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Bawdy Storytelling
Episode 293: ‘Man’s Country’ (Race Bannon)
00:30:43
My God, that Leatherman is so hot - but why is he limping? In this vintage 70’s story, Leather & Kink Legend Race Bannon take you on a private tour of his first Gay Bathhouse, and this story is a doozy! Join us as we venture into Man’s...
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Transcript19 lines
- [00:03]
Dixie de La Tour
The following podcast contains true stories of sex, kink, gender, or body image. Thanks for being a consenting adult. Cause here we go.
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Performer/Poet
All of my life I've never fit But I won't complain and I won't quit I am enormous get used to it. Everyone tells me I'm too much maybe it's just you're not enough for me can't you see I'm the kind of woman I'm supposed to be?
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Hey.
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My vagina is eight miles wide. Absolutely everyone can come inside. If you're ever frightened just running.
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Hide.
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My vagina is eight miles.
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What?
- [01:06]
Dixie de La Tour
Hi there, and welcome to the Bawdi storytelling podcast. I'm sexual folklorist Dixie de La Tour. And this week we have a story from leather and kink author and gay rights icon Race Bannon. Hey, friend, how's your week going? I'm feeling a little irritated today, and I'm about to say something, and it's probably a bad idea, but I'm going to add on something that I hope gives it some context. So you may know that I grew up in the Blue Ridge Parkway, and I spent a lot of time in. Well, my home was Virginia, but I spent a lot of time in West Virginia. And for Mother's Day, my mother has died. And I called my aunt. My aunt lives on top of a mountain in West Virginia. I haven't seen her in a long time. I haven't seen her since my Air Quotes wedding. And in between that time and now, a pandemic happened. So I called and one of my cousins answered the phone. I said I wanted to wish Aunt Dot a happy Mother's Day. We had a conversation. Dot seems to have some differing beliefs than I do. For example, my mother is not dead is one of the things I heard. That's interesting. I was kind of at her funeral, and as I talked to one of my cousins, she said that Dot had always said that I'd be coming back to West Virginia, that I'd be moving home. And she said she wants to know when you're coming back. I'm like, well, I'm not moving back. And she goes, well, when are you coming for a visit? And I said, well, honestly, I don't feel comfortable coming for a visit because nobody in West Virginia has gotten a COVID vaccine. And I was met with, what? Why? Why would you say that? Why would that be a factor? And I'm like, well, I don't know. A million people died. That would be a factor for me. I got told how that was ridiculous. And it just made me so sad, because if that's what you believe, that I'm probably not going to go to the top of a mountain in West Virginia and hang out with you. We have differing beliefs. Now, I strongly believe whatever you believe is what you believe. I'm not going to try and change your mind, but I am going to tell you why I feel the way that I feel. The only thing I can control is myself. And that's why I'm explaining this. Somehow the conversation devolved into, someone we know had just died, and I had heard they died of a massive heart attack. And instead I was told it was because they had just gotten their fourth vaccine, and that's what they died of. They had died because this was a man. He had died because he had had his fourth vaccine, and he died less than a week later. And I said, do you think everybody dies when they get their fourth vaccine? Because I've had seven, and I'm about to get my eighth. So I don't understand the logic in that. And they're like, well, they tried to explain to me they knew a friend who understood medicine and science, but somehow that person was a horse doctor. I'm not sure how. I mean, seriously, if what I'm telling you makes no sense, I'm repeating a conversation that made no sense. The horse doctor believes that vaccines were rolled out too fast, therefore they haven't been properly tested, therefore people are going to die. And I'm like, so how do you explain the fact that I've had seven vaccines and I'm not dead? And the answer I was given was that the person who died was a natural redhead and I'm a bottle redhead, and that's why I didn't die. I love my fucking family. I really do. But you would think the fact that we're kept apart by a pandemic for so many years would be something that we go, thank God that's over. But there's so much division because of what happened. And it makes me really sad because I love these people and I want to see them again, but I really don't feel comfortable. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they're right. I'm not gonna tell anybody what they should believe, but I will tell them. I'm not comfortable with that. And I'm not getting on a plane and going to West Virginia. So that's kind of sticking in my crawl today. Sorry for the rant, but it happened, and I feel better. Thanks for listening. Also, if we're gonna talk about something that's a little bit more fun than that. I have started story coaching some of the stories for my Portland show, and story coaching is my happy place. It really is where I just feel like everything flows. When you're doing what you're meant to do with your life, you hit this flow state. And today, while I was working on a story, the person who's going to do this has never done anything like storytelling on stage before. They had told me years ago via the Internet. They sent me a message and said, body storytelling is my favorite podcast of all time. I've listened to every single episode. And when we got together on Zoom today, I got to hear their favorite episode. We started working on the process and it was really fun to listen to them, hear how I work with people on their stories. You could hear the aha. That's why this happens there. That's why the stories all have this very unique flavor. Yeah, it's how I coach. It just felt so good to work with somebody who took storytelling so seriously, who really wanted to do a great job, who wanted to, like, do this thing that they had admired for years and years, listening to the stories told live on stage and finally doing it themselves and talking about how nervous and vulnerable they felt doing it. As you know, my fetish is people who are scared but do it anyway. I really feel like it's life changing. When you get on stage in front of people, the number one fear is public speaking. I think that's in front of death. I'm afraid of death, but I'm more afraid of public speaking. And to watch somebody do something that is that challenging and really want to do it anyway, even though they feel like they're going to have a panic attack or a heart attack or any of those things, I don't know. That's the side of human beings. I love when I fall in love with my fellow human beings, that moment right there when they're scared, but they do it anyway. So that's to say, yes, I had a frustrating conversation with a family member. But I have my people, the people who are part of Bodi, the people who get on stage, the people who want to try this scary thing. Does that make sense to you? I'm not sure that made sense, but it's what was burning up inside me right now. And Dixie Ramble is talking about what's going on with me, and that's what's going on with me today. I appreciate you putting up with me. I really do. Body storytelling has come into Portland, Oregon. It's happening on Friday, June 21st and it's a two show night, which means that for the 7:30 show you can come to the curated mainstage Body. I'll be announcing the lineup next week on the podcast and if you just like to sit, listen to beautifully told stories and then you feel inspired to tell your own. Right after that show we're going to be doing Body Slam, which is a competitive open mic. You put your name in the hat, you get up, you tell your story, and you compete for sex toys and the title of the winner of Body Slam. Do you want to be the dirtiest storyteller in Portland, Oregon? You know you do. I hope to see you at one or both of those shows. There's a link in the show notes and if you buy the both shows option, you get to listen to great stories. Then you get to tell a great story. I'll see you in Portland. Well, it's time for a story, so I want to tell you about a storyteller that I absolutely adore. Rice Bannon has been an organizer, writer, publisher, educator, commentator, leader, speaker and activist in the LGBTQ leather and kink, polyamory and HIV and STI prevention realms since 1973. He is an author, a widely published writer, active speaker, community organizer, and project leader and has received numerous national and local awards, the latest of which was the Academy San Francisco 2022 Diane Jones Solidarity Award. You can currently see him in a new online series, On Guard Cigar Salon. You can find links to Race's writings, projects and social media in the show notes. Race has two very active substacks that I follow, and one of them is on sex and kink, one of them is on everything else in the world. And I read both of them voraciously. He's an incredible writer. This week's storyteller is Race Bannon.
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Race Bannon
Doesn't she have great tits? I mean, like, really, when a gay man says you have great tits, you've got great tits. So hello everybody. I'd like to take you back to the year 1973. I am 19 years old. I'm living in Chicago. I have just left college my third semester to pursue a career as a dancer. And while I was pursuing that and studying more in Chicago dance, I took a job at a well known, infamous and very sleazy gay bar in the Old Town section of Chicago called the Glory Hole. Yep, Glory Hole. Do with that what you will. Anyway, I had been actively, very sexual in the gay men's and kink scene for a while, but I had Only been entirely out to everyone, including my parents, for about a year. I had been going to College about 100 miles south of Chicago and driving up every weekend, just about to revel in the gay nightlife and the sexual underground that I had discovered there. And that was a sexual underground that would be very formative for me. So what I want to tell you about tonight, though, is the very first time I went to a gay men's big bathhouse. I'm guessing by the audience that most of you haven't been to a gay bathhouse, but this was the very, very first time I was going to go to a big bathhouse. And it was called Man's country. And it really was Man's Country. Yeah. And for those of you who've never been to a bathhouse, it is a private men's club where they fuck each other. Now, there are many other benefits to a gay bathhouse, social and community. There really are. But for many guys, the fucking was the thing. And for me, the fucking was the thing. So I have the night off from the glory hole. That can be taken two ways. So I have the night off from the glory hole. I'm very excited. I'm going to this big, grand bathhouse. And it was three stories tall. It had a restaurant, it had a theater, it had a dance hall, a big one with what was purported to be the best sound system in all of Chicago at the time. It had a full sex shop. It was an amazing place. So I get to Man's country, and I walk in the door and there is the glass plate at the desk. And for those who haven't been to a gay men's bathhouse, again, I doubt most of you have, but you show your ID and if you are not already a member, they make you join as a member. Because by being a private membership club, you can get away with some things you can't necessarily otherwise. So you pay your money, you get a locker or a room. And that's what I was going to do. So I got my key to my locker, I walked through the inner door, and the very first person I see is this incredibly sexy, probably 5 foot 5, 5 foot 6 at the most, gorgeous man, black mustache, black hair, ruggedly handsome, muscular, smooth, sexy body. And he was wearing a leather vest and leather chaps. Very, very fucking sexy. But something was off because he was limping. So I looked down and the front portion of his right foot was covered in white grease that I would later come to discover was a certain vegetable shortening that gay men have been using for fisting for many years. So this was my introduction to man's country. I had thought about lots of things in my life. I was a pretty experienced person. I'd had my hand in a number of men's asses already and certainly since. But foot fucking was something I had never really envisioned. And all that was going through my brain was, how perfectly trimmed do your toenails have to be to do that? So I'm stopped for a moment. He stops for just a second, smiles at me, and then says, I just shoved my foot up some guy's ass, and now I have to hobble to the showers on my heel to not get grease on the carpet. And with that, he hobbles away to the shower. So this was my introduction to man's country. Yeah. So I get to my locker and I get undressed, and I store my stuff and I wrap my towel around my waist and I venture forth into the baths to see what the night might have in store for me. So about an hour later, I end up in the orgy room. Now, again, for those who have never been to a gay men's bathhouse, Especially the grand gay bathhouses of decades past, they all had orgy rooms, and they're exactly what they sound like. An orgy room. So I walk into this room, very dimly lit with red lights. I am not sure what it is about red lights and sex, but they seem to go together. There's this pulsing music coming down, and naked men's bodies everywhere, Fucking, sucking, and all these amazing sounds coming out of these men. I was in heaven. Then somebody grabbed my ass. Hmm. Okay. So I reach back and I touch his body, and it's a really nice body. And I distinctly remember running my thumb down his washboard abs one at a time and thinking, fuck, this is an amazing body. So then I reached down and I grabbed the cock. It's long and it's fat. It's beautiful. So without much more prompting than that, we fall forward on the bed and we begin to fuck like rabbits. So that went on for a while until he said, do you want to go to my room? That voice. Where had I heard that deep, resonant, sexy voice before? So we emerged from the orgy room, and sure enough, I had been fucking with the limping foot, fucking leathered, sexy guy I had met on the way in. So we are going to his room. On the way, I learned that his name is Bob, and that's about as much information as I got before he opened the door to his Room. Now, again, for those who have never been to a gay bathhouse, if you get a room, it's usually this little narrow bed, this little narrow side table if you're lucky. But Bob had it an inn with the bathhouse management. He was in what I will call a supreme room. Full bed over here, Leather sling in a separate section over here. And strewn all over the room was lots and lots of leather and toys and gear and dildos. I remember walking into that room and smelling that leather. How intoxicating it was. So Bob probably thought I was a newbie, and I was only 19. So he sat me down on the edge of the bed and he took out two lengths of leather thongs. So imagine black leather shoelaces, for lack of a better way of saying it. And he wrapped one around my left wrist and one around his right wrist. And then he said, you know, most guys would put these around our necks, but I just met you. Consider this our dominant and submissive commitment to each other for the next hour or so. Well, I was turned on. We proceeded to sample the tastes that were the smorgasbord of his and my kinks and sexual interests. He put leather chaps on me for the very first time. I remember how good it felt and how sexy I felt. And there was the full mirror on one side of the room. And I looked. I had a really nice ass then, and I looked really good in it. And I felt sexy. He guided me into his hole, first with my cock and then with my fist. At one point, I put wrist restraints on him and ankle restraints on him, and I locked him into the sling. And I did nasty, mean things to his nipples and his cock and balls. I strapped his ass. I was punching his chest with my fist. Now, I had told a story in a previous body about the first person who made me feel like a confident dom. Bob was taking me to new places I had never, ever experienced. Very intense, dominant, submissive dynamics. Whole ass play of incredible width and depth. He had the most talented whole. My God. We played on the edges of painplay, places I had never gone before. And we probably rattled some of the bathhouse patrons because of the moans and sometimes the screams coming out of Bob. So this went on for a while, and then I emerged from that room a changed man. It's probably no surprise that Man's country became my home away from home a lot. I was there many nights, and once I remember even being there an entire weekend. As for Bob, apart from a home sex party where we diddled a little Bit. And the back room of Leather Bar, where we diddled a little bit there too. We never really played again like we did that first time. We would see each other at the bar, or we would see ourselves at an event and we'd wink and we'd nod and I thought we were both fondly remembering that night at the baths. I certainly was. So then one day Bob did see me at the bar and he said to me, he says, I have a question. How long did you keep that thong on your left wrist? After we finished. And I told him I had kept it on for a couple of days because it meant so much to me. And then he confided that he had left his on for a couple days too. And then he said, that was one of the most amazing times I ever had at the baths. And I'm a bathhouse slut. I think that was the first time I had ever heard a gay man refer to themselves as a slut. And I loved it.
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Dixie de La Tour
So.
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Race Bannon
Bob was significantly older than me, I'd say probably by decades. And I'm really not sure if Bob is around now, but if he was, I would pull him aside and I would whisper in his ear, I would say, bob, thank you. Thank you for helping me go to that next level in my BDSM and kink explorations. And by the way, can I put my foot up your ass?
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Performer/Poet
I want to be a good boy I want to be a gangster. Because it could be the beauty and I could be the monster I love you since this morning no just for a step I want to touch your body so fucking elect I know you scared of me. You say that I'm too eccentric I'm crying on my tears and that's fucking pathetic I wanna make you hungry then I wanna feed ya. I wanna paint your face like your mom Mona Lisa I wanna be a champion, I wanna be a loser I'll even be account cause I just wanna muse ya. I wanna be a sister I wanna be a teacher I wanna be a singer, I wanna be a preacher I wan believe you because baby I'm your goliath.
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For redemption.
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I want to be a slave, I want to be a master I want to make your heartbeat run like roller coasters I want to be a good but I wanna be a gangster. Cause you can be the beauty and I could be the monster. I wanna make you cry, I wanna make you nervous I wanna set you free but I'm too fucking jealous. I wanna pull your strings like you're.
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My telecaster and if you Want to use me? I could be your puppet.
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Cause I'm Dab Dabba researching for redemption and I'm Hallo Yah researching for redemption. And I'm a healer researching for.
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Dixie de La Tour
I.
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Performer/Poet
Came I'll stop searching for redemption.
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Dixie de La Tour
That was I want to be your slave by Monoskin. This morning, I got a phone call from my friend J.C. and J.C. listens to the podcast every week. J.C. is part of the Risk podcast, and we often brainstorm solutions to this ever changing life that we do, which is performance and putting people on stage. And JC had a great idea, and I'd love to know what you think about it. JC says, why don't you do a wellness coaching group where people can get together and talk about what they're trying to figure out in their life. Maybe it's wellness, maybe it's mental health, maybe it's sexual health and finding your sexual identity or figuring out what's next for you. And as soon as we got off the phone, I went on social media and people were making comments. And one of the things that one person said, dixie, your absolute fearlessness when speaking about things that can be difficult just blows me away. You're amazing at that. And someone else says you live your life courageously and out loud. So when you tell yourself you don't have the answers, maybe I'm the person that can talk about it openly. So if you'd be interested in forming a group where we get together on Zoom, where we talk about these things. I'm figuring it out. Maybe you're in the process of. Of figuring it out too. I'd love to know if you're interested because it's so much more fun if we do it together, isn't it? Send me an email bodystorytellingmail.com and maybe I'll be starting a group really soon. The time is really good for me right now. So maybe we could get together on a weeknight on Zoom and start making plans for our next big life. As I've been saying for a little while, I'm considering ending this podcast pretty soon, maybe at 300, because I like nice, round numbers. And I have been getting emails from many of you telling me what you think, what you wish you could do. And some have expressed that they want there to be a way to support the Body Storytelling podcast that is not Patreon. For some reason, some people just aren't comfortable with it. And I wanted to know what you thought. Is that the case for you? Is Patreon something that concerns you? I mean, this is Good information. I'd like to know if you want to help me support this podcast, because as I said, I'm going out of pocket on this and I can't because I have not been producing shows with any sort of regularity, and the priority is my rent podcast is farther down the line and things are going to have to be cut very soon. So if you want other ways, there's Cash App, there's Venmo, there's PayPal, there's Zelle. If there's another way you like to do it, I will do it that way. But I'm just wondering, what way would you feel comfortable supporting the Bodi storytelling podcast? That would be great, great information to hear. You know how to get me bodystorytellingmail.com or message me on any of the apps, because you are the one who can help me figure out how to keep this thing going. I need your help. Well, we're approaching the end. You know how every week I ask you if you will write a review for this podcast. Well, I want to be clear about what writing a review for a podcast is, because this week I got a review. And instead of saying anything about the podcast, it said, support this podcast. Let's think of a review as a call to action. Like, listen to this podcast would be a great thing, because if they're considering it now, you've just told them what to do. So if you write us a review, and I really hope that you do, it's my favorite thing, reading your words about the body storytelling podcast. Let people know what you like about it. I mean, you listen to a podcast about storytelling every week, and details make this story. So if there's something in particular you like about the podcast, like maybe you love a certain story or you love the fact that people are unabashedly themselves, that they speak in their own words, they talk about what they genuinely care about, they do something terrifying like getting up on stage, and you are so impressed with that, Whatever it is, let people know that. Because that sort of specificity means people go, hmm, wow, that does sound like a good podcast. I guess I'll listen. Thanks in advance. If you are considering writing a review. I know that it's difficult, but I can't tell you how much of a difference that is going to make for me and the podcast. Thank you in advance for that. And I also want to say thank you to the people who make this podcast possible. Thank you to Donal Mooney, to David Grossoff, to Mohsa Maxwell Smith, and to podcast producer Roman Den Haudeker. I'm sexual folklorist Dixie Delator. This has been episode 293 of the Bawdy Storytelling Podcast. Thanks for listening.