Leather Archives & Museum: 25 Years

REFLECTIONS ON THE 2014/2015 VISITING SCHOLAR PROGRAM
By Lily Emerson, 2014/2015 Visiting Scholar
*Originally Printed in “Leatherati presents From the Archives”, March, 2015
Elizabeth Freeman has argued that sadomasochism
is an unusual sexual technique not
only because its rise and elaboration can be
traced to particular historical figures (Sade,
Sacher Masoch, Krafft-Ebing) and moments
in time (the French Revolution, the late nineteenth
century) but also because it is a
‘hyperbolically historical, even way of having
sex’. During my research on the history of
American sadomasochism, as a part of my
PhD thesis, I have become immersed in the
ways that thinking about and practicing sadomasochism
constantly invoke, challenge, and
solidify historically constructed racial, gendered,
and sexual identities. Sadomasochism
offers a unique example for the historian to
look not only at the ways in which identities
and cultures are shaped by practices and discourses
in their contemporary context, but the
ways in which practitioners themselves knowingly
invoke historically produced identities
through their sexual practice. This thesis
therefore turns its attention not only to the
production of sadomasochistic identities and
culture, but to the historical discourses that
sadomasochists themselves appropriate
through their practice.
As a result, during my recent trip to the LA&M
as a part of their Visiting Scholar’s Program
2014/2015, I chose to place particular emphasis
on material related to people of colour
in the sadomasochistic community. Some
sources that I found of particular use were
Cain Berlinger’s self-published monograph,
Black Men in Leather [1] (2000) which
contains serious discussion of racial politics
in the leather community; Black Leather in
Color magazine (and an accompanying oral
history compiled by members of the editorial
staff); and Vi Johnson’s Papers, which address
the intersection of race, gender, and
sadomasochism.
These sources (as well as others) highlight
the diversity of opinion amongst people of
colour in the leather/sadomasochistic community,
and make it clear that there is no consensus
as to what (if any) approach should
be taken to approaching racial tensions that
arise within it. These tensions themselves,
however, are palatable. Race play can be an
issue here. For instance, what does it mean,
and what historical meanings are being invoked,
for a person of colour to be called a
‘slave’ or a ‘n______’, even in the context of
consensual sex? Should people of colour ever
consent to submissive roles in bi-racial
pairings? But Berlinger’s interviewees make
clear, as do issues of Black Leather in Color,
that many people of colour have experience
racism within the s/m community that has
very little to do with actual play of any kind.
I want to preface my response with the acknowledgment
and understanding that I am a
white person and as such benefit from a considerable
amount of white privilege. I say this
because I think it would be wrong for me to
speak for people of colour and the ways that
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