![]() ![]() Wartime production saw rubber used for gas masks, diving gear, wire coating for electronics, and more. Like leather, the two Great Wars were instrumental in rubber history. (Perhaps the first fetish couture?) This custom manufacturing process ended in the 1920s, when the Youngs Rubber Company released the first modern-style condom. Rubber condoms followed shortly after that in 1855, though originally, condoms were made-to-measure by a doctor. Rubber, which starts its life as tree sap, was first used to create waterproof clothing in 1823, with the advent of the Mackintosh raincoat-the first latex garment commercially produced. How did rubber develop? Was it at the same time as leather, or after? These answers change depending on who you ask. Leather is flogging and boot worship, bondage and cigars, while rubber is for fisting and gimps, drones and toilet pigs.” “Rubber seems to imply a heavier degree of kink, one perhaps a little less palatable to vanilla folks. It traces its roots to the 1940s and ’50s, where it formed in US coastal cities that were becoming havens for gay men. Gay leather culture is an American invention, formed from classic images of postwar Americana: motorcyclists, cowboys, soldiers. (Tom of Finland art continues to inspire nostalgia and boners among queer men.) Rubber, in contrast, feels darker, wetter-a messy job, done underground. In other words, it’s a harder pairing with the open-road, sunkissed hunk of Tom of Finland comics, which in the 1970s all-but-created the gay leather scene. As a waterproof, protective material, it has historically been used by plumbers and sanitation workers-people with messy jobs who work underground. Many rubber fetishists say the best rubber gear can be found in Berlin and Amsterdam. In my experience, the rubber community is also a little more welcoming of people from different gender identities.” Last weekend, Marnen ceded their crown to the new MIR, Pusckatt Pumera from Florida.Īs a latex lover myself (and a new US transplant to Berlin), I’ve found the rubber scene has a stronger foothold in Europe. “I think people feel more free to express themselves with different colors, outfits, and styles. “Rubber is a little more playful,” they said. I asked the 2021 MIR titleholder, Joe Marnen, a nonbinary Chicago native, how they define the difference between leather and rubber. (Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story series delivered its most psychosexual villain, the “Rubberman,” from this uncanny valley of the human in a nonhuman-looking suit.) Maybe it’s something about covering up the face-the fully anonymous look popular among rubberfolk, which many people (including many kinky people) find unsettling. Leather is flogging and boot worship, bondage and cigars, while rubber is for fisting and gimps, drones and toilet pigs. Folks in leather tend to be kinky, but rubber seems to imply a heavier degree of kink, one perhaps a little less palatable to vanilla folks. Leather is cowhide, but rubber and latex truly feel like a second skin, wrapping the body in a tight, waterproof sheen. How to describe rubber to an outsider, particularly in contrast to the leather scene? Unlike most leather, rubber looks wet. This year, Fall/Winter runways were replete with the shiny, movement-restricting material, from Versace’s latex tights to Richard Quinn’s medicinal-looking, multicolor gloves-with an appearance from Violet Chachki, a drag burlesque vedette, dragging a rubber-clad submissive down the runway on a leash. It is no wonder that these worlds so often touch: Latex has been seen on the runways of Gucci, Mugler, Jean Paul Gaultier, Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, and Courrèges. In the minds of both, quality of material and construction of the garment are facets of an identity that is erotic, empowering, and community-building. ![]() The high-fashion devotee would never say clothes don’t matter, and the hardcore latex fetishist would agree. International Rubber-the de facto standard-bearer for global rubber culture, who will then travel to rubber clubs and events across the world. Equal parts convention, pageant, and sex party, MIR culminates in the crowning of a new Mr. The event is the largest gathering of rubber and latex fetishists in the world, comprising mostly gay and queer men. International Rubber happened in Chicago. In his monthly column for Document, sex writer and activist Alexander Cheves explores the past, present, and future of latexĮarlier this month, Mr. ![]()
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