consent. But that doesn’t clear up all mother even made a reference to ‘SNM’ Mail about the fact that when it comes the questions about BDSM and the law. in a Facebook status recently comment- to consenting to serious bodily harm, If a case on BDSM did come forward, ing on the Jian Ghomeshi afair, which it doesn’t matter if you say yes: the part of what the court would have to really brought my belief that it’s time consent is rendered null. determine would be whether BDSM has we start having open conversations Though she wrote the article to ad- “social utility.” Courts in Canada have about BDSM.” dress some of the questions raised by found that sports like hockey and box- The internet also introduced kink the initial reports around the firing of ing — which regularly feature fighting culture to a much wider audience, caus- CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi, Coss- and blows to the head — do have value, ing the community to evolve beyond its man says it seems clear now that those whereas a fist fight does not, therefore more underground, niche-driven roots.