Old School Protocols

FullCanadian​(switch male){MissB} • Apr 18, 2021

"I would stick to highly regarded, well known, genuine published writers on this subject, and they are not to be found on the cage. Actual relevant leather experience, and by that I mean LGBTQ+ experience is absent from here, as to my knowledge there are no 70 + year old gay leather men as members."

AMEN! I was waiting for someone to make that point.

Sammy45​(sub female) • Apr 18, 2021

Thank you so much for talking the time to reply
Sx

dollMaker​(dom male) • Apr 18, 2021

Try this too

A very interesting YouTube presentation and Q&A with Leatherman Race Bannon, about Mentorship applicable to both in and out of the Leather community, and myths about the way things were back in the day in regards to mentorship and formal training.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uB-4uqqZ18

TheAnt​(dom male) • Apr 18, 2021

Sammy45,
Hello,
As mentioned by another poster, the article on Deviance and Desire stresses a very important point:
"First and foremost, it was a mind-set. It was a form of good manners and etiquette. It also encouraged thinking wider than the self, which brought in concepts like integrity, honour, respect and (community) service."

As another user points out, Guy Baldwin is a known writer about the "Old Guard" and his points are valid, to a point. My view point differs sharply as I am not part of these 75 year old people who Baldwin talks about. (Thank you to the other user to bringing up this source)

I entered the life style heavily through a friend of the family who knew of my proclivity and interest in rope and impact implements. I was invited, although not legal of age (in the early 1980s that was not considered a huge deal as it is today) to a house party that was very intriguing to me and I learned much. It was a huge secretive thing back then. The family friend was appointed my mentor and off I went.

Baldwin talks about the biker bars and their association with the Old Guard. There were certainly members that belonged to these clubs, but I was seen as too fragile by my mentor to actively attend one and to be honest, the large biker bars that were all the rage in the the 70's and 80's was not the scene for a skinny 110lb 5'10 kid. I learned a lot from them at this (and other house parties) over the next few years until I joined the military.

From there my secretive life became very low key and remained to the premises of private parties.
I never did attend a large biker bar, nor do I own a bike or even know how to ride one and that point in itself is an important point to stress, there was not a requirement to actually ride a motorcycle to be a member of the Old Guard.

It is also important to note that not everyone who attended these parties or wore leather was homosexual. That seems to be associated primarily out of how the leather clad members began. I personally never interacted with any non-straight member of the group in a sexual way. It was a lot of learning of protocols, and so much more than sex.

To make matters more convoluted on who is and who isnt an Old Guard, ponder this point: While I was given a gorgeous leather vest as a sign of my "graduation" from the mentorship by the community I was a part of, no where did it say "Old Guard" on it. Nor did anyone, that I can remember ever refer to themselves as "Old Guard". It is a term that overtime has grown to be associated with those, who like me, subscribed to a very strict set of rules to live by and Dom by.

Consider these links :
https://www.kinkweekly.com/article-baadmaster/old-guard-vs-new-guard/
https://www.fetish.com/magazine/bdsm/what-is-old-guard/


A final note:
As to my vest, It is one of the greatest losses I count from my first marriage. She felt it was gaudy and it was thrown out with a lot of clothes from my single life. A fact I did not discover right away as I had it tucked away in my closet and only discovered it missing several years after she threw it away. Out of everything she took from me, that is what I most miss. Buying one at the BDSM club just feels hollow, even though in hindsight, I am certain that I would not even fit a third of me into that vest today.

Please feel free to contact me for more questions about the Old Guard. I believe the key term in my profile is this: " I am often referred by others as Old Guard." It seems to be the term applied most often to those of us who follow protocol and seek to maintain a mannerism indicative of etiquette. I doubt it if I have EVER heard anyone refer to themselves as "Old Guard" or ever had a vest that said it on it.
-Daddy Ant

Miki​(masochist female) • Apr 19, 2021

Wow.. If I were inclined to sub I'd be totally into this!!

As for that "2 steps behind" shit, being a proper Brat I'd steal up behind Donny the Dom and give him a "flat" -(Old term/old prank I learned from equally old pals)

and/or a wedgie.

Too Fun!

Kelpi • Apr 19, 2021

Back in the days when the internet was new and kids still had some manners. You took time to know people not just a sub or Dom but everyone in the life you could find. You listened learned and you where respectful of each other. You did not try and take a sub from a Dom. When you talked to a sub you asked the Dom first and got permission. Anything else would have you wondering why someone was kicking in your door. Yes it has happened how no idea but I know of one Dom who got 6 months for it.
We still had wannabe's jerking around but back then things where more dangerous than now. Most times you met at a brunch in a different city so the sub would feel safe and you got to know those in your chat group before you left. I did go to one where new members had photo's taken so if anything happened they knew who to look for. It was nice putting faces to the names I knew.
Back then you could spot a pretend dom within a few minutes if you asked the right questions. If you where new you said so and you could find out most anything by asking if you where honest about who you where. Things have changed there are more places to go and more people to meet, Still there are the fakers and takers who like jackals run around outside the circle and try and take out the weak and helpless.

Zedland​(dom male) • Apr 19, 2021

Years ago I was at a private club where I found myself lectured by an older gentleman on how I wasn't a proper Dom. How I was supposed to sub for a at least a year and automatically yield to his opinion as a more experienced member who had trained under so and so and was therefore a Master who should be addressed by everyone as sir given his lofty status. It was a surprisingly like encountering a Edwardian aristocrat wrapped up in the comforting nonsense of byzantine etiquette invented only to convey a sense of mystique.

Then again my recollection might be colored by the fact he was drunk, belligerent, and was going to whip the disrespect out of me until I stood up and revealed I was a good foot taller than him.

Miki​(masochist female) • Apr 19, 2021

Well... for what it's worth some old school protocols are good, others not so hot. This business of being a sub for a year before being a dom had to suck the proverbial bag. I mean if someone is wired to be a dominant being required to go against their nature just sounds wrong on so many levels. Hell, it almost sinks to the level of hazing.

$0.01

Only a penny for my thoughts on this one since I am no dominant and haven't the slightest clue what makes them tick on the inside.

Zedland​(dom male) • Apr 19, 2021

It probably was hazing. From my brief association I got the sense that for the old guard it was less about satisfying kinky urges and more accumulating power and status. Though my anecdote shouldn't be taken as a slap against the kink community as a whole but rather against isolated, introverted, closed off communities. From Frats to cults to PTAs it usually devolves into hazing, petty rivalries, and the eventually perpetuation of the system by another generation.

Off topic, but the whole thing about being a sub first always rankled me personally. I am a polite, calm and helpful person who is willing to let others take the lead in certain things. But it just isn't in me to submit and if you try and make me that whip might go places it was never meant to go.

Miki​(masochist female) • Apr 20, 2021

@ Zedland You are 100% correct as far as I see it.

Try as I might I couldn't quite think of a good metaphor this can be compared to... making a dom be a sub for a year.. Going against one's wiring.

Perhaps it could be likened to a young woman who wants to join the Nuns being required to work in a fucking cat house for a year to prove she knows about how the other extreme lives.

But I'll stick with "hazing". The days of making a new dominant live as a sub for a year, thankfully gone (I hope) is like a pledge to a frat house having to endure a few weeks of having cucumbers, carrots, or even unpeeled green (for firmness) bananas shoved up his ass, and as an added bonus, running naked around the House with clothes-pins clamped on his ding-dong.

Undeniably Bogus.