CW: This article features sexualization of subjects that readers may find uncomfortable or triggering.
Ageplay, drug use, piss, slurs and myriad other taboo desires — issue 1 of Degenerates Magazine warns (or rather promises) that these subjects will be covered in its pages. Clarifying text on the bottom of the first page mentions that “cop fetishism, raceplay, or cisssexual people” will not be included.
“Said” zine was organized by the Degenerates Collective, a band of trans artists and writers from around the Midwest. On Saturday, Sept. 7, these artists gathered in a modest backyard on the South Side of Chicago to promote the zine as well as sell materials that may be a bit too scandalous for other communal bazaars.
Atlas Feigel, one of the co-founders of the collective and a DePaul alumni, did not initially plan for the event to be this big.
“We had friends who were trying to sell kink and sex-based art at other markets and they weren’t having much success,” Feigel said. “Me and my partner, Violet Jordan, set up a small market for our friends last November, and it ended up going really well.”
From there, Feigel and Jordan, the community outreach coordinator for the collective, began hosting more markets.
“We’ve curated a space that, while encouraging people to support fellow trans people through the marketplace, also acts as a place to just hang out,” Jordan said. “We wanted to create a queer community base that both airs on the side of kink and one that finds a home on the South Side, where you don’t see as much activity for events like this.”
The collective has attracted former visitors to contribute and become vendors themselves. Stevie Peters, a Chicago-based tattoo artist, was attracted to the idea of working the market after attending a previous event.
“I wanted the opportunity to have more of a salacious flash knowing that the market for that sort of thing would be here for it.” Peters said. For tattoo artists, a flash is a preexisting piece displayed on their stand so that customers can order and the artist can perform it quickly. Stevens claimed the system was a success, as he had sold five pieces in the span of only two hours at the market.
Outside of tattoos, there was a bevy of wares on display. Dotting the backyard on prop-up plastic tables were warped polaroids of naked bodies, linoleum woodcut prints of chastity cages and jockstraps, so-called “lil stinkies” (diapers in sealed ziplock bags) and a full-on novella detailing the author’s experience with ageplay both as a source of trauma and one of sexual pleasure.
In regards to the leather community, there was a bootblacking station available for those with interests in the subculture. Bootblacking is the act of caring and maintaining leather accessories.
“A lot of what I do is just meeting people,” Pup Finch, a burgeoning leather enthusiast and bootblacker, said. “If I can be in an environment to teach people how to properly tend to their leather while making friends and a community along the way, that’s great.”
Despite having a heavy focus on Chicago, members of the market came from all around the Midwest. Minneapolis, Detroit, Milwaukee and Iowa City were just a few of the other cities represented at the event.
Saturday marked the fourth official market gathering, with a few pop-up stands at places like the leather bar known as Cell Block Chicago interspersed to promote the collective.
Further plans look to expand to other cities around the Midwest, with a scheduled debut in Minneapolis this coming October and a potential move to Michigan sometime in the near future. Feigel said he plans to keep the market’s goals intact even as they expand.
“We want to remain an explicitly sex-positive environment, not just a sex-neutral one,” Feigel said. “We have three guiding principles: one, we’re here to take things that won’t be welcome elsewhere. Two, anything that the masses hate, we love. Three, we’re not cops. Bring whatever you want and we’ll accept you.”
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