The MAL 2011 post

Oh God. It's almost the end of February and I'm finally doing this post. Well, that's pretty amazingly terrible. At any rate, here it is! My MAL 2011 experience.

I arrived in DC after work Thursday and went to hang out with a couple that I’m good friends with. One of them picked me up at the bus stop, we went to my favorite restaurant in Hyattsville, MD, and then went back to their place. One of them, Adam, was going to his first MAL and would be my bedmate. I was very happy to be able to show him his first kink event, as he had been the first person to show me some kinks as we hung out throughout the summer of 2009. This was something I could show him. He was excited, yet very nervous, which I find to be the majority of all kinksters’ emotions when they first go to an event. The good thing though was that I was sure that he wasn’t going to trail around, as he’s a very independent guy and makes his own fun happen. We even have a codeword for unfounded, silly jealousy: “two cupcakes.” Long story. Anyways, it was a great time for us to spend some time with him and his boyfriend and then kind of have an indoctrination meeting for the kink weekend. I’d like to think that I calmed him a bit about it, but I’m really not sure.

On Friday we got up, did some errands and had lunch and then went to the hotel. We got there at 4pm and I had planned to meet Sparky from Seattle then. He was running late so Adam and I got our weekend passes for the market taken care of and then Sparky showed up carrying tons of gear. He met Adam, and then Sparky and I went upstairs to play a bit. This spawned into a video that will be posted at some time on sparky's blog and I will probably cross reference this when it is available, and will be coupled with me telling about the pup mentality involved. We played until about 10pm and then Adam came in right after we, well, finished. We then went out of the hotel into the bitter cold to find a neat dive pub with fried pickles which was much to Sparky's and my delight. Our play had made us work up an appetite, and a puppy's gotta eat. We finished and then went back to the lobby and hung out quite a bit and I met my friend J and also Neil and finally met Joey which was a long time coming. I ended up mainly hanging with J and cuddling with him a bit that night, only to end up crawling into bed at around 4.

The next day we crawled out of bed got ready and went to the Starbucks right outside of the MAL hotel, which was packed with kinky and non-kinky alike. Seriously, there were 30+ people in line with two people working the Starbucks. It was madness. We ended up in line next to Kai with a puppy tail in already at 11. I was amused and ended up watching the stares as we jokingly called the nonkinksters "muggles". We sat around, two keystone boys of leather, Adam and me talking about last night. The Hotel was new, so there was a bit of strife there. There were tons of rules they were trying to enforce, like a dress code in the upstairs lobby, trying to force all of us into the basement social area. People were being told to be quieter in their rooms, and to not bring outside alcohol into the hotel. We were all rebelling against these rules. A lot of the part of MAL is a form of freedom one can have, and that was important to us.

We then kicked off the day and went to the market. The market was pretty good. I wandered around the entire market. I had one thing that I really wanted, ankle and wrist restraints and I had a budget of about 200$ for them. I looked throughout the entire market and finally happened upon Mr. S and looked at their restraints. I was helped by an awesome guy, and finally decided on the Neoprene restraints, which were well within the budget range:

Pretty hot, right?

This was pretty awesome. I then met up with a lot of friends and got to catch up. I found one of my good haircut friends, and he and I wandered up to my room and he gave me a nice high and tight for the weekend. It slowly neared 6 and J had a party in his room. I came to find out that all of the crowd knew each other as many of my friends of the weekend ended up crowding the party for J's roommate D's birthday, celebrated with none other but CUPCAKES! I giggled to myself about Adam and my story as I got a bit tipsy. I found one of my role models Reddy, and then got dinner in the lobby with him and some new friends.

I ended up spending the majority of the night in the lobby, until I ended up having a bit of a cuddleparty with J Neil Sparky Joey and me. That was pretty amusing as Sparky was still under Neil's hypnotic spell the entire time. hehe.

The next day started well, but as I was up way too late I ended up missing my brunch invitation with one of my friends. So I ended up waking up and grabbing one of the two cupcakes left over in J's room. We then head to an irish pub for lunch and then head back down to the market. I started the day in an argyle sweater. I found the best rubber ever, at E7 Rubber, and ended up buying a pair of their rubber shorts with codpiece and then got fitted for a suit. (They're awesome--they keep your full custom measurements and make catsuits fully custom order for no extra price).

I went upstairs and changed into my neoprene singlet and camo shorts as I slowly became kinkier as the day progressed. I then saw some other friends and bought some nasty pig socks that I've promptly lost before I got back. At these events I always get super horny on Sunday afternoons, and want play and never find it. It's pretty amazing. I did, however, find some participants in the other conference in the hotel, the one of the National Association of Wheat Growers. I talked to Fonda and Arlene with Joey, and taught them about the community. They felt a lot better about who we were once I explained it. They asked if my parents knew I was here and I talked about how I don't talk to my parents about being gay and anything gay anymore after they sent me to conversion therapy for 1.5 years. They understood, and said they were actually sorry. I told them that kink was much more about a connection that two can share via alternate methods and that we have a community that shares this common interest and it's not all about sex, which, in my opinion, is really true. I also met John from outside of Columbus Ohio. I jerked his chain (proverbially) about Terrell Pryor and the OSU team and he was amazed this young faggot knew more NCAA football than him. He really didn't believe it until I started correcting him about his own fucking team. Dumbass. He then made fun of someone's puppy tail and I sharply told him he shouldn't, told him I would be wearing one later and he could touch it when it was in later that day. I unfortunately did not see John again.

So I got Chipotle with a friend, and then ended up finding sparky and we decided to play again. Before this though we wanted to hang with people in the lobby. I was in my rubber polo, my new rubber shorts from E7 with puppy tail and waders. My friend A finds me and wants to give me a drink at his place. We get into his room in the company of 11 other guys and, as since I have my puppy tail in, I immediately just lay in the sling as sitting is not an option. JohnnySwitch from Chicago immediately throws a towel on me, and A smears a cupcake all over my face. I'm dying laughing, as A is so well-intentioned in the fact that I have a pie/desserts mess fetish and he knows this. I shower off and then head back down laughing and knowing that these people that I know are just great people that I adore. I ran into Fonda and Arlene on the way back down, and took a picture with Fonda, as Arlene was too scared of the puppy tail. Fonda hit it and made it wag, which is the first and last time a grandmother has ever made my prostate clench. I then talk to Sparky who was giggling as he knew that was going to occur. We then went to play. This will also be talked about in the posts coming up, and he also videotaped this scene as well.

After that scene I was like jello, and I oozed into the lobby. By then, the hotel was well broken. People were bare assed in the lobby and everyone seemed to have had a great time. We checked out the next day with me already missing the event. It was just a great time. I enjoyed myself a lot and cannot wait until the next MAL.

Until next time,
Bo

Rubber as Kink Nouveau

As of late, I feel rubber has been really picking up steam as a kink, what with having the Mister International Rubber contest/weekend pick up for the last 15 years as well as many new groups selling rubber such as Priape, E7, TLS and many more internationally. But, as I look through the crowd that is into rubber, I can tell it is a much different demographic than the group you see wearing leather. I want to hit a couple of notes that I've thought through on why rubber is smaller and younger.

1. Rubber is younger, and has younger enthusiasts via history.

In case you didn't know your history, the gay leather subculture developed in the late 1940s along with the post-WWII biker culture. As it developed parallel to the motorcycle clubs, the publicity of wearing leather full-coverage also became more well-known. As it was more well-known, what with the motorcycle clubs, Hollister riots and other bad notoriety, it got a following for rougher gay men. How else can you curb the stereotype of being a sissy than to wear garb that associates you with a tougher crowd, and played into rough trade. With leather being austere in public, yet somewhat acceptable, leather had an advantage: vendors had a larger market. This catapulted the community into a better place.

1940s leather

Along with latex/rubber/PVC being a much younger textile for clothing, it's publicity in culture started much later. There was some fetishism in the 1940s, of pictures of people in scuba suits, but it did not have the following or mainstream potential that leather merited. The beginning of true fetishism started with PVC-style suits in the 70s, and really the 60s/70s fashion started the whole movement. As the movement is younger historically, so are the men that are getting into it now.

What rubber looked like at the start

2. Gender issues

My personal experience is that I saw leather as a sexual fabric early in life, it's something well associated with gay culture, and that was one of the first times I saw it. Dating myself as a relative child in kink, the first time I saw latex was Britney Spears' "Oops I did it again" video, and I was immediately charmed thinking "how fucking silly it was that she was wearing that shit." But now I am catsuit in tote (which I still hate calling a 'catsuit', and prefer 'full coverage suit.' I'm starting a movement to call it a 'pupsuit.') Latex has culturally garnered a mainstream feminization while leather has become masculine. Nowadays, this trend in media continues, with Lady Gaga/Rihanna wearing so much latex, while rock stars and pop men wear leather:



I feel the dichotomy of gender is slowly breaking down and materials are becoming less gender-specific. Via the internet, more outlets exist for people to see the harder side of latex and the austerity in kink scenes that it yields. This new outlet has been a reason that the scene has been picking up steam so much faster, as well as because it has attached itself somewhat as under the leather umbrella, but the younger men are getting into the rubber scene much faster as they don't have the existing hesitations about gender reserved textiles. However, when rubber is getting more exposure and getting bigger, we get better rubber products and the fetish is being viewed as butch at times. I mean, a picture is worth a thousand words (and hot as shit!!):

Stephane Donaldson, MIR 2009, and a fine piece of man. Woof!

Yeah, I'd hit that.

Until next time,
Bo

PS Re: #2, I may or may not have consciously chosen to juxtapose two people named Stefani (Gaga) and Stephane (MIR '09).

"I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it"

This is, of course, fairly trite compared to what we're all used to if you're reading this, but I can't think of anything but good to come of this! As they say, any publicity is good publicity.

I am not sure if Rihanna is actually kinky, as this is pretty trite and cutesy, but the way I see it, this is a great way to make kink not seem like a big deal at all. The more it is exposed to people in the world, then the less of a taboo it becomes. I don't get off on the taboo of kinky sex, I get off on the power exchange, the fun that it entails, the fact that they turn me on. Her latex in the video just exposes her as a sex symbol into latex. This can only show kids younger than us that it's okay to be sexual, it's okay to be into rubber, it's okay to be deviant and it's okay to have fun this way. I'm just very happy that she did this. Sure she could have made it legitimately dungeon-y, but I'm happy she didn't. This video isn't for us kinksters, it's for the people that judge us. It says, "Yeah, we're kinky. What of it? You can't say that this is really harmful."

Having a total rubber gimp getting fucked in the corner or a guy in a jock being flogged until he bled is our boner-inducing stuff. That's a slap across the audience's face (one that is well-deserved, and I'm happy that this is sometimes done!). This video is much more of a handshake with a smile to the general populace from Rihanna, and a nicely inserted wink to us when she has the hot boy taped helplessly to the mattress.

I'd love to hear y'all's opinions in the comments.

Until next time,
Bo