A recent discussion on FetLife centered around the concept of “Leather Titles”. Below you will find both of my posts. I have edited out the words of others and paraphrased them.
“I know some title holders who are good people and I know a bunch of them who are morons who happened to fuck the right folks.
In short, when I hear that so and so is now "the national holder of the ______ title / sash" my first thought is not to be impressed but to rather think "well, you never know, they might still be good people".
In public, so many people say good things about titles and sashes but in private most of them will admit it is a pointless popularity or political bit of masturbation.
In no way am I trying to insult those who are good folks who hold titles but the reality is they were good people anyway and for all the title means to me they might as well get a crown from the local Burger King.” – me, about 1 month ago
Then there was some more discussion, and I posted this…
A poster mentioned that the act of competing for the larger titles is a lot of work, takes a lot of time and involves many judges. Further, they declared the experience “life changing”.
“Sounds like a bunch of folks have managed to create a ritual and pilgrimage for themselves, complete with sacrifice and hardship. Good for them, if that’s what gets them off they can interview each other till their pants fit funny. I am happy that folks can go and seek approval on this level and that other folks are happy to grant it to them… but let’s not pretend that any of this is “real”. Leather titles indicate fundamentally a single thing – how popular you are and (by extension) how well you managed to repeat the current party line.
One of the reasons lots and lots of us will simply shrug and say “how nice for you” when “Mr. Universal Leather Dom Daddy” shows up in his sash is because frankly none of the criteria used to judge them applies to the vast majority of us, and the party line he had to buy into (or parrot) to get the sash is not one that matters a bit to us.
The title circuit and certainly those who really care about it are a small subgroup in the scene. It is, for all purposes, just another fetish. It is amusing that it is a fetish where someone feels free to claim that they now represent huge numbers of us who were never consulted, and who never bought into it. “Mr. Universal Leather Dom Daddy” is the best dominant like Ms. America is the hottest chick in the United State and it is pretty amusing that folks take these things any more seriously than that.
At least the guy who gets elected “Mr. Tight Crotch of Bob’s discount blowjob bar and grill” is not claiming to be an ambassador for all of the kinky folks in a region :)” – me, about 4 hours ago
I want to be clear here, as I said in the first post there are lots of great people who hold titles I am sure. I am sure many of them are a great asset to the lifestyle and would dog-sit for me if need be. I have current. personal experience with one who is a proving to be a joy to associate with.
These things were true before the title and I don’t, honestly, think the possession of a title in any way validates or reflects these qualities.
Enjoy!