Blue Roses

Blue Roses

Roses are quite prevalent in symbolic terms within the BDSM community. I have often found this to be a rather interesting topic since it is metaphoric or contains many layers, each of which offers some small insight into who we are as human beings and how we look at ourselves and the choices we make in life.

Roses mean: Love, respect, courage, passion, unconscious beauty, happiness, admiration, gentleness, grace, joy, sweetness, friendship, innocence, purity, enthusiasm, desire, fascination, sociability, gratitude, charm, silence, secrecy, modesty, sympathy, enchantment, hope.

As you can see, we place quite a lot upon the appearance of or gifting of a single flower between us. For many of us, the rose becomes a symbol of the 'grouping' of these traits or feelings, which we find so powerful and meaningful in our lives. We 'want' our partners, our loved ones, to have these feelings about us just as we desire to have these feelings about those we love. Often, we use the rose to 'placate' our loved ones when we err, trying to use the persuasive 'silent' voice of the rose to speak for us, to tell our loved ones all of the things we aren't saying.

There is, of course, another way to look at the rose as it relates to relationships that embrace the BDSM lifestyle. The rose is a particularly interesting flower in that the flower itself is magnificent, a vision of absolute fragility, delicate beauty. That beauty and perfection is 'guarded' by it's crown of thorns which from a metaphoric standpoint is the unique marriage of pain (the thorn) to pleasure (the rose) - or by further extension the marriage of the attributes of the rose as described above to the choice to wed these feelings to sensations, actions and behaviors which appear to be in opposition to the 'gentility' of the rose itself. In a sense, it is to embrace the paradoxical nature of S/m itself.

I was recently asked if I knew what the source of the 'blue roses' was that are given so commonly within the S/m community. (leather roses) The simple truth is that I don't think that I have ever asked about the source of the first blue rose, who made it, or why. I do have some understanding of the subtle meanings that 'some' people invest in the blue roses.

Blue roses do not occur in nature, at least not in a natural way. The closest we tend to get are purplish roses or roses which fall within the lilac to almost black categories (living roses). If you were to receive an almost blue rose, married, wedded, taped, or in some way attached to a rose of another color, that 'blend' is designed to convey the specific meaning of 'unity'.

Most blue leather roses are not completely blue. Often they are blue and white, or blue and black leather roses. These roses may be representative of the 'unity' or joining of the attributes of the rose to the leather community; they may represent the unity or joining of S/m to the leather community, or may simply be used to identify someone who is connected to the S/m leather community.

It becomes important to remember that 'leather' within the community is fairly new (at least in its current form). The attraction to leather in this modern application can be loosely traced to the popularization of leather during World War I & II by such very sexy, masculine garments as the leather flight jackets. This popularization continued when actors playing roles of 'counter culture' heroes adopted leather as THE counter culture's iconic symbol. If you look at photographs of James Dean and Elvis Presley, you will find this theme reinforced over and over again. This outgrowth of counter culture identification often parallels the growth or height of the Old Guard movements when members of the gay S/m communities picked up on the controversial counter culture nature of the icons, or may in fact have been the source of these icons underneath layers of societal masking.

Leather, of course, in its original (modern) functional usage was worn by aviators who sometimes flew open cockpit planes where durability and protection were necessary. The aviators wearing such garments immediately noticed the rather heady 'sexual' effect the jackets had on their amorous partners. Leather gear was also worn by the cavalry, which later became the motorcycle corps. Again, this gear was functional. In the case of the motorcyclists, it was to prevent road rash when they crashed, as well as protect the rider from 'stuff' in the air.

Outside of the leather garments, you can find leather existing across the centuries as it relates to creating devices or implements associated with S/m. It is rather difficult to imagine a leather whip made out of vines or braided linen (for example). Although we have managed to turn almost everything into implements. Working leather has always been fairly simple and enormously effective. It is durable, attractive, and sensual - perhaps because it is a 'skin' - something of a barbaric throwback to domination over other species sufficient to skin them and 'sport' their hides as a trophy. To wear leather is to have dominated that animal whose skin you now wear.

There has long been an urban legend within the S/m community that there exists a 'whip' which is made up of the skin of a human male penis. How this whip (if it exists) came to be created, who and how those donations of human leather occurred, I have absolutely no knowledge of. I do know that on occasion, various 'animal' penis leather whips are purported to be made available on the 'black-black market' and that the attributes (beyond psychological) of such devices are the high quality and texture of these items. I relate these legends here to demonstrate the fascination that we appear to have in the 'edges' or extremes as they relate to this community. There is something elemental and quite primitive in the undertones of what S/m is, how it functions in our minds.

What is equally true and should not be forgotten here is that practices of S/m existed long before the turn of the last century, with its biker clothes, aviator jackets, and cowboy cutaway pants. You don't need to like leather to be part of the S/m community. In fact, you can be a member of PETA and abhor the touch and feel of leather and still like to spank your partner. Leather is merely one aspect of S/m. Just as you don't have to love to wear black or have a certain look, etc. Many of us love leather, love black clothes, love the double-take looks we receive when wearing black, the 'reaction'. Many of us enjoy stimulating 'reaction', finding it part of the hidden 'fun' we take in our lives. But, all the black clothing and leather gear in the world doesn't 'make' us what we are. Who you are is on the inside, not on the outside. The outside is just window dressing.

I have one final thought to offer about the 'meaning' of blue leather roses. Most of these roses are black and blue, or black and blue and white. To me, I have always seen them as tongue-in-cheek references to light bruising. A way for one person to say to another, I have all these feelings for you, AND I like S/m too.

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Archivist Note: Email links (steeibtrfl@aol.com, steelbfl@sonic.net) are no longer valid and have been omitted from this archive. The bookstore link was for a heritage site that is no longer active and has been omitted from this archive. OP's works were not found on the successor live site. Also, the discussion group on Yahoo Groups is no longer available and was not found on archive.org.

To purchase books by the OP, please search your preferred bookseller by title or "F.R.R. Mallory", the nom de plume of the OP.

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