This year for MIR, I wore a suit with a faux patent leather/rubber corset and matching gauntlet gloves. Since the corset I wore over my suit was essentially a costume one that isn't very effective, I synched with a steel-boned corset under my clothes to get as much of an hour-glass shape as possible. Since the 20s was such an androgynous time period, I decided to run with that idea by wearing pinstriped trousers, sleeve garters, a collar bar, bowler hat, eye liner, and a heavy cheek contour. Lately, I've been incorporating more makeup into kink and for this particular look, I was inspired by the rosey-cheeked cartoon men in 1920s fashion ads.
As someone with a background as a drag queen who also studied drag, who is also a kinkster, I have had an interesting connection with synching and corsets. For the former, corsets were a means to an end for femininizing a male body to look more delicate and curvy. For the latter, I've mostly seen them on dominatrices and pinup models. I haven't had much of a connection with corsets in the kink world because my relationship to drag kind of put them in the "if I'm not using them for drag, it's sissification territory." I think my fascination with corsetting actually started when I was a goth teenager who listened to Marilyn Manson. He always wore corsets and other "gender-bending" accoutrement that probably served as my gateway into drag.
My introduction to corsets was when I got a trench coat from Hot Topic that had a built-in waist syncher when I was 13. I remember loving how it made me look thinner, as well as straightened my back, forcing me into good posture. At a later age, I learned about how corseting was used as a form of body modification since it can train the core muscles to tighten and constrict. Most forms of corsetting were understood to be for women and female impersonation, which made male uses of them androgynous at best. As what would be considered lingerie, corsets definitely look the part for kink or anything sexual. Whether they're more dominant or more submissive is worthy of exploration.
Dressing for Kink Events
When I arrived to the MIR market and went to registration with my boyfriend, one of the people at check-in asked if I was competing, I guess because I looked like a person who'd be in the overall MIR competition. This made me feel good about the look because even though it was fairly different from looks I've seen around the event at that point, it showed me that I didn't miss the mark. It was a huge step up from when I went to my first IML in 2022, wearing a striped dress shirt and tie with vintage, high-wasted dress trousers, suspenders with braces, and leather gloves, and the person at registration asked if I came from work. Even though this person said that I looked nice and was relatively polite, this moment has stuck with me because it felt like I was being told that I didn't look like I belonged there.
Regardless of if a kink event you're attending is centered on leather or rubber, I think that the general prompt for dressing for these events is to wear something with a purpose, that you and others find sexy for fetishistic reasons or just by virtue of being scantily clad. Otherwise, wearing something kink adjacent, like a Mr. S or Watts the Safeword t-shirt, or any leather, rubber, body suit, etc would suffice. Some people might dress to essentially look like they belong there or dress to stand out from the crowd. Maybe some of us are tired of standing out as the weirdo among straight or vanilla friends and colleagues, so we're comforted by the uniformity of leather events and being around other queers who are dressed like us. There are also some of us who have a creative itch to craft elaborate looks that represent our unique approach to kink and the community, with these queer and subversive events being the only outlet that feels safe and appropriate for us to scratch that itch. Even though these might sound like polar opposite motives, they both involve seeking or establishing some form of community with other kinksters, whether you're looking like everyone else, as a unified family or team, or showing your individuality within the overall context of the kink event at hand.
The appeal of wearing kinky outfits in social settings where everyone is essentially dressed for the same purpose seems to be rooted in the idea that kink in general, as well as individual kinksters, have been ostracized and persecuted by more mainstream communities. So, the fact that us outsiders can convene and hang out with others in gear, in a public setting, is liberating and not a thing that most of us can do on a regular basis. This is what makes these events worthy of celebration and special for us. We get to take something that's very personal about ourselves, which we've kept private, either out of shame and fear or just general decorum, and be public about it in a safe setting because we're either around people who are into the same things as us or at least people who get it because they're into adjacent things.
Even though events typically have gear-specific dance parties and socials that enforce dress codes (you have to wear x-amount of leather, rubber, gear, etc), the markets at events are essentially a free-for-all as far as gear is concerned. Kink event markets don't typically have dress codes, but attendees are still expected to dress with a purpose and I know of someone being told that they looked underdressed and lost for going to the IML market in a hoodie and jeans. Since nobody will be denied entry from a kink market if they don't look the part even though they should wear something intentional, there's kind of a grey area for attendees to work with. Attendees can either take the safe and predictable route of wearing leather or rubber; the simple route of wearing adjacent things like harnesses, jockstraps, or kink-themed t-shirts; or use this leeway to try something different.
Trying something different can simply involve flying your flag for a particular clothing fetish you have that isn't always represented at run-of-the-mill leather and rubber events. For this, there isn't only a power in standing out, but also in being the representation you'd like to see at these events. Since gear-centric kink events tend to be very homogeneous, unspoken social codes might make people with more fringe clothing fetishes feel like they ought to blend in and wear something predictable even though a strict dress code isn't being enforced. But when someone dares to represent their niche gear fetish at these events, it creates opportunities for others to fly their own flags too because it shows them that it's possible and there's solidarity with others who'd understand.
Validation is such a key part of kink culture and socializing as a kinkster, which makes feeling accepted for kinks that a lot of people don't share a very delicate and important factor in people's kink journeys. Again, the purpose of dressing for these events is to mark yourself as a kinkster in a safe and welcoming environment, celebrate the fact that we get to do that, and establish a sense of community to move away from the normativity of kink shame. Since kink is mostly taboo and not mainstream, part of establishing community involves being welcoming of subversion. Implementing this ideology should include being welcoming of different representations of different kinks and fetishes, regardless of how unfamiliar they may be. The mere fact that someone is showing that they have a fetish that they're willing to intentionally represent should be understood as an adequate sign that they are where they should be.
The Many Roles of Corsets
A lot of references and influences went into the look I did for MIR 2024. Obviously, I'm into suits, which was a big factor, and I wanted a 1920s vibe. When it came to the corset and gloves, there was a bit of a vintage dominatrix element with a shine. But I feel like the image of a suited man in some kind of corset or binding belt is fairly common in and around kink's orbit.
A History of Corsets & My Look
In general, corsets were typically worn by women in pinup spreads and other kinds of adult media that was created for men. Obviously, there are times in history when most women synched because it was fashionable and served the function of holding women's breasts in place before quality bras were invented for that purpose. Manufacturing from the Industrial Revolution also made it easier for corsets to be mass produced and made with metal, instead of things like wood or bone from earlier eras. Outside of sexual media, corsets were most likely treated as undergarments if they weren't part of a dress or other kinds of outerwear. So, they were something to be covered up for modesty's sake, like bras and panties.
In 1920s America, there was what could be considered the closest thing to a drag icon of the time in Julian Eltinge. Eltinge was a straight-identified drag performer who embodied the ultra feminine with other female dancers on stage and wrote for a column as his drag alter ego where he'd give women fashion and makeup advice, but he played a super macho role off stage. Part of this macho performance involved Eltinge's expression of how painful and laborious getting into drag was. Instead of lamenting about how fabulous drag is, it being an expression of his queer genderfluid identity, or how your kids should also do it, he basically groaned about how drag is actually an endurance challenge. A major part of this endurance was having to squeeze his ample man body into a corset.
Considering how part of the 1920s flapper-girl silhouette involved women looking somewhat shapeless and boy-like, Eltinge's emphasis on synching was ironic because it wasn't really what women were doing at the time. Even though men's suits were probably the most hour-glass shaped during this decade, flapper dresses were mostly loose-fitting and it was in style for women's bodies to look more natural, which eliminated the need for undergarments that would enhance the shapely feminine form by bringing the waist in. However, since Eltinge was a burly man who prided himself on creating an un-clockable female illusion, he had to synch despite the fashion of the time and he used that to demonstrate how tough he was.
When it comes to the particular look I did, Fakir Musafar was a major influence. Particularly, it was the picture of him suited and holding a cigarette with a tiny, Vampira-like waist. Fakir Musafar is what he coined as a "modern primitive," which describes people and a culture from the 20th century-on who engage in extreme body modifications like piercing, heavy tattooing, body sculpting, branding and other body-related practices that resemble tribal, indigenous, and ancient people who did these kinds of things. Musafar is best known for his fifty years of research and personal exploration of what he calls "body play," body modification and different forms of sadomasochism. He has written and appeared in various publications and documentaries throughout the 70s and 80s. For more information, visit his website.
I'm not sure what Fakir did to make his waist so unnaturally tiny. However, in a documentary about the 1950s horror hostess Vampira, her method for unnatural synching was revealed as mixing some powder that's used for condensing meat with her body lotion and applying it to her stomach and midsection, which essentially tightened everything up as much as possible. Then, Vampira would wear a strong rubber waistband to pull everything in. The season 7 winner of RuPaul's Drag Race, Violet Chachki, even dawned a similar waist for her Death Becomes Her runway look, complete with an oxygen tank as a prop. In a world with unachievable body standards and desires for thinness, I love seeing the ultimate extreme of a thin waist, one that looks striking and even a little scary, that isn't particularly sexually appealing. It makes something that can be thought of as shallow and artificial to a new artistic height: instead of trying to look attractive, the subject aspires to post-humanity, the next evolution of man.
In my research about Eltinge, a comedic cartoon of him that appeared in some print publication was mentioned. The cartoon was described as big, lumbering Eltinge being tightly synched into his corset by an exaggeratedly small assistant who was breaking a sweat over the task. This cartoon emphasized the work that went into putting a man's body into a corset and worked for Eltinge's overall narrative about how taxing drag is on the body and how tough he was for enduring it. Framing something feminine like drag and synching as something that requires strength and a good threshold for pain not only showed how physically strenuous it is to wear a corset, but also completely subverted typical gendered expectations. Even though this must have been his way of saying "no homo" about being a drag queen, it framed something feminine as something that takes masculine strength, even though women have been doing it.
The Many Roles of Corsets
When it comes to sexual media that featured corsets, it ranged from women just wearing corsets with other lingerie, for more vanilla content, to corsets being a vital focus in kinkier images. For the latter, there would sometimes be powerful-looking dominatrices in all black leather or latex with tightly bound corsets, giving them desirable hour-glass shapes as they tormented their subjects. Other times, there would be more submissive women being tightly laced into corsets by more dominant characters.
The different ways that corsets were used in kink content made them both dominant and submissive, depending on context. For dominance, the appeal seems to be rooted in the idea of enduring corsets. Since doms are expected to be strong, powerful, capable, and even sexy, enduring the pain and physical restriction of having your waist tightly synched while effectively wielding a bull whip, like Catwoman or Dr. Frank N. Furter, or simply overpowering another person shows a level of skill and discipline that could make you look spectacular and threatening. If you're able to do this much while you're bound and uncomfortable, imagine what you'd be capable of when you're comfortable and with a full range of motion? If you can make yourself suffer through this pain, what would you do to the people you dominate?
The discipline and self-directed masochism of putting one's own body into a corset seems to be a major factor in this. For starters, it just looks striking to see someone take control with perfect posture and a pinched midsection. But if someone is capable of enduring that discomfort while taking charge, it demonstrates a level of trained discipline that might indicate the type of person, dom, sadist, etc that's assuming power. There's a strictness to it, so maybe the synched dom will tie you tighter and less forgiving, or maybe the dom will give you rigid rules and stern punishments. Maybe a synched dom will just be cruel because they're uncomfortable and want to pass that discomfort onto their sub. Being a synched dom would make you a force of nature, so anything you might do could be persistent or come with high expectations for your sub.
A lot of content with synched subs seem to frame the corset as punishment or a sign of ownership, like a collar. Obviously, a lot of this comes from the physical discomfort and restriction that corsets cause. Beyond merely squeezing your belly and muscles, corsets have also been known to cause fainting because of how they literally compress your organs and make taking deep breaths a difficult task, since you're less able to open your diaphragm and let your lungs expand. This added to understandings of women being weak and emotionally fragile because women fainting used to be a commonly understood thing, even though the impracticality of wearing corsets all day, every day was the cluprit. So, the idea of forcing another person to wear one and even tying it off strictly, with little mercy, is a sure way to demonstrate control over that person. With a corset on, the sub would be forced to stand up straight and make bending over or slouching difficult, restricting the sub's physical capabilities. Overall, like the fainting housewives, corsets can make subs more docile, agreeable, and delicate.
With all of this comes the subversion of corsetting men, especially suited men. Since wearing a corset isn’t considered normal for men, guys who wear corsets in kink media are typically submissive. On top of the submissive elements that involve pain, strictness, objectification, etc., sissification is an additional element that isn't present in content that shows women being corsetted. Since "corsets are for ladies," men in corsets are downgraded to effeminacy; they're probably less experienced with synching, so they likely feel more confined and less trained to endure that pain; if their bros saw them in a corset, they'd probably mock him; etc.
Suits & Corsets
Suits and corsets seem to have an interesting relationship with each other. Obviously, suits connote masculine qualities such as power, wealth, intelligence, dignity, etc. But suits are also borderline effeminate with their dandy connotation. Suited men aren't thought to be as strong and rough-and-tumble as jocks. They aren't considered to be as brut and authoritative as soldiers or police. And you also don't see a lot of content with men in sports or policing uniforms in corsets either. Suited men showcase civility, while other masculine expressions showcase "primitive masculinity."
Granted, these types of macho figures probably weren't depicted in sexual media when content with synched men was being produced. The appeal of this content probably came from the idea of seeing recognizable male figures in these postions and everybody knew at least several men who wore suits back then. Even though images of soldiers or police officers were always around, I feel like sexualizing them was more of a gay male thing (via Tom of Finland and similar imagery) that wasn't widely visible to straights until after the Sexual Revolution in the 60s and 70s. And even in that case, feminining them or framing them as submissive probably didn't become popular until later decades.
Even though there are rules and protocols associated with athletic and law enforcement uniforms, the fact that they are uniforms means that they are issued to those who wear them, they represent different levels and ranks, colleagues in the same rank are expected to look identical, and rules for wearing them are enforced. Suits, on the other hand, aren't issued to those who wear them, which makes things like suit quality, how they're worn or styled, what accessories are worn, etc. completely up to the people who wear them. With this, suits express individuality as opposed to uniformity, and even though higher-ranking people are more likely to afford and wear high quality suit looks, anybody can be creative, stylish, and tasteful.
This is not to say that there aren't standards, rules, etc. for wearing suits, but instead of them being enforced by superiors, these customs are learned socially. Today, we have suit influencers on social media to guide those who are interested. In yester-year, there were published gentleman's style guides, on top of elder men in families and social circles to guide younger men into looking proper. However, since none of these influences are standardized, only those who care about this and are willing to make that effort will listen and take this advice. In situations where men would take simpler and cheaper routes to suiting and find themselves surrounded by dandy colleagues, the dandies might throw some shade to maybe influence the guy in a subpar suit to step up his game.
In spite of the masculine postering involved with busting other guy's balls or even the power of suits themselves, this is all relatively effeminate, or could at least be interpreted as such when comparing it to sports or law enforcement. The individual expression in suiting, complete with optional accessories (like tie bars, tie pins, collar clips, cufflinks, jewelry, etc.), grooming, hair styling, cologne, choice of shoes and socks, etc., are more feminine than standardized uniforms that involve looking like peers. Not to mention, suited men exist in clean, neat, and relatively civil environments and suiting itself is not very tough or tactical. Therefore, corsets and suits are more congruent than combining corsets with other masculine outfits.
Aesthetically, even if suits with corsets play with gendered expectations, they don't seem to contrast all that much. Corsets might even work against things that come with suiting, like pridefulness, a sense of dignity, and control when they're forced onto an esteemed dandy. It takes a level of confidence and vanity for a man to present himself as a gussied up dandy, so dominating that kind of man and making him wear a corset with his suiting could be a special form of humiliation and showing him that he isn't in control.
Conclusion
In spite of all this, the idea behind my MIR look was meant to be more on the dominant side. Since I'm not into sissification and my ethos behind drag or any kind of feminization is empowerment, I feel that my knods to dominatrix looks via the makeup and faux patent leather elements cemented that. Considering how Musafar chose to and did his synching on his own, and didn't seem to be submitting in the reference picture, it felt more dominant as well. It all kind of culminates from how I view myself as a dom or at least the type of dom I aspire to be because I don't see myself as ultra masculine or as someone who embodies those qualities. Obviously, the fun of clothing fetishism is the freedom to construct whatever kind of role or narrative that fits whatever erotic fantasy you have. There are no hard-pressed rules for what looks are dominant or submissive, and we can do whatever we wish with outfits that feel sexy to us.
It's funny how I came to this look without feeling sexual about corsets. I just thought they were fierce. Then, I found myself getting turned on by the look when I actually started putting it together. This was especially the case when I got into the masculine version of this look for pictures. Maybe the combination of the corset's strictness and the regular suiting and styling on top did it for me. It also felt hot to sort of imitate the poses that suit influencers do, but with the subversion of my waist being synched and having kinky intentions behind everything. Even though most suit influencers are straight and seemingly (question mark) vanilla, they tend to hit a lot of fetishy marks with their closeups on suit elements (collar bars, cufflinks, socks, shoes, etc), as well as their bodies. So, I feel like my approach to what they do added an objectification element that usually only comes from the way that kinksters view their content.
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