We Are Us: Whys and Wherefores

Come now, and let us reason together...
  — Isaiah 1:18

The reason why leatherfolk organize to secure our basic rights seems obvious: to live our lives free from undue interference. Why do we bother to do that though? What is so ding-dong important that we struggle upstream against the flow of common humanity with such pigheaded stubbornness?

Much has been said about the beauteous rapture that can be claimed through, among other things, our flesh-and-fantasy exercises. Rapture is the high, fine thing that's attainable: many of us settle for lesser joys. Still, rapture (or the hope of experiencing it) is considered ample justification by us, but our enemies remain unconvinced of the value of such an ideal. Why? Let us consider this.

First, who are "our enemies"? Those who oppose us and attempt to frustrate us (at best) and destroy us (at worst). I'm not talking about the true majority of citizens, who seem to not care about what we do as long as we keep it to ourselves. I'm talking about a fanatical minority who take active steps to make our lives miserable. We all know who they are in our personal lives, and we know who they are at large, so I'll not belabor the point.

What is their motivation? Why don't they just mind their own business? Theories have been flying about closet cases, obsessive-compulsives who feel a spiritual call to "purify" the world, and cowardly hypocrites who feel they should play the odds by playing to the demands of the perceived majority view, etc. Well, these people all have a basic assumption in common, and it behooves us to be familiar with that assumption, since it's the bedrock foundation for the whole kill-joy mentality.

Here it is in a nutshell: Sex: is it "good" or "bad"? If sex is good, then sexier sex is better. If sex is bad, then sexier sex is worse. If sex is good, then the enjoyment of sex, the celebration of sexual enjoyment is good. If sex is bad, than the less said or done about sex, the better. If sex is good, then being an actively sexual creature is good. If sex is bad, then being an actively sexual creature is nasty, and gets you no points.

In my experience, the leatherfolk who are most at ease with their practice are the ones who have made peace with the fact that BDSM has to do with sex: specifically, the celebration of the body and its passions. Sex for us is more than just the animal acts associated with procreation; we celebrate the fact of being sexual creatures, with all that comes with it. Not just the pleasures of the flesh, but the pains. Not just the body and its urges, but the mind and its fantasies; its symbols. Not just acts and ideas that perpetuate the species, but those that spotlight and celebrate the individual, and individuality for its own sake.

We are so accepting of individuality in sexual expression that we almost feel it's taboo to prohibit any consensual activity. We hold individual expression to be so sacred that we welcome a mind-boggling array of erotic eccentrics into our fold.

Leatherfolk must believe that sex is good, and being a sexual creature is good, and sexual self-expression is good, or we would have no meaningful quarrel with those who oppose us.

Furthermore, we seem to believe that the sexual body is sacred, not profane. We deify ourselves, making secular gods and goddesses of our most admired practitioners. These ideas and feelings are directly opposed to the ideas and feelings of our opponents, who get positively livid that human beings could cherish such notions, and heaven help us, act them out.

Our opponents think and feel that the pursuit of rapture should be a purely mental exercise which obliterates the sexual impulses, and severs the mind's bonds to the body. Understand this, and you'll understand a lot.

They think that what's female (the cunt; the womb; the breasts) should be utilized for the common good with as little fuss as possible, and discarded without sentimentality at the first chance. They think that what's male (the cock; the balls) must be weapons in service to world order, not tools of individualized pleasure. Both ends of the alimentary canal are for the processing of food products, period. They think that the rules governing the uses of the body and body parts are simple, clear cut, and not open for intelligent debate.

They are wrong.

The body is sacred, and life is a passion dance of pleasure and pain, and the sexes are not opposites and adversaries, but are complementary and intimately interwoven forces. If anyone can prove that by showing it, we can, and we will. We must.

Life, and all that makes life worthwhile, is worthy of examination and celebration. Those who think otherwise will simply have to think again.

About the Author

 Laura Goodwin, activist, writer and counselor, Ms. NLA-International 1992, is founder/director of the United Leatherfolk of Connecticut, High Priestess for the Service of Mankind Church, Baron of Hartford County for the Imperial Court of Connecticut, and is a member of Kink Aware Professionals. She has a husband and 3 children who think having a Diva (pronounced Dee-Vah!) in the house is normal.