To Love, to Obey, to Serve: Diary of an Old Guard Slave

by V.M. Johnson

Within these pages are the real life experiences of an extraordinary woman as recorded in her journal. Vi Johnson is one of the most loved and respected women in the leather community. She entered the Leather s/m scene in the 1970's as a slave. A slave's duty was to Love, Honor, Please, and Obey, sometimes blindly, often at great personal cost. To own or life the life of a full time slave is, and has been, the stuff of s/m fantasies and erotic stories. The life recorded here reveals the realities, which are quite different from the fantasies. Most of all this is the journey of a woman following her dream.

Genres: BDSM, Nonfiction, Memoir

341 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1999

Reviews

[Mollena Williams]

A sobering look at one woman's journey in the Leather community before the internet, before slogans like "RACK' and "SSC," before books and conversation about kink were acceptable dinner conversation. I consider it a must-read for those thinking of exploring consensual slavery: seeing how far some are willing to take their partner,s even "consensually," is a vital way to check yourself.

Vi Johnson has been a source of inspiration for me, since I came out into the public BDSM, Kink & Leather confederacies back in 1996. Being a Black woman who identified as submissive, reading this book was a real wake-up call. People enjoy varying degrees of involvement in the AltSex communities, and absorbing this story was a vital vector for my own self-awareness. I consider myself very blessed, in the years since I read this book, to get to know Ms. Johnson and to see that she continues to inspire generations of Leatherfolk and Kinksters. Her work in our communities has and continues to inspire me to create my own work, and to continue to educate and share.



The Toybag Guide to Playing with Taboo
Playing Well with Others: Your Field Guide to Discovering, Exploring and Navigating the Kink, Leather and Bdsm Communities

[Emilious Tarr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently received my new copy of this book from the 2022 printing by Suck the Rainbow books in conjunction with the Carter/Johnson Library & Collection. While I have one of the rather rare copies of the original printing, it has seen better days and now lives on the shelf with my other well-seasoned books that have newer copies for routine use. This new book is splendid and wholly worthy of its predecessor.

I've not gone through and done page-by-page comparisons and I'm not going to, although I will note that the cover image is different, the editor says that will make it easy to determine the difference between the old edition end the new. And it will, although it's fairly easy to tell with mine because my original is heavily worn and this new one is, so far, pristine. The editor also admits to having to change some images, They write, "I did have to replace the images in the book. The original pictures have been lost a time, however, I did manage to find similar images from the same rolls of film. I've also created a new cover so that the original prints of this book are easily distinguished." The book was typeset anew as the printing is clear and easily readable, unlike what happens with so many facsimile copies. To me, this is a benefit. I am certain some critics will decry every change in line length or punctuation, I say let them shell out for a first edition, and while they are at it, make a $40 donation to the CJLL&C, so they can continue their good work.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy actual fuck. I don't even know what to think and feel about this diary chronicling 15 years of leather slavery*. Parts of this were horrifying; the first two Mistresses she has of the three in this book are brutally abusive and neglectful. And then there is all the family. We, as queer and leather folk, have incredibly few stories of people who make their deep desires into reality so fully, who create such intensely beautiful queer and leather family connections, and who are loved and accepted by their blood family, too. I'm so grateful this record has been preserved; looking into the ways gender, lesbianism, non-monogamy, mixing with men, and kink were working in Vi's life over this time period was a huge gift.

*In general I do not use "slavery" to refer to any type of D/s relationship; I'm using it here because Vi uses it for herself and, as a Black woman from the US, it's her lineage to claim/remake.