Customer Reviews

Beneath the Skins; the New Spirit and Politics of the Kink Community

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The author has taken extraordinary care not to let his personal orientation shade the message he offers in this book. I highly recommend it to all on the path towards a deep understanding of their sexuality and how it relates to western society and culture.

The book begins with many personal disclaimers and definitions that should serve as a guide for those of us less informed to the need for a healthy acceptance of human diversity. Examples and metaphors for characteristic situations are given in abundance and allow the reader to intimately relate their own being to the author's observation of the kink society.

The parts of the book dealing with group and organizational structure are useful beyond their application to kink communities, and provide a framework for understanding the difficulties the kink community has in gaining acceptance as a valid part of society. The comparisons to the queer movement are especially useful and valid.

The author also nicely balances metaphysical explanations with more "scientifically" derived prose that should satisfy a broad spectrum of readers.

If you are curious about the "why" of kinky sex, without having to read pornography, this is the book for you. Ivo Domiguez gives a sweeping insider's tour of the world of leather and S&M. He covers the subject not as an abberation but as another axis on the measures of human sexual orientation.

If you've found this book while searching for how-to manuals for BDSM or simple explanations of BDSM and kink then you've looked at the wrong book. The audience of this book are those already in the community, those who are interested in promoting education, better public images or finding common ground between individuals and kinky organizations. Dominguez speaks to activists in 16 essays that look at his own personal journey, touch on important issues affecting the kinky community, and challenging activists to be better whether they serve on the front lines for legal changeor via the pen to educate and entertain. There is a focus more toward gay men's experience of the world and activism but this reflects the author's own experience and should not lock out others who truly wish to help themselves and others become accepted in society and to better society.

The most curious aspect of Ivo Dominguez Jr's excellent book "Beneath The Skins" is that so little has changed in over the decade since its first edition. Published shortly after the climactic Gay Pride March on Washington CD in 1993, it speaks of a need for the community to band together in both a political and spiritual sense and goes at its topic with gusto. 1993 was a heady moment in the GLBT movement; we had a President who seemed to be with us, AIDS was galvanizing us both politically and scientifically, and the mere fact that USA Today covered this day as a front page event was cause for hope and celebration. There was a strong leather contingent there that day, and I was a marcher. In the peculiarity of the tiny amount of separation the community shares, I unknowingly photographed Ivo and his companions on the streets of DC. Men and women of all stripes and inclinations, from vanilla to rocky road, stepped into the sunlight and felt galvanized that day, and "Beneath The Skins" mirrors that time.

Ivo has a deep respect for these spiritual bearings that leatherfolk often share; the frequent references to tribalism reflect that. To this extent, "Beneath The Skins" is a companion book to Mark Thompson's "Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice" and Geoff Maines' "Urban Aboriginals," in the way it depicts the citizens of the leather world. You can see the expansion Ivo predicts will be forthcoming, in that the Kink Community has become better at networking, maintaining contact and promoting a healthy visibilty. These are all the good things.

The agonizing things are that the things that have changed the least. The radical right still projects their inadequacies upon us, the greater citizenry at large has an irrational fear of kinky people and the community at large still tends to devour its own. Ivo also touches these topics, with multiple suggestions on how to grow past them as both individuals and members of a community. "Beneath The Skins" is at its best when it delves into some of the basic reasons that we resist our own true spirits (the chapters from "Introduction To The Shadow" on), and also offers suggestions to make your own group/club/tribe function better.

"Beneath The Skins" has aged well. If you are a bit put out by the whole "spirituality" standpoint, don't let that scare you off. Ivo Dominguez has sculpted a book that approaches not just the spirit of fetish, but the personalities that manifest in them. Be that mindset tracked by spirituality or the politics of community, they are often in parallel. There is plenty to gather from this book.