Origin of The Leather Subculture
Although sadomasochism has been practiced for many centuries, the modern gay leather scene in the United States developed beginning in 1945 when thousands of gay servicemen were given blue discharges from service after World War II and came to live in the major port cities of the United States to live in gay ghettos. In 1953 the film The Wild One appeared starring Marlon Brando and the more butch gays began to imitate him by wearing black leather jackets, a black leather cap, black leather boots, and jeans, and, if they could afford it, by also riding motorcycles. Many gay servicemen had played sex games with each other where one played the top and the other played the bottom. In the 1950s, the magazine Bizarre familiarized people with sexual fetishism.
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten)