SAN DIEGO, NEVADA
A collection of BDSM experts met this past weekend to codify the answer to the question, “What constitutes leather within the kink, fetish, and BDSM community?”
While opinions vary widely, the group was able to come to a single conclusion, which surprised the nearly 300 attendees who expected a long, drawn out debate on the topic.
Master Kevin Brawn, a 73 year old Leather Master and distinguished member of the leather community told a packed house, “For me leather is just whatever gets you off. The raunchier, the dirtier, and the nastier, the better. Most of the time, people wear leather stuff, but not always.”
The rest of the panel nodded in agreement, a few of them offering support or small additions.
“I really like boots,” Slave Bobby Bottom added. “But not everyone does. I mean, you don’t have to. But if you do, that can be leather too.”
His comment, taken as a friendly amendment, was accepted with a second round of nods.
The remainder of the time was spent asking questions from the audience.
Slave Bran, a 53 year old slave from the Midwest, adorned in a leather vest covered in pins and a leather cap, asked the distinguished group if “being leather required having a leather heart?”
Brawn responded with a single word, “No.”
After the meeting Slave Bran told The Daily Flogger, she was “pretty sure that was wrong. I have been in the community for many years and I have always been told I have a leather heart. It is part of what makes me special,” she explained. “It is also what allows us to keep other people, like people we disagree with, out of the community. They don’t have real leather hearts. At least not like me.”
Several others asked questions about the importance of things like honor, integrity, and keeping your word.
Brawn, once again speaking for the group, told the stunned on-lookers, “Nope. Just raunchy sex. Listen people, you can do all that with integrity and honor or whatever, but if you aren’t getting off on it, it isn’t leather.”
Several groups, including leather title holders and fetishists insisted there must be more to it than “raunchy sex.”
Sam Snarth, a 42 year old Leatherman and Leather title holder, says he refuses to accept such a simple definition. “For me leather is about spirituality, mystery, and creating something sacred. It is part of what makes me different. You know, better. If it is just about sex and getting off, well, anyone can do that. You don’t even need a title.”
It remains to be seen if Brawn’s definition will be widely accepted, as many in attendance felt slighted.
“I’ve worked hard to be leather,” Shelly Allure, a 26 year old leatherwoman, explained. “It is really upsetting to think that just anyone can do it just by being themselves.”
