Run, Little Leather Boy

I just read Safeword Press’ reissue of “Run, Little Leather Boy” by Larry Townsend. Originally published in 1972, it is part porn, part snapshot of a 70s “leather sex” scene, and part coming of age story.

As a work of porn fantasy, it definitely delivers: There are long detailed scenes of BDSM sex depicted as rough and ready. People get into very heavy scenes without much experience or negotiation. The physical restraint is extreme. (Suspended by the wrists over a pit in a medieval Bavarian castle!) Things like safewords, aftercare, and lube, are all but absent. While it is almost too over the top to sustain the illusion for me, one thing hit home: They are deeply about sex.

In the 90s, when I first entered the BDSM scene in SF, it was very focused on the fetish acts themselves. The point of being flogged was to be flogged. There generally was no sex act that followed. In hindsight, I understand that the specter of AIDS transformed the BDSM scene at the time, focusing it away from penetrative sex. Flash forward 30 years, I still observe this as the dominant form: whipping for the point of whipping, or suspension bondage as an experience itself.

But in the book, BDSM is always a path to sex in power exchange, with the dominant using the submissive at will. The point of these scenes is to have oral or anal sex (and occasionally frottage) where and how the top chooses, with the bottom submitting. No one is chaining someone up just to see how they look chained up.

Sexual arousal is used as a barometer for a scene. Several times in the book, it is pointed out that the submissive’s erection is indication that it is working for the submissive. If the submissive is flagging, then the scene isn’t working. And a big point of the book is that a scene must meet the sexual needs of the submissive, or the dominant is seen as failing, and unable to reach the pinnacle of “the Work”.

The emphasis on sex in these scenes deeply resonated with me. This is how I like to have my kink scenes: with the fetish as a means to sexual acts in deep power exchange. What was missing in my BDSM experience in the 90s, and is still hard for me to find today - I found in abundance in this 70s work.

 

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See: Safeword Press' announcement here: NEW RELEASE: Run, Little Leather Boy
Buy the book in epub format from them here: Run, Little Leather Boy -- EPUB