V. M. Johnson

V. M. (Viola M.) Johnson (born 1950) is an American leatherwoman, activist, author and archivist who embarked on her journey in the leather and BDSM scenes in the early 1970s. A strong advocate for the necessity of preserving leather/fetish/erotic history, Johnson speaks and writes on the broad spectrum of issues that concern her and her community.

Biography

Johnson is a member of Tulsa Uniform Leather Seekers Association (T.U.L.S.A.), Lesbian Sex Mafia (LSM), and National Leather Association International (NLA-I), and an honorary member of many other organizations.

Johnson has served as a board member of the Leather Archives and Museum; NLA-I; and Pantheon of Leather, and as an officer of The Toolbox Technicians; T.U.L.S.A., and Leather and Lace.

She has given the keynote address and/or presented at numerous events in the United States and Canada, including (but not limited to) Leather Leadership Conferences; Boys Training Camps; Beyond Vanilla; Beyond Leather; Black Beat; JustUs – Women and Kink; Master/slave Conference; Thunder in the Mountains; Dressing For Pleasure; Black Rose; Masters and slaves Together; Living in Leather, National Leather Association International; Lesbian Sex Mafia; WULF; Menamore LLC; and New York Women of Color.

Her keynote address at Beyond Vanilla, presented in Dallas in 2007, resulted in the formation of the short lived and now defunct KinkyVoter.com, an organization dedicated to increasing the visibility and political clout of sexual minorities, and encouraging those minorities to vote.

Johnson has served as head judge or judge for Ms. World Leather, and many other contests across North America. She has also given academic lectures at Newark State College (now Kean University), Orange Coast College, Bard College, Bryn Mawr College, Barnard College, and Oklahoma State University. As an archivist,and past board member of The Leather Archives and Museum, Johnson has amassed a collection of more than 9,000 pieces of erotic fiction, non-fiction, periodicals, club histories, ephemera and travels with the Carter/Johnson Collection to events across the country. She currently lives in the Northeastern United States.

Awards

  • 1995: National Leather Association Lifetime Achievement Award
    Pantheon of Leather Lifetime Achievement Award
  • 2000: Pantheon of Leather Woman of the Year
  • 2001: Lesbian Sex Mafia Legend Award
  • 2005: Master/slave Conference Slave Heart Award
    Pantheon of Leather Forebearer Award
    SouthEast LeatherFest Jack Stice Memorial Community Service Award
  • 2007: Black Beat Lifetime Achievement Award
    S.W.E.A.T. Legacy Award
  • 2012: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Leather Leadership Award

Works

Books

  • V. M. Johnson. Dhampir: Child of the Blood. Mystic Rose Books, 1995. ISBN 978-0-9645960-1-6
  • V. M. Johnson. To Love, to Obey, to Serve: Diary of an Old Guard Slave Mystic Rose Books, 1999. ISBN 978-0-9645960-2-3

Other publications

Contributing author, anthologies
  • 1995: Some Women, ed. Laura Antoniou
Contributing author, periodicals
  • Bitches with Whips
  • Black Leather in Color
  • Black Mistress Review
  • Corporal
  • Dominant Mystique
  • Mistress Mine
  • Obeah
  • Ouch
  • Passion
  • The (NLA-I) Link

See also

People
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