Image: Hector Silva
Friend of this site Hector Silva has a nice write-up in The Advocate’s Artist Spotlight series. His realistically rendered drawings range from simple portraiture to explicitly kinky, very hot erotica. For the Christopher Harrity article click here, and for our dinner with Hector, click here.
Posted in Hector Silva, Leather, Los Angeles, Southern California, Subcultures
Tagged Advocate, Art, Culture, Gay, Golden Shower, Hector Silva, Hispanic Art, Kink, Leather, Masculine, Piss Play, Sexy, Yellow Hanky
pony and pal, Big Gay Al, at SmokeOut, Las Vegas 2011
…in which the Gay Highwaymen interview Marc “pony” Owens about race play. Owens is a well-known and respected player in Northern California. He is the outgoing Mr. Alameda County Leather, and active in the Golden Gate Guards and The 15 Association. Controversial even in hardcore Leather and Kink circles, race play brings up strong emotions in both those who practice it and those who criticize it. Owens plays that way…and speaks for himself.
G.H.: What is the appeal of race play for you?
M.p.O.: It brings out the submissive in me. White dominance over blacks: it’s almost the final frontier in tabu play.
G.H.: How did you get into it?
M.p.O.: Very slowly. I always had fantasies of it. It was either 1999 or 2000 when I met my Daddies in Berkeley while cruising online and we chatted about it through instant messenger. It was so hot I finally summoned the courage to meet with one of them and explore it. It was mind blowing!
G.H.: How does race play relate, and what are the differences and similarities, to racism and historical slavery?
M.p.O.: Well regarding racism and historical slavery…The similarity is the power exchange element of it. As a black submissive you are giving Whites power over you. Most submissives like being degraded and made to feel less than human next to their Dom. I’m just using historical slavery and racism to get to the extreme level of my kind of hardcore BDSM.
G.H.: How does it relate to Verbal Abuse, Humiliation, Degradation and Trash Talk?
Many submissives like being called “Bitch” “Whore” and other degrading names. Because the power in those words hits a chord with them and turns them on. To be called Coon, Monkey or the “N” word hits a chord with me and turns me on. To be humiliated and degraded because I’m black adds to and feeds my sexual desire. In race play the similarities are the same as any other type of S&M play it’s just the difference is I’m a black person in a mostly White dominated field of BDSM and that kind of puts me in that unique position to use race play to turn my TOP on and myself. The energy is amazing when you have two people who are really into it.
G.H.: And how does it relate to the Dom/sub dynamic?
M.p.O.: Since those types of relationships are based on the Top’s beliefs that the sub is not equal to them, that goes along with the White knowing he is superior to the black. It sweetens the pot in the relationship. Blacks who want to be submissive to Whites truly want to feel they are inferior to them. That puts them in the submissive headspace they need to be in.
Part II here. Part III coming soon…Comments are welcome.
Posted in History, Human Animals, Leather, Northern California, SCANDAL: Politics, Crime, Revolution and More., Subcultures
Tagged 15 Association, BDSM, Black Men, Culture, Gay, Golden Gate Guards, History, Interview, Kink, Leather, Marc Owens, Mr ACL, pony, Race Play, Racism, SCANDAL: Politics, Crime, Revolution and More., Slave
Who knew?
Posted in Leather, Photography, San Francisco, Sexy Holidays, Surveillance
Tagged Culture, Dore, Gandhi, Gay, Leather, Look Alike, Photography, San Francisco, Surveillance, Up Your Alley
Posted in Leather, Photography, San Francisco, Sexy Holidays, Subcultures, Surveillance
Tagged BDSM, Culture, Dore Alley, Fetish, Gay, Gear, Kink, Leather, Photography, San Francisco, Sexy, SOMA, Street Fair, Surveillance, Up Your Alley
Eric Robinson. photo: Gay Highwaymen
Friend of this site Eric Robinson has been shooting us, and our friends for a couple of years now. Tintypes! Ambrotypes! Pics on metal and glass…way old school, 19th century-style. PDQ, he will be a “Master.” No, not like That! His MFA (Master of Fine Arts) show opens in August, and he is already showing all over like the worst exhibitionist ever. His ongoing Leathermen series is part of a larger archival project called Other Ways of Being. Robinson says of his work: “What I seek with my camera is the difference – visible difference – that allows us to identify or disassociate with groups, cultures or communities.” These are important cross-cultural concerns, and Robinson’s unique camera view points our brains at them. Leathermen has already shown three times nationally (Chicago, San Francisco and Vermont) and is BIG in Indonesia, where it is featured in the glossy mag, PhotoArt Contemporary. Cool. Keep watching, ’cause this fantastic old-school shutter-bug boy is going to be BIG. Well. If we have anything to do with it anyway…more here. Enjoy!
Posted in Collecting, Eric Robinson, Indonesia, Leather, Mendocino County, Photography, San Francisco, Southern Illinois
Tagged Ambrotype, Art, BDSM, California, Culture, Eric Robinson, Gay, Indonesia, Kink, Leather, Photography, Sexy, Tintype
Tom...of Finland
That’s the big question. Lots of whispering in the scene. So…is Leather dead? What IS Leather? Is it a kink? A material? A lifestyle? A sexuality? A philosophy? Yes…and. But the young guys are mostly into “gear.” So…what’s that? Back in the day, tough guys who rode motorcycles wore leather. Some still do. Those of us who were kids fixated of these masculine guys in black leather on bikes in boots. And cowboys in Westerns. And other outlaws. Tom of Finland and The Hun. But kids these days? They grew up with different images, materials and memes. Kevlar. Manga. Boards. Kicks. Thugs. Different kinks, but still kinky, and still into POWER. The more things change…
On Wednesday, July 27th in San Francisco, a stellar cast of Leather Community stars will discuss the future of Leather. This historic conversation is being sponsored by the Leathermens Discussion Group. Panel participants are leatherman, author, activist and pioneering psychotherapist Guy Baldwin, organizer, educator, commentator, and nontraditional sex activist Race Bannon, Instigator editor-in-chief Michael Thorn and Leather historian and scholar Gayle Rubin. Come join the conversation. Get there early. This one will be especially popular!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm @ Andrew Spencer Ceremonial Room, 4th floor, SF LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street, San Francisco.
Posted in History, Leather, San Francisco, Scholarship, Subcultures
Tagged BDSM, Culture, Gay, Gayle Rubin, Gear, Guy Baldwin, History, Instigator, Is Leather Dead?, Kink, Leather, Leathersmens Discussion Group, Michael Thorn, New Guard, Old Guard, Race Bannon, SOMA
…often occupied. Momentarily empty. The space used to be a goat barn. Now it is a dungeon. The focus of the photo is a piece of classic dungeon furniture known in the scene as a St. Andrew’s Cross. Site of many a spiritual journey…et cetera.
Posted in DIY and Maker Culture, iPhone, Leather, Mendocino County, Northern California, Photography, Spirituality, Subcultures
Tagged BDSM, Design, Dungeon, Gay, iPhone, Leather, Photography, Rural, St Andrew's Cross, Still Life
All that hard play can be hard work, and the deeper it gets, the realer it becomes. From degradation to grace and back again, turning forever on itself like a mobius strip. Beat, Beat-Up, Beatitude: words to fly by from the jam-sweet lips of angel-headed hipsters. Top or bottom, sometimes retreat is a good option. For those times, just outside the dungeon (aka The Heart Lodge) mildly hidden in the landscaping, a small magical nishikigoi (koi) pond waits. A rock ledge provides enough room for a semi-lotus, and a fine venue for adventures in ego dissolution. Flash of Orange. Take me…OM…country roads…splash sky water…gone.
Posted in ANIMALS: Human and otherwise..., Gardening, History, Leather, Nishikigoi, Northern California, Photography, Spirituality, Subcultures
Tagged 15 Association, BDSM, Beat, Beatitude, California, Culture, Gay, Gear Up, Koi, Lake County, Leather, Nishikigoi, Photography, Retreat Center, S/m, Saratoga Springs, Spirituality, Stage Coach, Yoga, Zen
Jim Ward at LDG, May 2011. Photo: Gay Highwaymen
Friend of this site Jim Ward founded The Gauntlet, and is widely regarded as the grand-daddy of the modern body piercing phenomenon. Now he has published a history. In May, he spoke to a packed room at The Leathermen’s Disscussion Group in San Francisco. Running the Gauntlet—An Intimate History of the Modern Body Piercing Movement tells the detailed story of “how Jim discovered his own fascination with body piercing and went on to found the industry.” Full of wonderful and terrible stories and amazing photographs, it includes details of his friendship with the heavily pierced and very gay Louis Rove – the adoptive father of the notorious Carl Rove. Other interesting bits include how the color purple came to signify piercing in the hanky code, and how he was collared to his long-term partner and Master, Drew Ward.
On Saturday, July 16th, 2011, from 1 to 5 pm, Jim will be at Mr. S Leather , signing books and chatting. Mr. S is at 385 8th St at Harrison in San Francisco, four blocks south of the Civic Center BART Station. If you can’t make it to the book event, and you want a copy, you can order one at the Running The Gauntlet website, here. Jim will even sign it for you.
Posted in DIY and Maker Culture, History, Leather, Photography, Scholarship, Spirituality, Subcultures
Tagged BDSM, Carl Rove, Culture, Gay, History, Jim Ward, Kink, Leather, LGBT, Louis Rove, Photography, Piercing, Purple Hanky, Queer, Sexy, The Gauntlet
Snap! Gotcha! Leather Community photographer Rich Stadtmiller has new photos of SF Pride’s Leather Contingent up on his Rich Trove site, here. For Gay Highwaymen photos of the kinky section of the parade, click here. For more photos of photographers and their big sexy cameras, click here.
Posted in Leather, Photography, San Francisco, Sexy Holidays, Surveillance
Tagged Art, Culture, Gay, Kink, Leather, Photography, Rich Stadtmiller, Rich Trove, San Francisco, Scopophilia, Sexy, Surveillance
The Gay Highwaymen 