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Emperor1956 -> RE: What has happened? (8/15/2006 10:59:54 AM)
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quote:
MH00314 said: To the elegance, refinement, class and rituals that SM once was 50 or so years ago? How did it get to the point of, blatant crudeness, vulgarity and disrespect for others?
Once there were rituals, long term training, etiquette----where did all that go? and how do we as a community begin to bring that dignity and elegance back?
Not to piss in the breakfast cereal, but MH, where are your sources for this lost B/D/S/M nirvana? Allow Me to suggest that it never existed.
In researching the "Old Guard" about 9 years ago ( in response to this same hearkening back to some "golden age" attitude in some local Chicago groups that I was a part of), I learned that the supposed history of ritual, training, Old Guard leathers, etc. was greatly exaggerated in the gay leather community and virtually nonexistent in the straight community (what there was of one).
Taking your "50 year" mark, you'd be square in the period of say 1952 - 1960, and going slightly forward. In fact, in the USA there was virtually no open B/D/S/M activity at that time, and what deeply closeted behavior existed was almost entirely in the gay culture. In Europe there were a few very scattered "houses" that claimed to train Dominas and occasionally Dominant men; most of these were in fact brothels which had a woman or two to cater to "special needs".
There were, surely, B/D/S/M oriented motorcycle clubs/bar groups in this period. These were almost entirely gay, and pretty deeply hidden. While there were "leatherman" rituals, there was little as I can tell of formal training. These organizations have a critical place in the history of WIIWD (regardless of gender orientation) but they absolutely did not promote the sort of "high tea and hankerchief" etiquette that I suspect the OP and others are longing for and claiming we have somehow lost.
Where does the myth of the "golden days" come from? Well "Story of O" has a lot to answer for; "Roissy" became the high-brow fantasy training camp. "Old Guard" gay leather culture forms another source (Remember, that Larry Townsend's "Leatherman's Handbook" was published in 1972 -- but you'd be amazed at folks who SWEAR it comes from 1955). In the gay culture, the retro looking "Tom of Finland" graphics and such leads to a fantasy of some pre-AIDS, pre-Stonewall golden time. John Norman and Laura Antinou both should probably be called to account, although in all fairness I don't know that either of them actually claim a historic tradition. It is their readers who confuse fiction and myth with history.
So by all means, advocate for a more civil society both in and out of B/D/S/M. I'd love to have a venue where WIIWD includes a formal tea, a ritual collaring space, some traditions and mentoring. But don't claim that we've "lost" anything from a history that just doesn't exist.
E.
(Note on sources: When I began looking at this stuff, I was totally lost. The Internet was both wonderful in its breadth, and also totally inadequate in its authenticity. I am trained as a researcher and investigator, and I learned early on that (DUH!) you couldn't reliably research sex, deviance, homoerotica etc. on the Web. I got lucky, tho, and stumbled into the Leather Archives & Museum here in Chicago. With the help of some dedicated and very smart folks, I was able to read materials in the collections. I also spent a day at the Kinsey Institute researching "old guard" leather and hetero clubs. Both of these organizations are wonderful and deserve your visit and your support.)
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