Leather Archives & Museum: 25 Years (1991-2016) [digital]

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 biracial
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
69