Samois

"For the French town with the same name, see Samois-sur-Seine."

Samois was a lesbian-feminist BDSM organization based in San Francisco and existing from 1978 to 1983. It took its name from the fictional estate of Anne-Marie, a lesbian dominatrix character in "Story of O", who pierces and brands O. Well-known members of the group included the writer Pat Califia and feminist academic Gayle Rubin.

The roots of Samois were in a group called Cardea, a women's discussion group within the mixed-gender S/M group, the Society of Janus. Cardea existed only briefly, from 1977 to 1978 before discontinuing, but a core of lesbian members, including Califia and Rubin, were inspired to start Samois, an exclusively lesbian BDSM group. [ [http://www.soj.org/Janhis.pdf Elegant Manual ] ] [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20050208113202/http://theexiles.org/drakeHistory.htm Drake's Event Guide for Leather Women ] ]

Samois was strongly rebuked (and sometimes picketed) by Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM), an early anti-pornography feminist group. WAVPM, like later anti-pornography feminists, took a very strongly anti-SM line, seeing it as ritualized violence against women. Samois members felt strongly that their way of practicing SM was entirely compatible with feminism, and held that the kind of feminist sexuality advocated by WAVPM was conservative and puritanical. Samois openly confronted WAVPM with their position, and the exchanges between Samois and WAVPM were among the earliest battles of what later became known as the Feminist Sex Wars, with Samois being among the very earliest advocates of what came to be known as sex-positive feminism. [ [http://www.leatherarchives.org/resources/issue21.pdf Layout.pmd ] ]

In 1981 Samois published a book "Coming to Power: Writing and graphics on Lesbian S/M", which reached a world-wide audience the following year when it was reprinted by Alyson Publications. The book alternates short stories with advice on technique, a model that has been used by various other BDSM books since then.

Samois split up in 1983 amid personal infighting, however, in 1984 Gayle Rubin went on to form another organization called The Outcasts. The Outcasts lasted until 1997, until they too split due to infighting. A breakaway group, The Exiles, is still extant as of 2008 and carries on in the tradition of Samois and The Outcasts. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20050208113202/http://theexiles.org/drakeHistory.htm Drake's Event Guide for Leather Women ] ] In 1996, Pat Califia and Robin Sweeny published an anthology titled "The Second Coming: A Leatherdyke Reader", which served as a sequel to "Coming to Power", and also contained historical information on The Outcasts, as well as other lesbian BDSM groups like the Lesbian Sex Mafia and Briar Rose. [ [http://www.bdsmdebunkingthemyths.com/Bibliography.htm Bibliography - Bound In Leather ] ]

References

* Rubin, Gayle. 2004. Samois. "Leather Times" 21:3-7. Available from: http://www.leatherarchives.org/resources/issue21.pdf
* Samois. 1979. What Color is Your Handkerchief: A Lesbian S/M Sexuality Reader. Berkeley: SAMOIS. 45 p.
* Samois. 1983. Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M. Boston: Alyson Pubns. 287 p. ISBN 0-932870-28-7

External links

* [http://www.theexiles.org The Exiles] - official site
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050208113202/http://theexiles.org/drakeHistory.htm "Cardea ~ Samois ~ Outcasts ~ Exiles"] by Drake Cameron, "TheExiles.org", December 2002.
* [http://www.geocities.com/wikispace/oob.1982a.html "Charges of Exclusion & McCarthyism at Barnard Conference"] by Tacie Dejanikus, "off our backs" 12(6), June 30, 1982.
* [http://www.geocities.com/wikispace/oob.1982b.html "Lesbian Sex Mafia ('L S/M') Speakout"] by Fran Moira, "off our backs" 12(6), June 30, 1982.