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By
Sensuous Sadie
SensuousSadie@aol.com
www.sensuoussadie.com
Urban Aboriginals can be found at www.amazon.com
Mark
Thompson is a legendary figure of the BDSM scene, author of many books
including the classic Leatherfolk.
Read an excerpt from Urban
Aboriginals: A Celebration of Leathersexuality
SENSUOUS SADIE: You were a good friend of Urban Aboriginals
author Geoff Mains. Please tell me a little bit about what motivated you
to get Geoff’s book reissued.
MARK THOMPSON: “Geoff Mains was a good friend who entrusted me with
his literary estate after he died of AIDS in 1989. Although he wrote
three books, I think Urban Aboriginals is the one he will be most
remembered by. It is a classic work, very much reflecting the hope,
passion, and intellectual fervor of not only its author but of the times
in which he lived. I convinced the book’s original publisher, Gay
Sunshine Press, to put it into a second edition in the early 1990s. When
all those copies sold out some years later, they gave me permission to
take the book elsewhere. So I approached Daedalus Press, which kindly
agreed to put the book back into print for a 20th Anniversary edition.
“As by now all the original photos and printing plates were lost, we
had to electronically rescan every page and hire a researcher to go
through thousands of negatives left behind by photographer Robert Pruzan
(who also died of AIDS) at the San Francisco Bay Area Gay and Lesbian
Historical Society to try to match the original images. It was an act of
devotion to the legacy of a very important writer and very dear man. All
proceeds from this edition will go to help maintain the papers of both
Geoff and Robert, which are housed in the San Francisco gay archives.
“Plus, how could I do anything less? The code of ethos that Geoff very
movingly attests to in Urban Aboriginals is one that I personally
subscribe to. If a man makes a promise to a dying friend, he keeps it. I
have kept my promise to Geoff in good faith over the years. I believe
the book belongs on the reading shelf of every seriously committed
leatherfolk.”
Sadie: You wrote that Geoff “stressed the importance of
instilling tribal-like awareness and values within the loose-knit
leather subculture.” I’m thinking that this refers to the title Urban
Aboriginals. Can you explain he meant by giving his book this title?
Mark: “What Geoff, myself, and many others have pointed out over the
years is that the gay male leather experience that emerged from an
underground subculture post World War II was about a lot more that just
wearing black leather. It represented an entire attitude about life,
and, if you were a man, masculinity itself. Don’t forget that most gay
stereotypes prior to that period were excessively feminized as a means
to oppress and co-opt our true power and identity as natural, loving
men. Being a leatherman meant accepting certain responsibilities for one’s
relationship to Self and others. The bonds of trust established through
the commonality of leather encompassed a lot more than sex. Concepts of
community and caring for one another were also very ingrained in many
leathermen in San Francisco and elsewhere. It was like being a part of a
secret fraternity then, indeed, a kind of tribe--a culture of men living
on the edges of regular society with its own rules, codes of conducts,
rites of initiation, and honor.
“And while I think the ideas and practices of sexual liberation should
be available to anyone, sexual liberation should not be confused with
the sort of cultural revolution that the men in Geoff’s book were
forging and finding. SM in the suburbs is fine for those who want to
explore it the relative safety and comfort found there, but gay
leathermen in the ‘50s through pre-AIDS ‘80s were creating a unique
identity and a culture of their own as well. This nascent culture was
particularly hard-hit by the early days of the plague--so Geoff’s book
is not only a testament to those days but an artifact from them.”
Sadie: Clearly the BDSM community as a whole was radically
different in 1984 when Geoff first published this book. What do you
think he would have made of the changes we’ve seen in these two
decades?
Mark: “I imagine that he’d be pleased that more people have come out
of the closet around these issues and practices. He’d still be
concerned with ongoing questions regarding the authenticity or core
value of the experience, however.”
Sadie: In my book review of Urban Aboriginals I came
from a standpoint of being a woman in the pansexual Vermont scene
looking at Geoff’s viewpoint as a gay leatherman in 1984 San
Francisco. Do you think that he and I have more in common that may
appear on the surface? If so, what?
Mark: “Perhaps what you and Geoff share is an intellectual curiosity
about the status of being an outsider. Most people in the scene back
then felt like they were cultural outsiders. And I imagine that many
players in the scene today still feel the same way. Back then, gay
leathermen were outcasts from regular society as well as from burgeoning
mainstream gay culture. And still today, I don’t think it matters how
many SM conventions you attend at some Holiday Inn, you are still an
outsider at some level. If all people imagine is that they are
participating in some new trendy lifestyle, then they’re going to be
missing out on the core of what the leather experience can mean.
“What Geoff was talking about was forging a new kind of identity with
its own mythos, which is central to having a shared cultural experience.
But where is that mythos in merely showing up at a BDSM convention at a
downtown hotel? Sex is sex and you can arrange for it to happen many
different ways, but becoming an authentic leatherperson means coming out
to a new level within you. For many gay men, the discovery of leather
and all that it entails was a vital part of their individuation
journey--of becoming their own person. It wasn’t something you could
just put on and off for the weekend. Leather, on or off, was like a
second skin. I think that the pansexual BDSM community of today owes a
big debt of thanks to the early gay leather underground.”
Sadie: Much of the book covers some of what appear to be
foundations of the gay leatherscene: fisting, boot licking, and piss
play. I think that generally speaking, the pansexual BDSM community
thinks of those as just being another kinky activity on the list, but
they seem to have take on almost an iconic status in his book. Can you
help me understand what this difference in approach means, and why you
think this difference has evolved?
Mark: “Aside from the fetish aspects of the things you mention, they
can also be viewed as ritual activities for gay men wanting to be
initiated into a certain kind of tribe. You are not a gay man and so
this concept might be a stretch for you. But on one level, it’s about
paying attention and paying respect to those who’ve traveled the path
beforehand. It’s about teaching and learning and growing as a man. All
men, gay or otherwise, are taught not to surrender to and trust other
men. Our world is about learning how to dominate or eliminate other men,
to be highly aggressive and competitive. Within leather sex, the
opposite can be found. It can create a powerful and cathartic
experience, on a teaching and receiving heart level, between men.”
Sadie: Your book Leatherfolk includes a photo of a room
in the Catacombs Club filled with fisting slings and Crisco holders. I
think in some ways this photo represents to me the world that Geoff
inhabited, but one that I find somewhat alien to my experience. In other
words, while the pansexual community has lots of play parties, I’ve
never heard of a group of straight/bi people getting together to do
fisting on a group level like that. Can you explain to me and our
readers what this is about on the personal and political levels for the
gay leather community?
Mark: “Women and men played together and side by side at the
Catacombs. The emotional atmosphere after a good night at the Catacombs
was so palpable you could put it into a bottle. The energy was that
magical. People got a contact high just walking into the room. It was an
extraordinarily special place and people came from all over the world to
go there. But you had to be invited.”
Sadie: Geoff describes himself as a “Leatherman.” It may
surprise you to know that many people in the broader community don’t
really use this word, or even understand what it means. I myself don’t
identify as a leatherwoman because I have a sense that somehow I don’t
qualify for the title, although I’m not really sure what it entails.
Can you explain what it all means?
Mark: “The word ‘Leatherman’ comes out of the gay male cultural
experience that I’ve outlined. It’s an identity formation fairly
unique to us, so it’s not something most straight men or women would
probably want to use. Furthermore, where there is homophobia there’s
no way that people would be able to fully grasp the core sensibility of
being a leatherman. I always have to ask: How does homophobia get in the
way of people having a more profound leather practice, which should be
about increasing one’s sensitivity and landscape of vision, in my
opinion.”
Sadie: I think of The Loving Dominant and Learning the Ropes
as two of the classics that opened up BDSM to the pansexual community,
although of course there were a number of books prior to those which
focused on the gay and lesbian communities. When you’re looking at a
book like Geoff’s Urban Aboriginals which focuses so much on
the tight knit gay leatherscene of his time, what do you think is most
transferable to straight or bi people in today’s community?
Mark: “The transcendental moments that happen in these experiences cut
across boundaries of gender, sex, class, power. It’s like finding the
pearl in the oyster or the prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box.
These moments take you out of your normal everyday world. When you have
these moments, use the insight as part of your personal growth. That
right belongs to everybody.”
Sadie: I think most people associate the Old Guard with the
world that Geoff inhabited. There is a contingent of contemporary
players who call themselves Old Guard, but frankly I can’t help but
wonder what the people who actually lived it would say about this.
Certainly, there is a fair bit of criticism about that time period
because of stories we hear about people being forced to serve any
Dominant who demands service as well as other non-consensual type
scenes. Can you address this?
Mark: “I was in the swing generation. I came out in the mid-1970s, so
I associated with Old Guard people. My roots are in earning my black
leather boots the old fashioned way. To do so, I had to be respectful
and pay attention. Yet I think there’s always a temptation to go back
to the time when we were in our glory years and to think that was the
Golden Age. Things always change. Still, without an understanding and
respect for the past, we don’t have a foundation to build a future on.
I’m not going to agree with people who say what happened before us
didn’t matter. It matters a lot.”
Sadie: Urban Aboriginals includes a large section on
BDSM and spirituality, and in fact some consider him a pioneer in this
area. What can you tell me about Geoff’s life that created this
interest in this subject?
Mark: “I think Geoff would agree with my observation that anytime you
are mixing tears and laughter/joy in the same experience--which is what
happens so many times in a good SM scene--then you have a spiritual
moment. What happens after that, or how an individual decides to deal or
not deal with that opening of release and revelation is up to them. I am
more and more convinced that spirituality means something different to
every person--SM practice can be one more potent means toward personal
awakening and enlightenment, but only if the beholder of the experience
regards it as so.
“This said, let me also point out the means is only a way toward the
final destination--which in my opinion is the bliss of non-attachment.
People shouldn’t be too attached to their whips, costumes, toys or
whatever. Real SM happens mainly in the head or consciousness of the
person--which is what Geoff was trying to both discover for himself and
affirm for others. I believe that Geoff was a not only a scholar but an
authentic visionary within his community. He was a seeker of truth, and
therefore had no patience with phony games or unexamined stances of any
kind.”
Sadie: In your introduction to Geoff’ article The Molecular
Anatomy of Leather you write that, “Mains was able to further
correlate the experiences of leatherfolk in modern Western society with
peoples in other cultures who engage in extreme physical or devotional
acts. His hypothesis is controversial, to say the least.” Considering
the work that’s been done in the area of BDSM and spirituality in the
last twenty years, would you still consider Geoff’ beliefs about this
controversial?
Mark: “It’s less controversial now because we understand the
connections more. You can see this in the Modern Primitives movement,
where leather-shamans such as Fakir Musafar point a way.”
Sadie: Geoff wrote “Successful leather play is nearly always
sensualist and mutualistic, whatever the psychodrama of the roles
started at a particular time. Without these real and very accepted
limits, leather play would fail in its objective as a form of love.”
This idea that BDSM is about love is not something I’ve heard very
often in today’s community. Rather, I hear a lot more about the
equipment and whatnot. I wonder if you could expand a little bit on what
you think Geoff was saying here.
Mark: “Personally speaking, if it’s not about love then I don’t
want any part of it. Love has many masks, many faces. And as we know in
the leather scene, what appears one way is usually the opposite. That
moment of supreme trust is an agreement forged between two people
hopefully of like mind in the here and now, so outsiders can never
really judge.
“The tighter the bonds of that trust, however, the better quality the
interaction. This goes back to the ethos of the original leather
community: Getting together to know each other as people-- in bars and
on runs, in backrooms and living rooms. It meant becoming involved in
the regular community around you, being responsible caring loving
adults. Not just needy greedy dysfunctional children with an enormous
capacity to hurt others with their shadow business. Where there is love,
there is light, even in the darkest corners.”
Sadie: Why do you think that BDSM grew up and matured in the
gay and lesbian scenes so much earlier than it did in the straight
community?
Mark: “I believe I have answered that question already. But again: To
be gay or lesbian meant that you were other, or alien, even in your own
family. That is a universally felt emotion to some extent, but it is
undeniable that queer people have been cast against the fringes. Gay
people have been more marginalized than most, so we are more likely to
explore limits and boundaries of all kinds--included human sexuality. In
so doing, we’ve expanded the boundaries for everyone. We are culture
makers. In making our own culture, we have informed the larger culture.”
Sadie: Thank you very much!
Book photograph by Robert Pruzan, reprinted with
permission
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Sensuous Sadie is the author of It’s Not About the Whip: Love, Sex,
and Spirituality in the BDSM Scene (http://www.trafford.com/robots/03-0551.html).
She is the founder and leader (1999 - 2001) of Rose & Thorn, Vermont’s
first BDSM group. Comments, compliments and complaints, as well as
requests for reprinting can be addressed to her at SensuousSadie@aol.com
or visit her website at www.sensuoussadie.com. Sadie believes the universe is abundant, and that sharing information
freely is part of this abundance, so she allows reprints of her writing
in most venues.
Copyright 2003 Sadie Sez Publications
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