Richard von Krafft-Ebing
Coined sadism and masochism in Psychopathia Sexualis (1886)
Section · Figures
The people, by period
Writers, physicians, photographers, publishers and organisers. Everyone here is a real person with a documented life, and each entry is written around what can actually be established rather than around the version the subculture prefers.
The names become words
1800 to 1899 · Sade and Sacher-Masoch give the practices their labels; Krafft-Ebing files them as pathology.
Leather and the postwar scene
1946 to 1969 · Motorcycle clubs, leather bars, Bizarre magazine, and the culture that became the Old Guard.
John Willie (John Alexander Scott Coutts)
Published Bizarre magazine from 1946 and drew the Sweet Gwendoline strips
Organising
1970 to 1989 · Formal groups, the leather contest circuit, the feminist sex wars, and community under the AIDS crisis.
Gayle Rubin
Wrote Thinking Sex in 1984; co-founded Samois; historian of the San Francisco leather scene
Patrick Califia
Co-founded Samois and edited Coming to Power in 1981; writer on sexual politics
Nobody on this list worked alone
Every name here found other people first: through letters, magazines, back rooms and mailing lists. The method has not changed, only the address.
See where it happens now