WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL. APRIL 2017 | LIBERTY PRESS | Page 27
Leather Life By Nolin Christensen aka Master C
Education Editor’s note: This column may contain content that is offensive to some people.
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ne of the things the Leather community is very vocal about is educating yourself on the proper and correct way to do any type of play. If you’re not properly educated, it doesn’t take much for a scene to go from really fun and exciting to very wrong and tragic. I’ve known people who have ended up at the hospital because something went wrong and they were educated players. So even for us who have been doing various types of play for years have to still be cautious that everything goes well. So, what are some of the things you need to do? The primary thing is to educate yourself. First of all, read, read a lot. Books - preferably by someone who has been in the community for more than just a couple of years. Ask around about the author, look for reviews of the book. Read on the internet, but be careful here. You want to read information that’s been posted by those who have been around a while. Again, ask around, check and find out what people have to say about that individual. Second, go to a class. This should be a class that is being taught by someone who has years (and I mean YEARS of experience). Too often I’ve seen someone take one class and the next thing you know they are teaching. Oops, wrong!! Those are the types of people who will cause someone to get injured.
You need to be learning from someone that has experience. There is an education class offered at almost every major event and at many local clubs/ organizations. Third, get a mentor. Find someone you can mentor with. This again should be someone with years of experience in whatever play you are interested in. Mentors can help teach you the finer things that need to be known with that type of play. Books are good for basic knowledge, classes are good to see how it’s done, but mentors can help you with hands-on experience and help watch to make sure you are doing it right. When the Leather community started all we had was mentors. That’s how you learned. You partnered with a mentor (with you as a submissive) and they taught you various types of play. If they didn’t have knowledge, they would hand you over to someone who did. Once you learned from that person, you would come back to your original mentor for further tutoring. This was based on the old apprenticeships that were the way of the world from the beginning of civilization. Education has always been important in the community. Mentoring kind of went by the wayside after the AIDS crisis in the early 80’s because we lost a lot of our folks who had the knowledge. Mentoring is now making a comeback because we are getting more and more people who are now considered to be experts in their area of play. So, if you are wanting to learn any type of BDSM play, we have several folks in the area who can help to teach you. If we ourselves don’t know or don’t have experience with a particular type of play, we know people who do. If you would like to get into a mentoring program or want to attend a class, please contact me at MsterC69@gmail. com. I will be glad to help you. l Master C is the current president of WOOLF, the local leather club. If you have an interest in leather or BDSM, contact him via www.woolfks.com or at president@woolfks.com.
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safe spaces (temporary as well as permanent) for the queer community. They are also people who work tenaciously to create social change surrounding issues of AIDS/HIV awareness, same-sex marriage, and inclusive business and city ordinances. Thus, they become civic leaders, although atypical versions. In “Sexuality in the Age of Social Media,” individuals and groups considered the accessibility of information on the internet and the impact it has on emotions, status or personal beliefs, and what it can tell us about preferences. Tara Terwilliger (Kansas State University – “The Trouble with Tomi: Problematic Rhetoric on Social Media”) analyzed Tomi Lahren’s (a conservative political commentator) arguments against women’s issues. She honed in on the term “snowflake,” in particular, as problematic. Historically, this was an epithet hurled at someone who was not opposed to slavery and/or who acted “white.” However, through its use on social media, “snowflake” has been reframed to disparage one who is perceived to represent themselves as unique or one supporting liberal ideas. Verbiage such as this along with additional anti-female and heterosexist rhetoric are potentially even more culturally damaging because of the Rocky's continued from previous page
said they liked best about the new bar. On April 29, Cornelson will mark the first anniversary of her new venture. Prior to opening she tells stories of being physically sick with worry about all the things that come with running a business. She is planning a big party and show with drag kings and queens to celebrate the occasion. As for the future, adding a patio beside the bar, along the alley that leads to the parking lot in the back, is in the works. Other than that, Cornelson just wants to keep offering the hospitality she feels the community deserves. Oh, and it's time to renew all the licenses and permits and . . . l
invasiveness of social media. In that same session, Christopher Jensen and Marciana Vequist, PhD (Emporia State University – “Explicit Media Usage and the Differentiation of Self”) surveyed 356 students at a small Midwestern university to see if there was a correlation between their use (or not) of sexually explicit media (SEM) and their ability to define their own emotional feelings, what kinds of judgment they make about other’s sexual practices, and/or their levels of sexual guilt. It seems that those who use SEM appear to be less judgmental of other’s sexual practices, but the ability to decipher one’s own emotions did not seem to be tied to the use of SEM. Darin Challacombe (Fort Hays State) followed Jensen and Vequist. He surveyed Reddit users, specifically gay men, about their preferences, such as sexual positions, whether they liked more masculine or feminine men, and other demographics. Within 24 hours, 4,000 people completed the survey. Challacombe was surprised at the response. He is still working through the information and it has created further research topics for him. For more information on next year’s conference, contact the WSU Department of Sociology at 316-978-3456. l Riverfest continued from page 25
regional acts also will perform at Riverfest 2017, including DJ Carbon, Sunshine Trucking, The Travel Guide, Mountain Deer Revival, Herd of the Huntress, Sloan Moon, Keen Kutter, Marrque Nunley and many others. Admission to all Riverfest concerts is free with a Riverfest button. Adult buttons are $10, and children’s buttons are $5. Buttons are available at an early bird discount price of $7 for adults and $3 for children via preorder at SelectASeat.com, and in person April 10-May 4 at Cox Solutions stores: 2240 N. Rock Road, 446 S. Ridge Road and 2556 N. Maize in Wichita; and 1636 N. Rock Road in Derby. Full-price buttons will be available at Dillons and QuikTrip beginning May 5. l