Lesbian Sex Mafia

Last updated

The Lesbian Sex Mafia (LSM) is an information and support group for bisexual women and lesbians interested in sexual activities involving BDSM, fetishes, costumes, etc. [1] [2] Founded in 1981 by Jo Arnone and Dorothy Allison, it is located in New York City. [2]

Contents

The LSM works "to organize for [women's] sexual desire as strongly as we have tried to organize for our sexual defense". [3] The name was deliberately chosen "in the same spirit of humor as the Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorism Society ." [4] [5]

History

The LSM organized a "Speakout on Politically Incorrect Sex" rally at the 1982 Barnard Conference on Sexuality. [6] [7] The group was also a subject of a documentary by the German filmmaker Monika Treut, Bondage, the first of four films in the Female Misbehaviour series. [8] [9] [10]

In 1993, Pride Night by LSM, The Eulenspiegel Society, Excelsior MC, GMS/MA, and NLA: Metro New York received the Large Event of the Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards. [11]

In 1996 LSM cofounder Jo Arnone received the National Leather Association International’s Jan Lyon Award for Regional or Local Work, [12] [2] in 2005 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards, and in 2010 she received the Mr. Marcus Hernandez Lifetime Achievement Award (Woman) as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards. [13]

Membership

Membership in LSM is open to women 18 years and older, including intersex or transgender women, and transgender men who were assigned female. To become a member, one must fill out the application and then becomes an LSM Pledge. Next, the pledge must attend an LSM Orientation/Safety Procedure Meeting. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leather subculture</span> Subculture involving leather garments

Leather subculture denotes practices and styles of dress organized around sexual activities that involve leather garments, such as leather jackets, vests, boots, chaps, harnesses, or other items. Wearing leather garments is one way that participants in this culture self-consciously distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual cultures. Many participants associate leather culture with BDSM practices and its many subcultures. For some, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susie Bright</span> American writer and feminist

Susannah Bright is an American feminist, author and journalist, often on the subject of politics and sexuality.

Samois was a lesbian-feminist BDSM organization based in San Francisco that existed from 1978 to 1983. It was the first lesbian BDSM group in the United States. It took its name from Samois-sur-Seine, the location of the fictional estate of Anne-Marie, a lesbian dominatrix character in Story of O, who pierces and brands O. The co-founders were writer Pat Califia, who identified as a lesbian at the time, Gayle Rubin, and sixteen others.

Patrick Califia is an American writer of non-fiction essays about sexuality and of erotic fiction and poetry. Califia is a bisexual trans man. Prior to transitioning, Califia identified as a lesbian and wrote for many years a sex advice column for the gay men's leather magazine Drummer. His writings explore sexuality and gender identity, and have included lesbian erotica and works about BDSM subculture. Califia is a member of the third-wave feminism movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Antoniou</span> American novelist

Laura Antoniou is an American novelist. She is the author of The Marketplace series of BDSM-themed novels, which were originally published under the pen name of Sara Adamson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Allison</span> American writer (born 1949)

Dorothy Allison is an American writer from South Carolina whose writing focuses on class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism and lesbianism. She is a self-identified lesbian femme. Allison has won a number of awards for her writing, including several Lambda Literary Awards. In 2014, Allison was elected to membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monika Treut</span> German lesbian filmmaker (born 1954)

Monika Treut is a German filmmaker. She made her feature film debut with Seduction: The Cruel Woman, a film that explores sadomasochistic sex practices. She has made over 20 films, including the short documentaries Annie and My Father is Coming. Treut’s involvement extends across writing, directing, editing and acting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gayle Rubin</span> American cultural anthropologist, activist, and feminist

Gayle S. Rubin is an American cultural anthropologist, theorist and activist, best known for her pioneering work in feminist theory and queer studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leather Archives & Museum</span> Archives and museum for leather, kink, BDSM, and fetish subculture

The Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M) is a community archives, library, and museum located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase in 1991, its mission is "making leather, kink, BDSM, and fetish accessible through research, preservation, education and community engagement." The LA&M is a leading conservator of queer erotic art. Its permanent collection features some of the most iconic LGBT artists of the twentieth century, including the complete works of Bill Schmeling and many of Dom Orejudos' drawings and murals.

Cecilia Tan is an American writer, editor, sexuality activist, and founder and manager of Circlet Press, which specializes in science fiction erotica, a once uncommon genre; its publications often feature BDSM themes. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She also writes about baseball, but is not to be confused with a writer of the same name who specializes in Asian cookbooks.

The feminist sex wars, also known as the lesbian sex wars, sex wars or porn wars, are terms used to refer to collective debates amongst feminists regarding a number of issues broadly relating to sexuality and sexual activity. Differences of opinion on matters of sexuality deeply polarized the feminist movement, particularly leading feminist thinkers, in the late 1970s and early 1980s and continue to influence debate amongst feminists to this day.

V. M. Johnson, also known as Viola Johnson, born in 1950, is a leatherwoman, leather activist and author.

National Leather Association International (NLA-I) is a BDSM organization, based in the United States with chapters in various cities in the United States and Canada. It was founded in 1986 as the "National Leather Association" (NLA), as a national integrated organization including gay leathermen, kinky heterosexuals and bisexuals, SM lesbians and transgender sadomasochists, and representing their interests in the face of prosecutions. Adding "International" to its name in 1991, the organization staged "Living in Leather" gatherings until 2002. After a period of decline around the turn of the millennium, NLA-I has become more active again and runs a series of awards for fiction and non-fiction writing. NLA-I’s records can be found at the Leather Archives and Museum.

Larry Townsend was the American author of dozens of books including Run, Little Leather Boy (1970) and The Leatherman's Handbook (1972), published by pioneer erotic presses such as Greenleaf Classics and the Other Traveler imprint of Olympia Press. Leatherman's Handbook, with illustrations by Sean, was among the first books to popularize BDSM among the general public.

Feminist views on BDSM vary widely from acceptance to rejection. BDSM refers to bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and Sado-Masochism. In order to evaluate its perception, two polarizing frameworks are compared. Some feminists, such as Gayle Rubin and Patrick Califia, perceive BDSM as a valid form of expression of female sexuality, while other feminists, such as Andrea Dworkin and Susan Griffin, have stated that they regard BDSM as a form of woman-hating violence. Some lesbian feminists practice BDSM and regard it as part of their sexual identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hardy Haberman</span> American writer

Hardy Haberman is an American author, filmmaker, educator, designer living in Dallas, Texas. He is a prominent figure in the leather/fetish/BDSM community, and a frequent speaker at leather events and contests.

Bill Schmeling, better known by his pen name The Hun, was an American artist, known for his explicit, homoerotic fetish illustrations and comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chuck Renslow</span> American businessperson and gay culture pioneer

Chuck Renslow was an American businessperson, known for pioneering homoerotic male photography in the mid-20th-century US, and establishing many landmarks of late-20th-century gay male culture, especially in the Chicago area. His accomplishments included the cofounding with Tony DeBlase of the Leather Archives and Museum, the cofounding with Dom Orejudos of the Gold Coast bar, Man's Country bathhouse, and the International Mr. Leather competition, and the founding by himself alone of Chicago's August White Party, and the magazines Triumph, Rawhide, and Mars. He was the romantic partner of Dom Orejudos and later Ron Ehemann.

The Outcasts was a social and educational organization for women interested in BDSM with other women that was founded in San Francisco in 1984. It grew partly from earlier groups, the Society of Janus and Samois. Gayle Rubin was a co-founder of the organization. Other members included Dorothy Allison, Pat Califia, and Dossie Easton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cynthia Slater</span> American sex activist (1945–1989)

Cynthia Slater (1945–1989) was the cofounder of the second BDSM organization founded in the United States, a San Francisco, California based BDSM education and support group known as the Society of Janus, which she founded with Larry Olsen in August 1974. According to the Leather Hall of Fame biography of Slater, she said of the Society of Janus,

References

  1. Pat Califia (1988). The Lesbian S/M Safety Manual. Lace Publications. ISBN   978-1-55583-301-5.
  2. 1 2 3 "About Us – Lesbian Sex Mafia". Lesbian Sex Mafia. Lesbiansexmafia.org. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  3. Abrams, Kathryn (1995). "Sex Wars Redux: Agency and Coercion in Feminist Legal Theory". Columbia Law Review. 92 (2): 304–376. doi:10.2307/1123232. JSTOR   1123232.
  4. Moira, Fran (1982). "Politically Correct, Politically Incorrect Sexuality". Off Our Backs. 12 (6): 22–23. JSTOR   25774474.
  5. Allison, Dorothy (2013). Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature. Firebrand Books. ISBN   978-1-4804-2660-3.
  6. E. J. Graff, "Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature", The Women's Review of Books, September 1, 1994. Copy available here .
  7. Carla Frecerro, "Notes of a Post-Sex Wars Theorizer", in Marianne Hirsch and Evelyn Fox Keller, eds., Conflicts in Feminism (Psychology Press, 1990), ISBN   978-0415901789, p. 311. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  8. Dawson, Leanne; Treut, Monika (2014-09-02). "Same, same but different: filmmakers are hikers on the globe and create globalisation from below". Studies in European Cinema. 11 (3): 155–169. doi:10.1080/17411548.2014.972710. ISSN   1741-1548. S2CID   191498162.
  9. Monika Treut, "Female Misbehavior", in Laura Pietropaolo and Ada Testaferri, eds., Feminisms in the Cinema (Indiana University Press, 1995), ISBN   978-0253345004, pp. 113ff. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  10. Gerd Gemünden, "How American Is It? The United States as Queer Utopia in the Cinema of Monika Treut", in Scott D. Denham, Irene Kacandes, Jonathan Petropoulos, eds., A User's Guide to German Cultural Studies (University of Michigan Press, 1997), ISBN   978-0472066568, pp.342ff. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  11. 🖉 "Pantheon of Leather Awards All Time Recipients - The Leather Journal". www.theleatherjournal.com. Archived from the original on 2015-03-25. Retrieved 2020-12-27.
  12. "List of winners". NLA International. 2019-03-14. Archived from the original on 2020-01-03. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  13. "Pantheon of Leather Awards All Time Recipients - The Leather Journal". www.theleatherjournal.com. Archived from the original on 2015-03-25. Retrieved 2020-12-27.
  14. "Become a Member | Lesbian Sex Mafia". lesbiansexmafia.org. Retrieved 2018-10-03.