While fetishes and bondage are becoming more accepted as an extracurricular activity, the leather community continues to remain underground for the most part. There is virtually no discussion of the history of the leather men or the culture's origins on the internet.

People whose practices allow them to be on the outskirts still want a history to connect with. Such is true with sadomasochists-unfortunately many of the early slaves and masters are deceased, so the rest are left to make up the history as they go along.

Leather as the preferred clothing for sex play can be traced all the way back to 1945, although other resources put the beginning of the history as far back as the fourteenth century. Leather shops first hit San Francisco in the mid to late 60's. These were not the motorcycle leather riding gear shops, but the first to retail and display harnesses and other leather bondage gear-right out in the open! Can you imagine what it must have been like in those days? We really take for granted that there is one in practically every city now, open to the public and free to walk into.

Occasionally the erotic power exchange (BDSM) community looks at the gay community with a certain amount of envy, as a result of the fact that the latter has achieved quite a bit when it comes to general understanding for and acceptance of different lifestyles. One of the questions, asked in this respect, is the one about being a culture yes or no. Although that as such is a question that can be debated endlessly, fact of the matter is that the narrow - sexual only - approach does not seem to cover all aspects of erotic power exchange. So, are "we" a culture? Below is at least one answer to that question.

First of all: what is a culture? There are of course various definitions, but personally I like to use the one given by anthropologist Ruth Benedict (which is the more or less generally accepted one in the scientific community): "culture is a more or less consistant pattern of thought and action with a characteristic purpose that pervades the forms of behavior and institutions of a society." Hence, a culture is defined by a set of patterns.

BDSM defined

So what is BDSM? Simply stated it is an acronym for Bondage and Discipline, Domination and Submission, and Sadomasochism. You may be surprised to know that these so called perversions come quite naturally to most, since some people naturally crave to be submissive and some dominant. If you just take a look at your own sex lives, you’ll be surprised to find that you’ve already tried out some elements of BDSM without even being aware of it. Remember, how you shuddered and ended up in a heap, when your partner blindfolded you and traced the contours of your body with a feather or an ice cube? Welcome to the warped and weird world of BDSM.

Many of you may be relating BDSM only to hardcore sadism or masochism, but the truth is that it can also be remarkably subtle, highly erotic and psychologically charged. It may not even involve sex or sexual tension! It is more of a power game, where one person agrees to submit to another to act out a fantasy. It is driven more by the needs of the submissive than by those of the dominant. And, in this game, the roles of the dominants and submissives are also not fixed and can be interchanged. You may be surprised to know that male submissives actually outnumber the female ones! Talk about role reversal!