I want you to imagine a tall, built man, clad in leather head-to-toe, with a very prominent package. It’s clear just from looking at this man that he’s into some kinky shit. Are you picturing one of Tom of Finland’s drawings? Well, that’s not quite who I had in mind. Clive Barker’s 1987 film, Hellraiser, is inherently queer because it draws its aesthetics from the gay leather scene that he was a part of.
Gay leather bars were born out of gay motorcycle clubs. Gay men would hang out in these clubs in their moto gear of Levi jeans and leather hats, boots, jackets, and chaps. As the subculture grew more popular, these items even began to be passed down from person to person. Gatherings were covert as being gay was either illegal or as time progressed, heavily stigmatized. Gay sex was not decriminalized until 1967 in the UK and 2003 in the U.S. Because being gay had to be discreet, gay people came up with ways to identify each other and the kind of sex they wanted to have. Flagging, also known as Hanky code, is assumed to have started in the 70s, and is a method by which queer people wear different colored bandanas in their back pockets to signal what they are looking for in a sexual encounter. Leather, kink, and BDSM are all alternatives to the heterosexual norm, which is one definition of queer. To queer something is to challenge societal expectations.
There is not necessarily a centralized history of the leather scene, as queer scenes, in general, tend to be underground because they are often criminalized. There are well-documented pockets, -such as the Samois, the lesbian feminist BDSM organization in San Francisco in the 70s and 80s- but not a linear history of the whole subculture. Furthermore, much of our history and spaces were lost to us during the AIDS Crisis. However, queer people still very much signal to each other their identities using the aesthetics created in the leather subculture. While Levis are less popular as a gay symbol now, leather and bondage are still popular.
Clive Barker has always been open about his involvement in leather and kink and has always written sexuality into his work. When asked about sex in his horror writing in 1987, he stated, “So many of the monsters we create in our fiction are about appetite and the fears of appetite, sexual appetite, sensual appetite. We are taught then that it needs to be tamed and repressed. And yet it stays with us as a possibility… It’s the very ambiguity that is both the problem for us and the fun. I wanted to put that in ‘Hellraiser‘ and I want to put it in my books. I want to make sure that people know that this ambiguity is to be celebrated, not to be put down.” (Eroticising The World, G. Dair, Cut, Vol 2, No 10, October 1987).
Sexuality plays a huge role in Hellraiser. Not only is sex central to the plot of the film, but the Cenobites are also basically kinky sex demons that posit suffering and pain as akin to pleasure. They live in a dimension of torture and drag anyone who can solve their puzzle box, The Lament Configuration, to their realm to experience what they consider ecstasy. There have truly never been bigger pain sluts. The Cenobites are clad in leather with various extreme body modifications. They are a mix of kinky leather fashion and body horror and simultaneously represent pleasure and pain. The flavor of sexuality that the Cenobites embody is influenced by queer kink.
Finally, leather and kink scenes are still very alive and well in queer culture. I wanted to share a few quotes from friends about why kink has been important to their queer identity.
If this article inspires you to explore kink, first learn how to play safely! There are plenty of resources on how to do so, but one highly regarded resource is The Ultimate Guide to Kink by Tristan Taormino.