BIll Hoeppner, International Leatherboy 2008, has been around more than a few contests in his time in the community. In this article originally published in October of 2009, Bill looks at the relevance of titles and title holders.
There is conversation in the Leather Community, locally and nationally as to the relevance of the Leather Title system. Does it still serve a purpose? Does it still serve the greater good? Let’s look at its origins and how it has changed over the past 30 years.
IML held it first contest in Chicago at the Gold Coast Bar where they presented their first winners medallion to David Kloss. Originally known as “The Mr. Gold Coast Contest”, it drew many out of town patrons and contestants. Concurrently, Drummer Magazine was looking for creative ways to bring in hot, masculine men as cover models to help sell Magazines. In 1979, Val Martin literally walked through doors of the Drummer Magazine nude and John Embry, the magazine founder and editor, decided he would be the first Mr. Drummer. Well it worked.
In the early ’80s, the leather community, reached out and presented a face and presence to the world through its contest systems. As more leather bars popped up in the major metropolitan areas, the popularity of “Leather Title Contest” grew. HIV/AIDS was a huge catalyst in getting people to step forward. Safe, Sane and Consensual became our battle cry. The title system evolved into a platform for education, mentorship, equal rights and safe play. But does that still hold true today?Race Bannon, friend and author, shared his thoughts: “Proponents of contests most often point to the two primary benefits of fundraising and community leadership. Money for charity is generally a good goal. And while it’s true that some good community leaders have emerged from the titleholder system, can we really assume that the best community leaders will emerge from such situations?
My personal opinion about leather contests lies within the middle ground perspective. Let’s have leather contests, but not so many. The hard working men and women who produce these events should take those same energies and good intentions and use them to create new events with a broader appeal to the same community they purport to be representing. If we really want to call ourselves a “community” then we must have the courage to venture into new arenas for social interaction, fundraising, and political involvement. If we don’t, I fear the leather community will run risk of continued marginalization for far longer than is necessary.”
Sir Olivier, a good friend, brother and one of the Executive Producers of ILS/b had this to say: “We can easily list all the negatives from Titleholders and contests over the last 20 years, but the good far outweighs anything we can come up with. One thought comes to mind – “Leadership by Example.” It’s a tough job facing the masses, always being on the game, being positive and inspirational.
The Titleholding concept has seen some very questionable persons come through, but . . . as a community WE need to clean up our Titleholding system. If Titleholders are our ambassadors, then we must be better at picking them, holding them to their obligations and supporting them so they can do their jobs. Titleholding is relevant because it keeps the spirit of our lifestyle alive and thriving. “
And one final thought from a dear personal friend, Michael Egdes: “There are no right or wrong answers. While titleholders are often accused of winning a title for the fame and glory, most will probably tell you that titles are 95% hard work and, maybe, 5% glory. They achieve an instantaneous level of recognition, exposure and credibility, which, in turn, gives them more power to rally and inspire their communities, and a greater probability of accomplishing their objectives.
It is generally expected that a titleholder will work within his or her local community, and beyond, to strengthen and promote it as its volunteer ambassador, through interaction with other individuals, organizations, titleholders and communities. Titles which enjoy a high level of community support are indicative of a community working hard to produce capable and experienced leaders for the future! As an effective mechanism for molding and nurturing tomorrow’s leaders, the title system has as much relevance and importance, today, as it ever has.”
While opinions to the relevance of Leather Titles are as varied as the contests themselves, the answer is not so easy as a simple yes or no. The contest system does serve a purpose. We need to ask ourselves, “What am I willing to do to make a difference?” We can all agree that without those who put themselves on the front line, with or without a title, the lifestyle we enjoy today would be, as in the recent past, criminal.
My personal opinion about leather contests lies within the middle ground perspective. Let’s have leather contests, but not so many. The hard working men and women who produce these events should take those same energies and good intentions and use them to create new events with a broader appeal to the same community they purport to be representing. If we really want to call ourselves a “community” then we must have the courage to venture into new arenas for social interaction, fundraising, and political involvement. If we don’t, I fear the leather community will run risk of continued marginalization for far longer than is necessary.”
Sir Olivier, a good friend, brother and one of the Executive Producers of ILS/b had this to say: “We can easily list all the negatives from Titleholders and contests over the last 20 years, but the good far outweighs anything we can come up with. One thought comes to mind – “Leadership by Example.” It’s a tough job facing the masses, always being on the game, being positive and inspirational.
The Titleholding concept has seen some very questionable persons come through, but . . . as a community WE need to clean up our Titleholding system. If Titleholders are our ambassadors, then we must be better at picking them, holding them to their obligations and supporting them so they can do their jobs. Titleholding is relevant because it keeps the spirit of our lifestyle alive and thriving. “
And one final thought from a dear personal friend, Michael Egdes: “There are no right or wrong answers. While titleholders are often accused of winning a title for the fame and glory, most will probably tell you that titles are 95% hard work and, maybe, 5% glory. They achieve an instantaneous level of recognition, exposure and credibility, which, in turn, gives them more power to rally and inspire their communities, and a greater probability of accomplishing their objectives.
It is generally expected that a titleholder will work within his or her local community, and beyond, to strengthen and promote it as its volunteer ambassador, through interaction with other individuals, organizations, titleholders and communities. Titles which enjoy a high level of community support are indicative of a community working hard to produce capable and experienced leaders for the future! As an effective mechanism for molding and nurturing tomorrow’s leaders, the title system has as much relevance and importance, today, as it ever has.”
While opinions to the relevance of Leather Titles are as varied as the contests themselves, the answer is not so easy as a simple yes or no. The contest system does serve a purpose. We need to ask ourselves, “What am I willing to do to make a difference?” We can all agree that without those who put themselves on the front line, with or without a title, the lifestyle we enjoy today would be, as in the recent past, criminal.
I think the question of whether leather titles are still relevant may indirectly beg the question “what is the role of a leather title holder?”
Many have argued that we need to return to the role of the leather title holder as promoting leather sex—getting guys hard and horny for leather sex (see Mike Gerle’s “Leather Carpetbaggers” on here). Likewise, there has been discussion elsewhere about how leather title holders should be proficient in kinky sex techniques. In Alex Lindsay’s comment on Mike’s posting he stated that when he won his first title part of his intent was to “help provide visibility for the various kink-related clubs and organizations.” So, part of the role at least seems to be generating interest in the leather community.
As Bill points out, the initial purpose of many of our titles was to make money for the producers or sponsors. But it seems that the current predominant role of the leather title is to raise money for charities. In “Competing or Campaigning?” on here the question was raised about whether or not we do a disservice by trying to make leaders by pushing people through the title holder system (meat grinder style?). I think that question in turn begs the question of “what is a leather leader?”
I think gathering community members together to raise thousands of dollars for a charity can be an act of leadership—few raise that money single-handedly. Producing an event can also serve the purpose of bringing people together and into the bars or play spaces—where much of our community functions. I am in a club that holds a fundraiser every year that has started to regularly raise over $10,000 yearly for various organizations. The event brings out guys that we don’t see in the bar the rest of the year. It takes the entire club to pull this off. I classify this as leather leadership.
There is another club here that recently held a conference in which they had presentations on and demonstrations of various kinky sex acts (e.g., figging, electrostim play, etc.).They also had a play party associated with the event. There were a number of people that made this event happen. To the best of my knowledge the event did not raise money for anything other than the club itself. I consider this leather leadership as well.
Perhaps what I am saying is that I think what makes a leather leader is someone who demonstrates the ability to bring people together for a purpose within the leather community. I think this includes both raising money for a charity as well as bringing people together for leathersex education and for leathersex itself. Since becoming active in the leather community I have been more involved in the fundraising side of the leadership dichotomy than the promotion of leather sex side. But I have consistently tried to make the events that I produce have a distinct appeal to leathermen and be eroticized, such as Daddy/boy auctions and an erotic art and object auction. The event my club puts on has a strong erotic element as well.
I would like to think the role of a leather title holder is to be a leader—in either of the versions I depicted—hopefully continuing beyond the title year. Rather than forsake the whole title holder system or rejecting it as not truly part of the leather community, perhaps we should focus on integrating an emphasis on eroticizing leathersex into whatever version of leadership our title holders choose. Perhaps the question we should be asking our contestants is “how do you plan on generating erotic interest in the leather community with how you use your title?”
Woodja
Mr. Prime Choice Texas 2009
Mr. Lonestar 21
Posted by: Woodja | 01/28/2010 at 02:05 PM