The Magic of the Gatherings
The Artist D & Kira the Infamous
Upon my arrival there was a skinny pale girl in blue latex walking a small fluffy dog. A tall plain hairy man with a robust pot belly ogled her from the escalators behind. All around the lobby vanilla people side-eyed and silently clucked at the peppering of dominatrices, submissive slaves, and puppy dog humans. Men with their boring girlfriends pursued and pondered where they had gone wrong. Women with their boring husbands surely did the same.
It was a carnival of human riches for a person with a past and present like mine. A freak unique and “an heirloom from the 1990’s cam scene.” I was The Artist D, my name tag said so. The event was Domcon L.A. 2018. I had arrived in support of my longtime friend who was presenting her Kinky Yoga Class, Mistress Kira the Infamous.
Conventions all tend to follow the same social map whether it be kink, transgender, comics, porn, or quilting. The week is filled with the standard stock of exhibitors, vendors, and workshops. There are breakfasts, tea times, dinners, and “exclusive” night club experiences. All you need to do is fill in the blank with what kind of shared interest it’s all about and the rest falls into place swimmingly almost every time.
I’ve been to many conventions in my life and I am always taken by the cozy camaraderie that is found within each niche. Especially the kind of conventions that I’ve attended! With all of the connected world that we live in it is still so very hard to connect with our tribes. Because you don’t usually get to take a walk in the park wearing your full latex suit or your head to toe furry ensemble. Likewise we don’t get the chance to connect with our trans brothers and sisters easily in real life. We all walk around in the vanilla world as relatively vanilla people and it takes an archaeological dig to actually find out who anyone really is.
I love comic cons because it really brings out the freaks. And I love a good freak. Then there are the transgender conventions which I describe as sweet. There’s a loving connection found within those walls with people absolutely desperate to connect with other people of the same ilk. Oddly enough, this year was my first time at a BDSM convention and I felt the same kind of connection I feel at all the others, but even deeper.
The Art of Fabulation at Domcon LA 2018
What made Domcon even more meaningful was that “it” was all out in the open. In all of these other conventions you find people’s desires bubbling below the surface. Something I adore about the BDSM community is that while there is a lot bubbling below the surface, the truth is truly on display for all of your friends and acquaintances within the convention to see. The connection is there and it was almost as if the people of this community are the least hidden of any other community I run with.
Something I have always shined a light on in my written journey to evaluate humanity is the fact that people have to hide so much. There’s all that digging to get to the bottom of people’s truth. Conventions help us all take the elevator down to the lower level and see a lot more truth than usual. It makes one of my often repeated social fantasies come true. Where we all are in every day public as we are at home (or at the convention). The cashier at the grocery store wearing platform goth boots, corset, and black-as-death hair teased to the ceiling. The crossdresser who is no doubt an aging male in a maid’s outfit, just browsing books at the library. Then there’s the tall red latex encrusted dominatrix taking her pup for a walk in the park. The pup whom is a man wearing a leather Husky-style pup hood and knee pads while down on all fours. There even could be your next door neighbor mowing his lawn while dressed like a My Little Pony.
People are who they really are at these kind of conventions and I wish we could live life like that. It would be so much easier if it was as normal as we know it is. In fact, I always hear about the sharp come down after these conventions. It’s a doozy! The depression of putting away your pup hood and having to return to vanilla society. The wretched feeling of putting away the floral dresses and finding a lobby of normal men waiting outside the hotel for a taxi home, everyone wondering once again if any of them were the fun ladies they met this last weekend.
Please consider it if you haven’t had the opportunity to attend a convention which celebrates and luxuriates you within a community of your tribe. Don’t ever be scared or embarrassed to go, because it’s not as bad as you think! If you don’t have the money, never hesitate to apply for any financial aid or scholarship that the conference or convention may offer. You never know what may happen!
Human experiences with our people. Our tribes. Whoever they may be. I thoroughly enjoy that.
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Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Fetish, Transgender Opinion
About the Author (Author Profile)
The Artist D is a true raconteur and provocateur! He has been performing online since the mid 1990s. A relic from the cam show age before MySpace was any space. Author of In Bed with Myself, an autobiographical tale of transgenderism and Internet celebrity. Executive Editor of Fourculture Magazine and host of the Kawfeehaus podcast.Subscribe
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