So what is Savage Leather, anyway?

Is it a marketing gimmick?   Is it yet another of the hundreds of flags and ideologies and families?   Is it just another philosophy, stated by another would-be-FetlifeKing, pending approval-and-then abandonment?

not hardly. (but we can see how you'd think so)

You see, it begins -- as many things do, especially good stories - a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... 

In 2002 our hero, Kenova, moved to follow his afianced (now ex-) into Philadelphia. Creative Kink started in the basement of his apartment in Frankford as what we now refer to academically as a "side hustle".

(A Side Note from the story --- Move to follow YOUR dreams.  If a couple, you should BOTH have a Shared Dream before moving anywhere.  Never move to follow someone else's dreams.  Never works out.)

So, Kenova worked as a copy editor/writer for an "expert services" company that pimped him out for high pay while pocketing the majority.  (the bastards didn't even use a proper pimp cane when beating their people. cheap bastards.)    They ho'ed him to insurance groups, aerospace companies, legal publishers and engineering firms to use his English dual-degree to update their manuals from professional language into "plain language" in the type of work that is now done by AIs and chimpanzees with keyboards.    

Needless to say our protagonist had free time, so he started a small lifestyle self-improvement group, rather arrogantly named the "Master's Temple".  Not that it was gender specific, mind you -- a third of the members were sans third leg.

Master's Temple was all about improving the Modern Dominant.  Keeping the violence, rough sex, and body fluids, while integrating the discipline of leather, the code of the modern warrior, and what we now call "Self-Care".

Savage Leather, as a concept, began in ....

"If a Dom is a predator; can a sexual predator really live up to the Leather principles, and the "Good Man" ethos, and still be a real hunter?"

Aside from horrible phrasing (the phrase "sexual predator" hadn't yet become Megan's-Law-flavored-yet) -- the question was valid.  

The answer at the time, and the answer if you have ever watched any single episode of Zoo-related television (or the Crocodile Hunter, crikey!) - is, of course, NO.   

A real predator is defined by hunger.   A real predator is desperate hunger and cold egocentricism. Feeding on wounded and lame prey with ears deaf to their cries, to fill an always echoing belly. winning isn't a game to a predator. It's feeding. Topping, in a synonymous perspective, is uncaring, bloody-minded and cold.

A predator, in BDSM play wants to be that, in a sexual way.  They want to make a weaker being give in to their hunger, caught frozen in their stare.  They want their play partner to feel their blood go cold, and their heart ache as it skips.

That's the truth of Predator/prey dynamics.   And it's a conflict, to live that way, if you're also trying to live Leather principles, and a human morality.   

And so life went on. "Master's Temple" splintered into two, then turned inward due to disagreements on, essentially, sexual philosophy.    

But it lived on in the CK family.  Because our style of play has always been... primal.   Violent.  Hungry.  Possessive.  And we teach the pursuit of life's pleasures the same -- Hunger.   Desire.

But we also require a difficult level of Discipline and responsibility from members of our family.   Both Leather family, and blood family. We pursue education, artistic skills, weapons prowess and unarmed combatives. Mental health stability, physical condition.

So it clashes. 

Something had to give.   To wear smooth, meld together, blend into a melting po-- (...look, the thesaurus is running dry.   The two ideas clashed, and they eventually found a way to fit. )

So, back to Savage Leather.    What is, Savage Leather?   Why is the Leather Flag hanging up there, with bloody red claw marks, with white bone slivers showing through the wounds? 

Civility and Savagery. 

Black blood drips from the lips of a banker in the boardroom. 

A glock on grandma's lap, hidden under her knit shawl.

The devout motherly pre-K teacher who Pro Domme's at night.

Embracing Contradiction.   That's what Savage Leather is.   

Humans are the one animal that can live the life of Contradiction.  It's all in how we Choose to be.   Look at our history.   The deMedici's were one of the wealthiest and noble families of their age, giving patronage to arts and sciences without which we would never have had the Age of Reason  -- yet they were the most feared poisoners of the century.  They had a life of nobility and decency -- and made weapons of terror from their civility, knowing when to let the jagged claws slide out from the tips of lace gloves. 

We can take the things that make Leather --   consent, honor, and respect -- and we can decide when they will be the stuff armoring us against the world --- and when we will bear Savage claws.    

The blood-stained fingertips folded neatly out of sight in the lap of a secretary with coke-bottle glasses. 

The grizzled biker, blood & oil on his vest, who addresses the court with the air of an experienced attorney.

Embrace Contradiction, as only humanity can.   Accept that it's okay to have conflicting natures, regardless of what modern philosophy tells you.   

You yourself are a person who goes against the evolutionary drive to avoid pain and injury -- seeking out a partner who will push you into harder and harsher pains and places.   

Embrace Contradiction.

Embrace the Savage, and still live the life of Leather.

Join us, in neatly pressed suits and polite smiles, covering the bloody, raw scarlet mess of last night's orgy of barbarism and brutality. Welcome. Glad to have you.