For my project I didn’t just want to talk about the subculture I wanted to actually indulge and take up every part of it. So I made the decision to visit the club and and film and shoot there. In hopes of finding someone to fully get into (lol no pun intended) I just want to hear how they feel about the scene and its progression. To make it full loop, tying it to my thesis. I will be interviewing however I meet at this club. Asking them how do they feel and getting to know how they feel all while taking photos. Hopefully I could get tied up or they could teach me. Im basically proving my thesis correct. That these people aren’t freaks and they seem to be happier than most.

How could BDSM (particularly in the Gay Leather men Community) improve character traits and even personality traits ? I believe that this practice could improve human traits due to the fact that BDSM is abbreviated for Bondage, Dominance/ Discipline, Submission and Masochism to mentally and physically bear that weight takes a lot, knowing your boundaries (of course this is not final, I will develop a better understanding of it all as I continue my research). Although according to some sex experts BDSM could actually destroy a person. Quoted by Judy Kuriansky, a sex psychologist, says, “There is a triumvirate of guilt, embarrassment, and fear of intimacy for these people… It’s rare that all of the sudden they can give up on being interested in pain and suddenly capable of being loved.” (instead of progressive thing, it’s actually a set back)

Research:

• Leather Subculture: Wearing leather garments is one way that participants in this culture self-consciously distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual cultures. Many people associate leather culture with BDSM practices and its many subcultures. But for others, wearing black leather clothing is an erotic fashion that expresses heightened masculinity or the appropriation of sexual power; love of motorcycles, motorcycle clubs and independence; and/or engagement in sexual kink or leather fetishism.

• In Europe younger men have combined the aesthetic and exploration of sexual power with the gay skinhead movement and social-fraternal organizations like BLUF, from the late 1970s.
• How many people are into S&M? According to researchers, the number likely falls somewhere between 2 percent and 62 percent. Australians whether they had “been involved in B&D or S&M” in the past 12 months. 2.2 percent of men said yes. 🙁
• Christian Joyal and colleagues (2015) asked over men about their sexual fantasies. 53.3 percent of men reported fantasies about being dominated sexually—and 59.6 percent of men reported fantasies about dominating someone sexually.
• BDSM practitioners had lower levels of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychological sadism, psychological masochism, borderline pathology, and paranoia.
• Andreas Wismeijer and Marcel van Assen (2013) compared BDSM practitioners to non-BDSM-practitioners on major personality traits. Their results showed that in comparison to non-practitioners, BDSM practitioners exhibited higher levels of extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and subjective well-being. Practitioners also showed lower levels of neuroticism and rejection sensitivity.
• The Eagle
• The Rabbit Hole <3
• The leather men culture has diminished and modernized is that cool or harmful. Does it derail from its original purpose?