In her keynote speech at 2011 International Ms Leather (IMsL), Gayle Rubin– anthropology professor, a founder of Samois and the Outcasts, and member of the initial IMsL planning meeting in 1986–provides the historical and socio-political contexts that led to the creation of the women’s S/M community and the sustained success of IMsL, the oldest and largest Leather women’s titleholder contest in the world.