Julia DeSpain / Little Village
THE SEX ISSUE!
Kinkology
in Minneapolis, she jumped feet first into the leather community after becoming fascinated with the power dynamics between Iowa’s small but mighty leather community wants to show submissive men and dominant you the ropes. BY MEGGIE GATES women. “When I was 21, I had a friend percent of people harbor a fetish. berkinky’s Periodic who brought me to a bar called Probably the most prevalent Table of Kinks has Ground Zero in Minnesota, and and certainly well-known kink 151 blocks and is on the weekends, they have a is BDSM. The acronym is up for equally important bondage and go-go night,” Rage debate, but generally refers to as—if not more than, in my said. “As soon as I walked in I erotic bondage, discipline, domopinion—the Table of Elements. had a man crawl up to Various kinks are sorted into 12 me on his hands and categories, including torture, knees and another man restraint, role play, butt stuff and The list of domination-, pain- and asked to kiss my boots. I vanilla. Everything from tickling was there every weekend to poop play is represented. restraint-related kinks is virtually after that.” Mom, Dad, tread lightly with Becoming Ms. Iowa this one. endless, including such niche interests as Leather is no joke. Kinks—sexual desires atContestants submit a tached to specific objects, acts cuckolding and “human furniture” (which resume and, if picked, or body parts that aren’t necessarily sexual in and of themis pretty much exactly what you think it is). undergo an audition before a panel of judges. selves—tend to be taboo at the The audition consists dinner table, but they’re more of a private interview with the cutting the center and a red heart inance/submission and sadomascommon than you might think. judges, a speech, a question and in the upper left corner) around ochism. Riding crops, handcuffs, The Journal of Sex Research a five-minute fantasy scene perthe state, including at the Iowa ball gags, harnesses and black found one in three people have formed on stage. leather garments are BDSM tools City Pride Festival. experimented with paraphilia, or For Boy Chris, the Mr. Iowa Bettie Rage, Ms. Iowa Leather as well as part of the subculture’s unusual sexual interests, at some Leather 2020 titleholder, Leather 2020, has been in the scene for aesthetic. point in their lives. A 2016 UK Weekend is also a good way 20 years. Starting her journey The organized kink/BDSM survey indicated as many as 75
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24 Feb. 5–18, 2020 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV278
community in Iowa is small, but it exists. Iowa Leather Weekend, which takes place in October, is an all-out kinky bonanza, including a vendor market, entertainment pieces and a contest in which participants compete for four Iowa Leather titles: Ms., Mr., Bear and Pet. These titleholders go on to wave the leather pride flag (black-and-bluestriped, with one white stripe
