Posted on 09/29/2003 10:19:49 PM PDT by churchillbuff
San Francisco --- Parading a pair of naked, hooded and gagged men down the middle of the street on leashes, a San Francisco man named Dean elicited a few glances and camera snaps when he stopped to make an adjustment -- a strap here, a clamp there.
Then Dean moved on, submissives in tow, and so did everybody else.
It could happen only at San Francisco's annual Folsom Street Fair, which turned 20 on a pleasant Sunday -- not too hot for a leather bodysuit, not too chilly for the absence of a leather bodysuit. Thousands gathered to celebrate the leather world and the larger arena of sexual fetishism, and to marvel at an event that puts it all on public display.
For one day, at least, police adopted an almost-anything-goes attitude at the festival, which definitely wasn't good clean fun for the whole family. No feathers were ruffled, though, perhaps because all of the feathers were being used to tickle people in places that cannot be mentioned in a family newspaper.
"This is a time and a place where community standards are such that we can do this without offending or breaking the law," said Dean, a "dominant" who declined to give his last name.
But you didn't need to be on a leash to enjoy the festival, which filled five blocks and benefited community groups. People came to see and be seen, to shock and to gawk.
The fair grew out of Folsom Street's gay leather scene of the 1970s, said sexologist Carol Queen, 46, of San Francisco, who said she has a doctorate from the city's Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.
In two decades, the street party has become more popular, more accepted and more diverse -- in the people it draws as well as in the naughty things they like to do. The Internet was the "tipping point" in fetishism, Queen said, drawing together people who used to have trouble finding each other.
"Look at the way the fair has changed -- it has gone from an insular community event to something that is more mainstream, and not necessarily leather-identified or queer-identified," she said as a young woman was being whipped behind her. "It's also the tourist event of the week."
There's also a message in the public masochism -- a message that is reaching more and more people -- according to fair veterans.
"This creates permission for folks to step out of their personal boxes and look at the scary side of sex," said Frank Strona, a San Francisco sex educator who was encouraging men to take a test for sexually transmitted diseases at the fair. "For people in the SM community, this is a way to feel open and empowered, to balance out all the negative stereotypes."
The open men and women dressed as soldiers, geishas and cops, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. But mostly they dressed as themselves, which is to say they wore leather chaps sans pants.
When they weren't listening to bands like Spanking Machine ("When I say crawl, you say, 'Yes, Mistress!' " the lead singer cooed), they were perusing a real spanking machine -- called "Robospanker."
There were porn movies, books (including "Slavecraft: Roadmaps for Erotic Servitude"), T-shirts (with such slogans as Department of Homoland Security) an abundance of flogging implements and flogging booths, and a "Dunk a Hunk" dunk tank.
It wasn't all dominance and submission.
Couples shopped for home entertainment, young men cruised, old friends from the leather scene reconnected, and gawkers and tourists -- easily spotted because their only leather was on the strap of a camera -- checked out some eye-opening sights.
"We're gawkers!" announced Ira Ellenbogen, a 55-year-old computer programmer from Woodland (Yolo County) who was at the fair with his girlfriend and another friend. "It's not a lifestyle I'd choose, but I think it's great that people have found something they love. I definitely wouldn't try some of this stuff at home."
There was even a California gubernatorial candidate stumping for the leather vote. Christopher Sproul, a 44-year-old attorney from San Francisco, appeared tame in a gray wool suit, but he said he was making a political statement on Folsom Street.
"I've alienated the Christian right already," he said. "Why not go whole hog?"
Some of the more vivid scenes Sunday included a woman who was described by a friend as a "new submissive" crying after being whipped, then proceeding to passionately kiss the "dominant" who was doing the whipping.
But Strona, the sex educator, said it's important that onlookers "not take things out of context. There is showmanship. And what people don't see is the underlying negotiation and the skill that went into the act."
E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.
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