Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice

Many years since having explored S/M world. This was a fantastic return to it. The history presented by these stories and personal accounts shared have awakened my in S/M self. This book stands as iconic to understanding the rich history of this beautiful world.

I'll introduce this to the new generation as a must read as a passage into the Leather community and a wonderful trip to the past.

Excellent collection of writings giving different perspectives of the leather culture.

Thoroughly enjoyable and insightful series of essays regarding the most misunderstood "lifestyle" in the gay community. Even if you are not into "leather" you can actually learn something here.

I expected this book to give a broader view of bdsm than it does: almost all of the contributors are gay men. It's also somewhat outdated, as the newest entries are from the 1990s. I think its best material is in the section "Six Decades of Shadow Dancing," which gives an interesting historical perspective on bdsm (once again, a predominately gay male perspective). The last portion of the book focuses on spiritual aspects of bdsm and includes articles by a former monk and a self-identified shaman. As someone with no background in bdsm, I felt Leatherfolk had some interesting bits, but large chunks of it was too radical for my tastes (I wasn't convinced that all humans should experience the "cosmic erotic ecstasy" of fisting). Something of a disjointed, mixed bag.

This is a wonderful study about the various aspects of S/M, both sexual and spiritual, aspects which we don’t normally hear about. Recommended.