I was a member of the NYC Leather Community in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and there’s one thing that should be pointed out. Many of the guys were into experimentation and diverse lifestyles in general. The same guy who hung out at the *Mineshaft *could be seen the next week in the *Radical Faeries *contingent at Pride, or in a group of gay doctors, or singing in the Gay Men’s Chorus. Leather was rarely an insular lifestyle. And that same guy may have just as easily been in the “bridge and tunnel crowd,” and returned home to his suburban wife and kids, who had no idea where he’d been.
There was also a certain amount of political involvement in the leather community. For many years I was a member of GMSMA (Gay Male S/M Activists), which disbanded only a few years ago.
And it should be mentioned that lesbians had their own – rather small and totally politically incorrect – BDSM group. They wore brown leather.
I really don’t remember much about the straight BDSM Community. There was the *Eulenspiegel Society *and the *Hellfire Club, *that basically had little to do with us. There was some outreach on our part, but they were mostly reluctant to acknowledge us.
And the UK entry for Leather Clad female rock and pop singers would be (American born) Suzi Quattro possibly better known as an actress in her native country with her appearances on Happy Days as the descriptively named Leather Tuscadero. Her leather look shocking the British in the early 1970s.
Forget not how Diana Rigg liked to dress (or be dressed) as Emma Peel on The Avengers. Rowwrrr! And I was just a kid. Rowwrrr!
I’ve said on other occasions that one side effect or related sign of gayness is an enhanced awareness of sexuality. For gay folks their sexuality is one of the (if not the primary) defining characteristic of their personalities.
There are certainly straight folks who are just as all fired up about their sexuality. But they’re a relative minority among straights.
As such, given the centrality of sexuality to gay folks’ personalities you’re going to see more of their fetishistic behavior. Not that gays and straights differ in their amount of fetishization. Just that they differ in how willing they are to expose it in public.
e.g. A big-time Star Wars fanboy will wear lots of themed t-shirts everywhere, mention the Force often in unrelated conversation, attend cons, and all the rest. Meanwhile somebody who just likes the movies might have a couple T-shirts, but wouldn’t think of wearing one to work. For the former, Star Wars is part of his (very occasionally her) identity. For the latter, it’s just a preference.
Whether this difference is inherent in gayness or is a reaction to their social status (then) as outcasts & undesirables is itself an interesting question. And one we’ll learn more about as gayness slowly becomes more mainstream and eventually is just another facet of humdrum mainstreamness. But this question is not pertinent to this discussion.
Jim Morrison famously wore the same pair of leather pants to nearly every live performance the Doors ever put on. Ray Manzarek recounts how he had them custom made, and had this observation when he saw Morrison put them on for the first time: