While reading a recent interview with Brian Dawson, I came across some of his comments about the 'Old Guard' in the leather lifestyle.
Although I used that label in a piece I wrote almost three years ago,
I only recently realized that there was a strong likelihood that large
numbers of leather guys don't quite know for sure what the phrase,
'Old Guard' really means. I'm sure that I have never seen a
description of the style (and it is a style), so I want to offer one
now. I have carried my own 'Old Guard' card in my wallet right next to
my Selective Service Registration card (draft card) for long enough
that I probably qualify to offer what follows so, here goes...
First, a bit of historical perspective will be more helpful than you
might guess. 'Old Guard' is really a misnomer-a misapplied name-for
the earliest set of habits that jelled by the mid to late 1950's in
the men's leather community here in the U.S. It is very important to
remember that the modern leather scene as we now know it first
formalized itself out of the group of men who were soldiers returning
home after World War II. (1939-1945).
For many gay men of that era, their World War II military service was
their first homo-social experience (first time being thrown together
mostly in the company of other men for significant lengths of time),
their first time away from their growing up places, and their first
experience of male bonding during periods of high stress. War was (and
is) serious business; people died, buddies depended on each other for
their lives, and the chips were down. Discipline was the order of the
day, and the nation believed that only discipline and dedication would
win the war and champion freedom: (Ever notice the especially strong
patriotic feelings that happen at leather events?)
Anyway, these gay war veterans learned about the value and pleasure of
discipline and hard work in the achievement of a noble purpose. They
also learned how to play hard when they got the chance for leave time.
Indeed, military life during wartime was (and is) a mix of emotional
extremes born out of sure knowledge that one could literally be 'here
today, and gone tomorrow'. Lastly (for these purposes), the gay vets
had the secret knowledge that they fought and served every bit as well
as straight soldiers, and this information strengthened their
self-esteem. All of these things came to be associated with the
disciplined, military way of life as it existed during the wartime
years.
Although not all gay men of that time served in the military, those
who didn't were exposed to the military attitudes through their
contact with the vast numbers of military men who were everywhere to
be seen and cruised both during and immediately after the war years.
In any case, all these things greatly influenced the shape of
masculine gay sexualities.
Upon their return to the States about 1946, many of the gay vets
wanted to retain the most satisfying elements of their military
experience and, at the same time, hang out socially and sexually with
other masculine gay men. They found that only in the swashbuckling
motorcycle culture did such opportunities exist and so the gay bike
clubs were born. It was here that they found the combination of easy
camaraderie, the stress and thrill of real risk taking (the riding),
and the masculine sexuality that they had known during their military
days.
Since one can tell who is and is not in the military only when
uniforms are worn, these gay men unconsciously (in most cases)
transferred their loyalties to their own uniform-the leather gear of
bike riders with a few paramilitary touches thrown in. Club insignia
often recalled hose insignia of special military units: Thunderbolts,
Warriors, Blue Max, and Iron Cross to name only a few. Club members
would exchange their insignia with members of other clubs in
friendship; christening rituals were transferred from tanks, ships and
airplanes to motorcycles and piss was substituted for champagne; the
military dress uniform hats became the leather bike caps-all these
elements were just as had been during military service.
Incidentally, during the war, the soldiers would often put on skits
for their own amusement. Since women were not allowed at the front,
some of the men would play the parts of women by doing a kind of mock
dress-up (as in one scene from 'South Pacific'). Later, this tradition
would be expressed in 'drag' shows during bike runs. So, masculine men
pretended to be pretending to be women-not truly 'drag' at all. (It
still happens in a few places.)
In any case, being in the military also meant following lots of rules.
And just as in the military, there were (unspoken) rules about what
you did and did not wear, how you handled your personal affairs, who
you could and could not socialize with and more. All this was overlaid
with a kind of ritual formalism just as in the military. Those men who
were really into dominance and submission, SM, or leather sex tended
to take these rules rather more seriously than those guys who simply
thought of themselves as butch. The butch ones wore just enough
leather to be practical when riding, and those into the exotic
sexualities tended to wear more gear than necessary to signal this
fact about themselves, but they all hung out together in the same
settings. As you might guess, in some cases, any particular person
might be into both riding and the exotic sexualities.
Just as an aside here, before and during the war, kinky folks seeking
to identify each other would sometimes defensively ask, 'Do you play
the mandolin or the saxophone?' to discover which of them was the
masochist or the sadist by the first letter of these instruments. All
this while wearing street clothes! The creation of a butch subculture
by the gay vets began to allow people to specialize their sexual
interests in a way that had been impossible earlier. Prior to this
development. it was not apparent that there were very many ways to be
gay.
The bike clubs and the bars where they hung out became the magnets of
their day which attracted those gay men who were interested in the
masculine end of the gay spectrum, but it was the leather men who
defined the masculine extreme at that time. (Nowadays, we know there
are many ways to be masculine.) This meant that those who had an
inclination to kinky action pretty much felt compelled to explore kink
in the context of the leather SM scene since it was the only game in
town. If motorcycle riding or black leather itself was not 'your
thing', that meant one felt obligated to visit the hang outs and look
and act the part as much as possible to find one's way into the inner
circle of those who looked like they knew something about the exotic
sexualities. This meant finding out what the rules of inclusion were
(how can I be included?) in order to gain access. To some extent, all
this is still true because the attitude still prevails that the
'uniform' indicates experience and social access to the Knowledgeable
People.
And so, the Scene became EX- clusive rather than IN-clusive, meaning
that the people in the Scene understood the rules and tried to keep
outsiders out-to exclude them. An outsider became defined as anyone
(butch or not) who did not have a primary interest in and experience
with the exotic sexualities or at least an interest in motorcycles.
(This excluding attitude was probably also reinforced by guilt about
being kinky.)
I know that this combination of kinky men mixed in with motorcycle
riders may sound a bit odd now, but that's how the Scene worked and,
to some slight extent, still does. All through the 80's, with the
emergence of kinky organizations and specifically leather/SM events,
the motorcycle riding community and the kinky leather community have
grown apart such that now those in one group are pretty much ignorant
of or indifferent to the events happening in the other.
This growing separation is more true in larger cities which have the
numbers of people that are necessary to support each of these two
communities, each with separate needs and agendas. Consequently, many
old and venerable bike clubs have experienced a drop in membership and
some have disbanded altogether.
But for the most part, kinky people have segregated themselves out
from the riders as the process of erotic specialization has continued.
Generally, the riding community seems not to have minded this
development perhaps because many of the members of riding clubs are
either turned off or embarrassed by the erotic visibility of the kinky
crowd 'Birds of a feather'. But for this discussion, it is noteworthy
that many of those kinky people retained the paramilitary trappings,
manners and attitudes of that early, core group of returning World War
ll. gay vets.
Most importantly, these features of the military mind-set joined with
kinky interests and became erotic in and of themselves became
fetishes. These men then were the original 'Old Guard', and so it will
come as no surprise that their quasi-military rules of inclusion and
exclusion still influence kinky society today.
So what exactly were the (unspoken) 'Old Guard' rules? Here are a few
of the more important ones that had prevailed by 1970:
Very few men maintained full compliance with all these rules all the time, and some, flatly refused to follow rules they personally objected to. But, to be included one was expected to follow at least most of these rules most of the time. Also, confusingly, there was some variation in some of the rules depending on what city you happened to be in at the time. The list above is not complete although it conveys the sense of the style.
Understandably, a certain stiffness surrounded the men who followed these rules, just as a certain stiffness surrounded the military men of the era. Those who sought inclusion had the challenge of finding a relaxed and easygoing way to follow rules. However, this required considerable social skill and many kinky people lacking those skills (or patience) simply gave up and accepted a frustrated role on the fringe.
As time passed, there were more and more guys in their twenties whose early sexual development had not been influenced strongly by contact with the military. Therefore, they lacked the early raw material with which to fetish-ize the military features of the 'Old Guard' leather/SM scene. Still, they needed information and experiences to help shape the urges of insistent kinky longings.
These people were essentially without resources until the establishment of kinky organizations brought about new educational opportunities that were not bound by 'Old Guard' rules. Consequently, there is a lot more support now for new people coming into the leather/ SM scene who have other ideas (non-military) about what is hot. Long hair, rockers with wild designs on their jackets, road racing bikers with brightly colored leathers, leather faeries, skinheads, women and others now are found on turf once dominated by the 'Old Guard' system'.
So, 'Old Early Guard' or perhaps thought of as 'Early Guard' or perhaps 'First Guard' because that style makes sense given the erotic influences that shaped the inner lives of the men who were coming of age sexually at that time. The Old Guard made some real contributions and made some real mistakes, and still does both.
It is more useful to understand than to criticize. And, perhaps most importantly, what the Old Guard did for the development and expansion of kinky life and butch gay male sexuality can best be appreciated against the backdrop of what had existed earlier--not much of anything!
But remember this, as long as we have a military, and a paramilitary police system, and as long as that military has traditions of initiation, ritual, inclusion/exclusion, honor and service, there will always be an 'Old Guard'. Its size and influence in the leather/SM scene will probably always be proportional to the role played by the military and other paramilitary organizations in society -- larger following wartime and smaller during peace. I thought maybe you'd like to know.
Guy Baldwin