Old Guard Leather (52-59)
May 3, 2004
The idea of "Old Guard Leather" has achieved a place in our leather culture almost at the level of dogma. It is possibly one of the most poorly-defined and undeserving term we have to describe ourselves, yet in some conversations it would seem not only indispensable, but unquestionable.
The term "old guard," like "love" or "freedom" or "patriot," has come to mean so many different things to so many different people that it no longer means much of anything to anyone. But that doesn't to stop us from still using it as if it does have meaning. So-in our continuing series exploring the Myths & Mysteries of Leather- what can we actually say about the Old Guard?
Myth # 52- "Where did we get the term 'Old Guard?' "
Since it is by no means exclusive to the leather community, it is best to do a short background check on the term itself. How old and who were they guarding?
Although there are probably uses that predate it, some of the earliest historical references to the term "Old Guard" go back to the elite of the elite in Napoleon's famous Imperial Guard. They were the best and most experienced of the Grand Armee, crack troops who protected the Emperor himself. At Waterloo, it was a sure sign of the end when the Old Guard were committed to battle in a last desperate gamble. As the physical guardians of the Emperor, they were the defenders of imperial glory-and sending them to be slaughtered like common soldiers on the Belgian plain was the symbolic sunset of imperial dreams. Thus, the term carries with it not only the sense of authenticity and glory, but also a hint of tragedy and mortality wherever it was used.
There are Old Guard units of the U.S. Army. There are old guard anarchists, old guard revolutionaries, old guard programmers and old guard Republicans. Depending on who is speaking and when, it can be a compliment or a pejorative, conservative or radical,
Thus, the term "old guard" is used in many different venues to indicate forbearers or founders. Among leatherfolk, it is also a search for historical context. People use it when they are trying to refer generally to that which is historical, authentic or original in our subculture. The problem is, when it comes to exactly where and when our sense of community began, our history is rarely original, and authenticity remains a matter of debate.
Myth # 53- "Leather history begins with the 'Old Guard.'"
According to the late Dr. Tony DeBlase's Leather History Timeline, one could argue the beginnings of S&M or leather culture well into ancient history. His first entry was dated 2355 (BCE). Sadistic or masochistic behavior has been recorded for nearly as long as history has been recorded and it should be noted that even those terms are relatively recent (in historical context), with the arrival of namesakes Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.
For purposes of this essay, however, we will limit our study to the signs of community which we have come to associate with the modern leather community emerging in the last half of the 20th Century. But even if we limit ourselves to the modern post-WWII North American gay experience, the history is still hazy. Just about as hazy as who or what-exactly-constituted the "old guard" of leather.
Myth #54- "The 'Old Guard' were returning WWII veterans."
The story goes that after the Second World War, gay men discharged from the Armed Forces stayed in the debarkation port cities of New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. They brought with them the camaraderie of the military experience, the concepts of discipline and service, even surplus equipment like the motorcycles and the leather jackets and caps. They lived and loved in secret clubs and dungeons until the swinging liberated days of the sexual revolution found them. Many folks say, to truly be "old guard" you would have had to be a part of that original generation.
Wrong war. By the time the swinging liberation of the sexual revolution found veterans of World War II, they were middle-aged or approaching retirement. Returning veterans were indeed influential in the beginnings of the American gay leather culture, but they were more likely to be returning from Korea or Vietnam
I have yet to find even one identifiable individual that correctly fulfills that legend: Gay, served in WWII, wore or participated in the embryonic elements that we consider today to be "leather" immediately after they returned and trained others to do so. So far, we have yet to find even one leather "patient zero" with all the right symptoms.
The men eligible for military service between 1941 and 1945 were born roughly between 1916 and 1926, putting them close to their 40's when the first leather and SM clubs were formed and the first leather bars opened. Assuming that they have survived all the subsequent wars, plagues, pogroms and purges, any remaining claimants to such "Old Guardity" would be octogenarians today. While there remain a handful of rare, venerable, surviving leathermen from the wartime generation, they cannot primarily account for the beginning of shy beginnings of leather in the mid-late 1950's and the explosion that occurred 10 or 15 years later. Many, in fact, came to leather later in life.
There were several recognizable milestones in the development of modern leather iconography. The image of the leather-clad biker came from the biker groups that formed after 1945- very, very straight biker groups, the most famous being California's Hell's Angels in 1946. The wildest of these were called the "One Percenters" and it took nearly eight more years for this rebel image to filter into mainstream popular culture with the 1954 movie "The Wild Ones" with Marlon Brando. As the Korean War ended with a cease-fire in 1953, the first gay motorcycle club (The Satyrs out of LA) began in 1954.
There may have been closeted gay or kinky members of those early biker clubs, but adapting and recombining our own image took a little longer. It was several more years before the erotic art of men like Tom of Finland, Etienne and Steve Masters refined the leather image. Finally, by 1958 we see more gay men's leather/motorcycle clubs and the first leather bars began to appear in 1960. Finally, in 1964 came the famous LIFE magazine feature on "Homosexuality In America" with its shocking depiction of San Francisco's Tool Box bar-nearly 20 years after the end of the Second World War.
The wartime generation no doubt began many trends, founded gay enclaves and started the shy beginnings, but in terms of sheer numbers it was their sons- the post-war baby boomers, who came of age and were shaped more by Korea and Vietnam- that really began the leather culture of sexuality we look back to. The icons and the images are theirs. The huge bulge in the population sired by returning WWII vets had a profound impact on every fiber of American society and loomed larger that anything that had gone before. We needed a sexual revolution to really explore those previously taboo journeys and form communities of like-minded people.
Myth #55- "The 'Old Guard' was (wasn't) into SM."
Some say that bondage, kink, fetishes and SM were an integral part of those hardy community pioneers. And some say they were not, that early leather was an honorable chivalric family code later corrupted by nasty masters, slaves, whip welts, dungeons and fetters (also known as "Old Guard: The Disney Version").
What we do know from interviews, images and "literature" is that early gay leather culture was highly acquisitive. They appropriated from the bikers, from military tradition, from fraternal organizations, from movies, from service etiquette, from history, even from prison culture. If it looked like fun, we'd steal from just about anyone.
Myth #56- "The 'Old Guard' is defined by the Age of AIDS."
Some say that the dividing line was the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980's. If you can remember playing before the transfer of bodily fluids was verboten, before the advent of "Safe, Sane and Consensual," you're a member. But that is simply one of many rather arbitrary borders.
Some define "old guard" by those original postwar leathermen. Some say that if you were trained by one of those original "alpha" leathermen (or by someone they trained), then you are also "old guard" and they take great pains to trace their educational lineage to one of the cowhide Mayflower. Some say that membership lies in certain protocols or dress codes and you can tell by the way someone acts or dresses. Some say that if you call yourself "old guard," you obviously aren't.
With all these conflicting opinions, at best, "Old Guard" therefore can't mean anything more significant than "previous" or "older." Just older- not "wiser" or "more genuine." Even if we were to accept that there was something seminal about them, there was nothing magical about those alpha leathermen other than they were first. Indeed, we know more about technique and safety today than they did because today there are more resources, more available knowledge, more options and openness. If they seemed more serious and more focused leathermen, it may have been because those were more serious and focused times.
One answer may lie more in statistics than sadism. Looking at U.S. population as a whole, the second most significant statistical "bulge" in the population comes when the Boomers started having children-the so-called "X-generation." Cycles in the leather community seem to echo this: As a large bulk of the nation comes of age, leather once again searches for its identity. Both the fascination with and the rejection of previous history are symptoms of this cycle.
Myth #57- "The 'Old Guard' was the same everywhere."
In the early days, there was no internet. No IML. No Drummer magazine, no International Leatherman. Not even those kinky back pages of the Advocate classified section.
People traveled less. Skills, traditions, cultures grew up in isolation. Different evolutions, different results. It wasn't until more recently that we started comparing notes about what "leather" means or how people express that. Working out the differences has been a challenge for some.
Myth #58- "This is 'Old Guard'"
If we have learned anything by now, it would be that anytime you definitively, rigidly say, "This is Old Guard" you are just asking for trouble. Wherever you draw that dividing line-age, experience, membership, pedigree, credentials-someone is going to object. And they just might have a point.
There is a famous list of what is "old guard" and what is not. Much of it is simply common sense and common courtesy-and much is a reflection of time and geography.
Stuff like not mixing brass and chrome or brown and black leather. Any drag queen can tell you not to mix pearls and diamonds and that your shoes should always match your belt. Hanky codes and keys on right or left were regionally specific until national gatherings such and nationally distributed magazines began to homogenize and standardize the culture.
Some of it is just archaic, like the treatment of women, minorities or men considered "less than masculine." Women were not allowed in most early clubs, organizations and spaces…so those claiming to be female "old guard" would be something of a non-sequitor. Those rules were a reflection of society at the time and must be reevaluated regularly.
The bottom line is: If you want to have a dress code at your bar, if you want to exclude someone from your club or event, if you want to select titleholders based on this or that…you do it. Do it because it feels right to you, do it because it works, do it because it's always been done that way, do it because it amuses you. But don't do it and blame an entire generation or era, calling it "Old Guard" just to take the responsibility off yourself. If there was an "Old Guard" they'd surely slap you for nonsense like that.
Myth #59- "Is the 'Old Guard' dead?"
Clearly not. While the reality, the true nature and the true history of the Old Guard are shaky, it unfortunately lives on as very solid myth. Or fortunately.
As we have discussed here before, myths are useful up to a point. Legends can be illustrative and inspirational. All but the most rabid atheist admits that there is room in the world for mysticism, for spirituality and for faith. For the idea of gods, heroes, miracles and titans.
But anytime we base our actions on other than proven facts and rational thought, we are in danger of our results being just as wrong. When articles of faith are accepted without challenge or question, it can easily result in misunderstandings, misdirection and small desert wars. When you use a mythical Old Guard to exclude and reprove others, then you cross a line. Your insistence on "traditional leather" is no less ridiculous and untenable than other people who claim to protect "traditional marriage."
