#leather literature

[pegglefan69]

“I was all alone now– on my own. My throat was dry, my heart pounded, and my mind fought to stay focused. I pulled on a pair of short black leather gloves and stepped to face Charley. He looked into my eyes with love and trust and formally surrendered by inclining his head to my chest. I embraced him.

Slowly, trying not to look like a nervous colt, I moved around behind Charley and began to caress his broad, muscular back, which was stretched flat from his arms being bound and extended. With my right index finger I began to draw a pattern on his back. The roomful of men was quiet but restless and questioning. What was the kid doing? These were unfamiliar gestures. Running a fingertip over someone’s back might be odd, even kinky, but was it sadism? They kept quiet and watched.

What no one knew was that I had embedded a razor-sharp scalpel into the fingertip of my glove. The tracery I was creating on Charley’s back was being gently cut into the topmost layer of his skin– not quite deep enough to raise blood but just enough to split the skin. It only took a few minutes to create the design but to me those moments seemed like hours. Then I stepped back, picked up a broad leather paddle, and with all the force I could muster, smacked the paddle flat against Charley’s back three times. The impact caused the skin to split open and the blood to rush to the surface and fill the thin lines that I had cut into his back. Slowly at first and then more quickly, the blood oozed out until the full design became clear to everyone in the room. I had cut a large, smiling sunburst into my lover’s back. Under the sunburst were the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY. A little humor can go a long, long way. The gasps of wonder and amusement in the room were my reward. I had begun the evening as a lanky kid but now I had earned my place among serious men.

Jason was the first to grab me. Where, he wondered, had I learned that nasty trick? I explained that I’d thought it up on my own and confessed that I had to practice on my own arms and legs until I developed the right touch. He howled with laughter when I told him that Charley had believed my story about the cuts being cat scratches.

My relationship with Charley deepened and became more profound for us both. It was to be forever in our hearts and minds.”

–From the essay One Among Many: the Seduction and Training of a Leatherman by Thom Magister, from the book Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics and Practice, edited by Mark Thompson

This excerpt is from the author’s debut as a S/M top into his 1950s leather community, & I thought his invention of a proto-vampire glove was really interesting! The whole essay is thought-provoking, romantic, & sexy.

[that-butch-archivist]

"Untitled" by Phyllis Christopher, 1988

source: Nothing But the Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image, edited by Susie Bright & Jill Posener

[r3n0-5]

I was today years old when I finally realized the fact that despite being asexual, I love sex, and it is because I’m autistic, let me explain if it sounds confusing, what sex implies? -Licking? Yes -Touching? Yes -Biting? Yes please What I mean is… I use sex as a form of stimming, to release tension, that’s why it needs to be freaky, it can’t be normal sex, it has to stimulate my whole body, I need to feel the roughness of the leather or the coldness of the chain, need to smell the musk of the one who’s topping me, the natural scent of their bodies, or the fabricated cologne, need to bite and them to bite me to feel alive, need to act like a crazy animal without being judged, and need to hear their moans and whispers and whimpers and begs and… damn I’m "horny" again (wants to stim).

[chasingrainbowsforever]

~ Brown and Gold ~

[critical-quoter]

Bravery has nothing to do with not feeling fear, and everything to do with facing it.

Leather & Lark - Brynne Weaver

[fitzrove]

[trying to find cool looking clothes that fit me for cheap at a second hand store, in anticipation of moving abroad for uni, gritting my teeth] i am so richard thesecrethistory coded

[thepoeticbubble]

Don't let the same ache repeat itself , find a better reason to weep each time

-tabish.j

[sayashade]

Went to my uncle's house in Chennai (formerly Madras, under British colonial rule) and found his father-in-law's collection of books. There are some lovely leather-bound Russian literary texts in there as well.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stick around long enough to take a proper look, so I took a few pics and am gonna let y'all rifle through them instead.

[girasolnaciente]

Lo que hay es está insoportable balanza entre lo que queremos pensar que somos y lo que realmente somos, lo que fuimos cuando recordamos y lo que soñamos cuando despertamos, lo que hay en el presente y lo predispuestos que estamos al vivirlo, lo inimaginable que nunca pensamos y lo verdadero que siempre sentimos, y cada uno de estos sentimientos son reales, puesto que todo esto hábitat en nuestra alma, cuerpo y pensamiento, somos amor y odio, rencor y felicidad, no hay nada nuevo, seremos y somos la distopia de encontrarnos en algún momento. ¿Será este encuentro la muerte propia? ¿Será este el fin del temor a la propia vida?

🌻

[karl-von-moor-official]

*turns into Karl von Moor, immediately gets disowned and starts an emo group of robbers*

what if one day, for 24 hours, everyone on tumblr turned into whatever their url is

[that-butch-archivist]

"Fire" by Jennie Sullivan, 1988

source: Nothing But the Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image, edited by Susie Bright and Jill Posener

[critical-quoter]

They looked into each other's eyes as I started to sing and I thought, I wonder how much love is out there like that, really, I wonder if I'll ever find it. And if I do, I hope I deserve it. And now I think, Maybe we don't find it. It doesn't just appear. It's not fantasy, not a fairy tale. We make chances, note after note, chord after chord, until we create it.

Leather & Lark - Brynne Weaver

[haveacowleatherworks]

Dragon on books Teacup Holster

[quotelr]

So it is always preferable to discuss the matter of veganism in a non-judgemental way. Remember that to most people, eating flesh or dairy and using animal products such as leather, wool, and silk, is as normal as breathing air or drinking water. A person who consumes dairy or uses animal products is not necessarily or usually what a recent and unpopular American president labelled an "evil doer.

Gary L. Francione

[firstsentence]

"Scarcely were the words said than they all sat motionless and made of stone, and their mouths open and their right hands stretched up in the air." 🍵

[mercymornsimpathizer]

a non-exhaustive list of butch literature

a (very ad-hoc) list of butch reading and writing, (mostly) by butch authors. books I've read myself in bold; take the rest with a grain of salt. additions, addendums, and commentary welcome :)

(you can find my list of femme literature here)

general/literary fiction:

mrs s by k patrick

stone butch blues by leslie feinberg

boulder by eva baltasar

running fiercely towards a thin high sounds by judith katz

tipping the velvet by sarah waters

a crystal diary by frankie hucklenbroich

godspeed by lynn breedlove

cha-ching! by ali liebegott

the ihop papers by ali liebegott

greasepaint by hannah levene

lucy and mickey by red jordan arobateau

the bull-jean stories by sharon bridgforth

development by bryher

notes of a crocodile by qiu miaojin

america is not the heart by elaine castillo

the slow fix by ivan coyote

the swashbuckler by lee lynch

old dyke tales by lee lynch

sci-fi, fantasy, and horror:

gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir

the unspoken name by ak larkwood

vermilion by molly tanzer

metal from heaven by august clarke

scapegracers by ha clarke

the unbroken by cl clarke

fire logic by laurie marks

the seep by chana porter

these burning stars by bethany jacobs

feast while you can by mikaella clements and onjuli datta

non-fiction, memoir, and autobiography:

hijab butch blues by lamya h

gender failure by ivan coyote and rae spoon

fun home by allison bechdel

butch is a noun by h bear bergman

female masculinity by jack halberstam

burning butch by rb murtz

when we were outlaws by jeanne cordova

leaving isn't the hardest thing by lauren hough

odd girls and twilight lovers by lillian faderman

another mother tongue by judy grahn

boots of leather, slippers of gold by elizabeth lapovsky and madeline davis

the persistent desire ed joan nestle

persistence: all way butch and femme ed ivan coyote and zena sharman

dagger: on butch women ed lily burana