Attended a really interesting seminar on the semiotics of kink and fetishwear. It was at International Mr. Leather, so you can imagine it was well attended.

I think it’s a balancing act. You have to be careful not to fetishize them but also you can mock the powers that be in that sense. Not for their sake (you’re not making them feel bad of course), for your community’s sake. A lot of Tom of Finland’s art was around parodying and undoing the “seriousness” with which the state takes itself.

But like I said, it can also become aesthetic only, at which point the meaning becomes forgotten and you end up just fetishizing cops and military without real intentionality.