How Kinksters Use Symbols

Kinksters utilize all kinds of symbols to create meaning and identity but being aware of their nature and fluidity can be helpful.

How the macro external world works and how those larger forces impact the micro subculture world of kinksters and erotic adventurers has always interested me. One of the concepts that’s been banging around in my head lately is what’s often referred to as “symbolic interactionism” theory.

The “Symbolic Interactionism: Understanding Symbols” post by Dr. Ewards does a great job of concisely explaining symbolic interactionism.

Symbolic Interactionism is one of the major theoretical frameworks in sociology that focuses on the way individuals interact with one another and how they create, interpret, and maintain meaning through symbols. Central to this theory is the concept of the “symbol,” which plays a crucial role in understanding human behavior and social interaction.

If you navigate within leather or kink subcultures of any sort, those communities specifically are awash in symbols that communicate and acculturate in deeply meaningful ways.

Think about all the ways we “create, interpret, and maintain meaning through symbols” in those communities. Leather and fetish garb. Collars. Left and right keys and hanky placement, and all the various colors of hankies. Dominant/submissive dynamics. The list is endless.

One of the reasons I think it’s important to examine the symbols we employ and how they affect our social and play interactions is that it’s good to remember we “create” the meaning they signal.

Symbols are not inherently meaningful; rather, their meanings are socially constructed and learned through interaction.

As the Edwards post mentions, symbols are arbitrary, signify a shared understanding, and are dynamic in nature.

Why is it important to understand this? Because so often there is a rigidity to the symbology that leather people and kinksters utilize and we sometimes forget that the symbols themselves only have meaning because we give it to them, and because they are dynamic, they can morph or be added to over time.

We also utilize symbols to create our identities.

Individuals use symbols to express who they are and how they relate to the world around them. Clothing, for instance, is not just a practical necessity but a symbol of identity.”

Attend any leather or kink gathering and you immediately see this reflected in how attendees are dressed.

Read Edwards short post. I think you’ll find it interesting. But again, the main reason I’m discussing symbolic interactionism is to inject some awareness and flexibility in the thinking of those of us who use such symbols within leather, kink, or any erotic subculture.

By maintaining an awareness that these shared symbols only have meaning because we give them meaning and that they are dynamic and constantly in flux, we can more consciously use those symbols ourselves while having more grace and understanding when new symbols are added or longstanding symbols shift or change meanings.

Let’s examine just one example, collars. Over time, within kink communities, they’ve shifted in meanings. In “The Allure of Collars,” I point out the changing messaging and identity-making of collars within kink and leather cultures.

The many meanings of collars these days have proven controversial for some. There are those kinksters who feel that collars are sacred and their meanings more fixed and less fluid than others might consider them. My own personal stance is that all subcultural symbols are a product of that subculture, and our leather and kink subcultures are clearly signaling that such symbols need to change to meet certain people's needs, desires, and identities.

So, whether you’re a newcomer or seasoned leather person or kinkster, or dabble on the outskirts of those realms, I hope you’ll use and perceive the symbols of those cultures as meaningful because of the shared agreement with others of like mind, but also realize that they are not fixed in stoned. They can change. They will change. They will be added to. Some may fall away. Regardless, the symbols we use will continue to imbue meaning, identity, and erotic messaging for as long as such communities exist.

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