Am I leather?

Am I leather?

What is leather?

What separates leather from kink?

Over the past few weeks I have been asked theses question a lot. I love the conversations that these types of questions create.  What I have seen and experienced over the years is that kink is what people “do” and leather is what people “are”.  Neither one is better than the other. They are just different.   

BDSM is the umbrella, while leather and kink are some of the categories. (Some people consider that the other way around.)  Kink and leather have a lot of similarities, such as power exchange, role play, honorifics, organizing events, and playing a role in community.  But there is a difference, it is more palpable then it is describable. 

Leather folk are more viscerally geared towards knowing history, understanding protocol, showing respect, learning, not only organizing events but organizing sustainable community inclusive oriented events, a lot of their talk is what is right and wrong, what is for the greater good, discretion, and handling problems in a way that creates the least amount of problems possible. Words like honor, integrity, and inclusion are common to them. 

People that are leather do not put down their leather for other parts of their lives, like I see kink people do. People that are leather identify that way because it drives their lives.  The concept is that it finds a place in everything that a leather person does. I.E. Kink may not play a part in one’s day to day job, but leather absolutely does. 

But all of this is just talk really. Being leather is a feeling. Like any other identity. It is an internal, visceral, and personal thing. It has to have meaning to the individual or the words, and the identity, are useless. So a way to look at it is “what would your leather identity drive you to do”? 

If you identify as a submissive that loves to serve. Being a submissive drives the service. Identity into action. If you are leather what does it drive you to do? Learn history? Organize?  Dress or act differently?

Those are all possible. The beauty of leather is that you get to decide that for yourself. How you feel, what you think, what drives you? Those are all parts of answering the big question of “Am I leather”?

Just to clarify here, that does not mean that all leather people are utopia. Quite the opposite, leather folk, like their kink cousins, can absolutely be elitist assholes. More than once I have seen a really amazing person take on a leather identity and then turn into a total shit bag. 

Just a thought.