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Rover -> RE: Old Guard? (7/23/2007 3:35:25 PM)
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Fast reply to no one in particular:
First, much as Master Fire mentioned, "Old Guard" refers to a people in time, not to any principles, protocols, etc. The "Old Guard" did not call themselves "Old Guard"... a term that was intially a derisive reference to the older members of the Leather scene who were exclusive in nature (exclusively gay and exclusively male) at at time (the 1970's) when Leather was undergoing a transition towards inclusion (including heterosexuals, including women, including lesbians).
And while there were no universal principles and protocols that did (or do) define someone (or something) as "Old Guard", they did tend to share some common general themes:
1. They had a shared experience in the armed forces, and their resulting organizations did tend to have a fairly rigid armed forces type heirarchy. One aspect of that did often require that a member entered the scene as a bottom and based upon length of service, quality of service (including service to the community) and skill sets, they earned the opportunity to become Tops or experienced bottoms. In other words, their organizational structure had the same meritocracy they were familiar with from their armed forces experience.
2. They used America's growing fascination with the motorcycle to establish motorcycle clubs as a kind of "cover" for their S/M activities, and to skirt some of the existing legal prohibitions and impediments to any assemblage of gay men (for example, some laws considered any gay male in a bar to be there for the sole purpose of soliciting prostitution and others prohibited more than three gay men from socializing together at a single time). Naturally, motorcycle enthusiasts wore "leathers" for protection, giving rise to the early use of "Leather lifestyle" for WIITWD. Later use of terms like BDSM were coined to be more inclusive, and distance the lifestyle from its early gay roots.
There are some other elements that are extensions of that shared military background, but much like today the "Old Guard" was comprised of many discrete groups operating in relative isolation from one another (there was no internet in those days), making any assertion of an "Old Guard" style rather laughable. As has been mentioned, anyone purporting to be "Old Guard" that is not in their seventies or eighties and gay is likely to be an outright liar. It's possible to be younger and heterosexual and still be "Old Guard" trained (ie: trained by someone who actually was "Old Guard"), but that's one individual training another individual about their personal preferences, protocols, etc. Any inference that there is (or was) an established "Old Guard" custom, rules, etc. that can be trained is an utter falsehood (read: lie).
By necessity, this brief post is woefully incomplete. It's impossible to pile several decades of history into anything short of a (researched) non-fictional novel and I have neither the time nor inclination.
John
P.S. - I always recommend Joseph Bean, Jay Wiseman, Guy Baldwin, Jack Rinella, Gayle Rubin and a few others as credible authors/historians for those interested in learning more about this period.
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