Does SIR Still Matter

Last weekend I was attending a LIFE Detroit fund raiser at the Warehouse in Toledo. I was asked about the International LeatherSIR/boy (ILSb) contest I had recently attended. What was it like? How was the crowd?

First off, I don't want to ruffle feathers with the comments I'm about to make. I feel that the producers did a fantastic job. Moving the contest back to its historical home of San Francisco. Side note: wikipedia lacks an entry for Drummer, the predecessor for ILSb. What I expected versus what I saw were quite different. ILSb is an INTERNATIONAL contest, but the attendance was less than my regional LeatherSIR contest produced by the Great Lakes Leather Alliance. From a non-scientific poll, many of the people there were because they were somehow involved in the contest. It wasn't a tiny crowd, but nothing like International Mr. Leather.

Okay. But the question back to me was why did I think this was? Is the SIR/boy aspect of our Leather culture becoming insignificant? Is it too fringe for what some call "New Guard?"

My personal thoughts on this subject is the concept of the SIR/boy relationship is THE core of the Leather community; it's the foundation of where the Community is today. Jack Rinella describes this in Partners in Power as a spectrum from dog to god with participants in a BDSM relationship playing some part in that spectrum.

The real fact is, we don't need contests, but they are important to create awareness. The real question is, who are they bringing awareness to? That's for later.

Play well, play safe, play often,
Sir Merrill