Samois
Formation | 1978 |
---|---|
Founder | Pat Califia, Gayle Rubin, and sixteen others |
Founded at | San Francisco, U.S. |
Dissolved | 1983 |
Samois was a
The roots of Samois were in a group called Cardea, a women's discussion group within the mixed-gender BDSM group called the Society of Janus. Cardea existed from 1977 to 1978 before discontinuing, but a core of lesbian members, including Califia and Rubin, were inspired to start Samois on June 13, 1978, as an exclusively lesbian BDSM group.[2][3]
Samois was strongly rebuked (and sometimes picketed) by
The book Coming to Power, edited by members of the Samois group and published in 1981, was a founding work of the lesbian BDSM movement.
In the 1982 anthology Against Sadomasochism, American philosopher Judith Butler, credited as "Judy Butler", criticizes Samois in her essay "Lesbian S&M: The Politics of Dis-Illusion".[5] Several other essays in the work also criticize it.
Samois split up in 1983 amid personal infighting; however, in 1984, Rubin went on to help form another organization called The Outcasts. The Outcasts lasted until 1997, until they too split due to infighting. A breakaway group called The Exiles is still extant and carries on in the tradition of Samois and The Outcasts.[3] In 2012, The Exiles in San Francisco received the Small Club of the Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards.[6]
In 1996, Califia and Robin Sweeney published an anthology titled The Second Coming: A Leatherdyke Reader that also contained historical information on The Outcasts, as well as other lesbian BDSM groups such as the Lesbian Sex Mafia and Briar Rose.[7]
In 2007 the National Leather Association International inaugurated awards for excellence in SM/fetish/leather writing. The categories include the Samois award for anthology.[8]
In 2019 Samois was inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame.[9]
References
- ISBN 978-1-875559-17-6.
- Archive.org.)
- ^ a b "Drake's Event Guide for Leather Women". February 8, 2005. Archived from the original on February 8, 2005.
- ^ "Layout.pmd" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 27, 2009.
- ^ Gleeson, Jules (June 19, 2019). "Judith Butler: The Early Years". JSTOR Daily.
- ^ "Pantheon of Leather Awards All Time Recipients - The Leather Journal". www.theleatherjournal.com. Archived from the original on March 25, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
- ^ "Bibliography - Bound In Leather".
- ^ "NLA-I Accepting Nominations for Writing Awards". Chicago Den - The Midwest's Fetish Newspaper. Archived from the original on April 13, 2013. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
- ^ "> Inductees". Leatherhalloffame.com. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
Further reading
- Rubin, Gayle. 2004. Samois. Leather Times 21:3–7. Available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20090327070824/http://www.leatherarchives.org/resources/issue21.pdf
- Samois. 1979. What Color Is Your Handkerchief: A Lesbian S/M Sexuality Reader. Berkeley: SAMOIS. 45 p.
- Samois. 1987. Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M. Third edition, revised and updated. Boston: Alyson Pubns. 287 p. ISBN 0932870287.
External links
- The Exiles - official site
- "Cardea ~ Samois ~ Outcasts ~ Exiles" by Drake Cameron, TheExiles.org, December 2002.
- "Lesbian Sex Mafia ('L S/M') Speakout" by Fran Moira, Archive.org.)