In her 1992
book "Sexual Reality: A Virtual Sex World Reader", Susie Bright has a nine
page discussion going into detail the Naked Slaveboy Tea Party she
organized and co-hosted with legendary feminist authors Laura Miller, Amy
Wallace and Lisa Palac. Following are selected excerpts of her
recount of this
classic Naked Slaveboy Tea Party of now of cult status, in an article
entitled "Strip Tea".
"One
month ago, I received an invitation to attend a salon of women artists. We
were offered an occasion to read aloud, sketch, and indulge ourselves in a
very proper high tea. Most intriguing of all, the invitation promised we
would be served our scones and punch by naked slaveboys who would not
speak unless spoken to. The aspect of social nudity was of course
titillating, but would ordinary men actually keep their lips buttoned for
an approximately five-hour affair? That had to be seen to be believed. I
wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Upon arrival, I was indeed greeted by a nude doorman who took my coat.
Alas, he was the only servant in sight, and in the meantime, guests were
arriving by the score. What a delightful group of invitees they were, too.
If I had been able to get a simple cup of hot Earl Grey, my afternoon
would have been complete. But unfortunately, although the company was
sublime and the concept impeccable, only two slaveboys were on hand to
provide services, and despite their best intentions, I don't think either
of them had ever so much as poured a cup of decaf.
I departed with my friend, Laura Miller. We reviewed the afternoon and
agreed it had been a wonderful, yet insufficient, experience. Wouldn't it
be perfect to have a party like that in a grand mansion, with slaveboys
who looked like Greek gods and served like altar boys?
The very next day, she called me. "My friend Amy Wallace, the novelist,
has a beautiful home in the Berkeley hill, and she would love to hostess
the kind of tea party we have in mind. The living room is absolutely
Byronic, and there are even special servants' quarters."
Laura is the book review editor at the San Francisco Weekly, where
personal ads of all persuasions abound. She agreed to place an ad for four
weeks, but 1 had my doubts about getting much of a response to anything so
bizarre. I was more confident that in my Rolodex I would find lots of
liberated boys who would love to serve us tea.
Little did I know the raw nerves our search would scratch. 1 got my first
glimpse of the normal red-blooded American male reaction during a trip to
my mechanic. "Look what I'm up to," I said, pulling into the garage and
waving my carefully typed personal ad:
Genteel and Bohemian gathering of women writers requires comely slaveboys
to serve at our tea party. You will serve nude and will not speak unless
spoken to. Standards are high. Food and beverage experience a must. No
sex. Please send photo and qualifications to Madam Tea Party.
"What the fuck do 1 want with waiting on a bunch of broads?" asked Jake,
leaning against his greasy desk. "You're not paying anything for this? No
way."
My gay friends said they wouldn't have any fun waiting on women.
My straight friends, even the most sympathetic, went into a panic about
penis size and fantasized far more permanent humiliation than anything 1
had in mind.
But fate was
about to turn her touch-tone head. The Wednesday paper hit the streets. I
was so pessimistic I didn't plan to check the answering service or the
mailbox for a couple of days. But Laura called me only hours after the
Weekly was on the stands. "Get your pen ready; you've got to call these
two. The first one's a European model and the other one works at the
Fairmont Hotel."
We got over one hundred calls and letters in two weeks. I believe that is
what is called a staggering response. The photos and descriptions offered
a textbook case in broken stereotypes. Car dealers from San Mateo,
computer millionaires from Marin, professional leather slaves who could
only be contacted through their mistresses, and surfer dudes who could
only be contacted though their bartenders. Punk boys, bus boys, sailor
boys, and above all, would-be, wanna-be, I'll-do-anything-to-be your ever
lovin' slaveboys. Wow. Now we had to interview them.
My partner in the highly sensitive interview process was our fourth
hostess, Lisa Palac. Lisa was brave enough to offer her living room for
our on-site questioning, and she made no bones about the necessity of nude
auditions. "But how do we even bring it up without sounding like
sleazebags?" I asked. I could not see past the embarrassment.
But I did know who to ask, someone who specialized in frequent nude
auditions, and with that in mind I headed over to the Mitchell Bros.
O'Farrell Theater, one of the last great strip clubs. I went to see Vince,
who manages the dancers' schedules. He was completely laid back. "It's
simply professional, like a casting call," he said. "You ask them all your
questions first, then you tell them you'd like to take a Polaroid (this
event dates back to 1991 in the before digital camera days) of them
undressed, and that's it. Tell them to put their clothes back on after you
take the shot."
I hadn't even considered that it might be harder to make them get dressed
than undressed. If our attitude was the key to smooth interviewing, I
decided we should prepare a few questions on a form and devised the
soon-to-be-notorious Slaveboy Questionnaire.
"Do you have experience serving tea?
Hors d'oeuvres?
How about hand or foot massage?
Brushing hair?
Painting nails?
Building and
tending fires?"
The applicants were informed that the costume would be a simple bow tie,
black shoes and matching socks. Of course, we were interested in why a man
would want to serve at our party.
The most common motive expressed by the men was the excitement of being
chosen to please a special group of women. For some, the idea that we were
all writers was especially glamorous. One restauranteur recalled that he
had seen a zillion parties where naked girls danced for Shriners, but
never the other way around - it bothered him a little. However, guilt was
not typical of our interviewees.
The boys were then graded on Face, Body, Grace, Service Experience and
that ever-important swing vote, Personality. I never realized before this
process that I have the unfettered ability to judge people solely on their
looks. It is a form of discrimination I have avoided my whole life, and
yet here was a case where, in selecting a man who would not say anything
more than "Cream or sugar?", I had to pay as much attention to his pecs as
I did to his poise.
Men, unlike women in this situation, are not the least bit abashed to
apply for the job whether or not they are physically attractive.
Two men got erections during the interview, and with our standard tea
mistress composure, we paid no particular attention to them. Three
slaveboys came in French maid outfits, which were quite precious, but we
were very strict about our Boy only policy. One brought roses (extra
points), one whined that he didn't see why he had to provide his own bow
tie (immediate reject), and one had a resume with the most impeccable
statement of purpose: "An emphasis on service that puts your needs, not
mine, uppermost in my mind." Music to our ears.
In the end, we picked the following six:
K. was a Bon Jovi look-alike, the only one who had been "around the
scene," as he put it, familiar with the nuances of submissive etiquette.
P. was our dining room dream come true, an Italian American who serves at
one of the most luxurious restaurants in town. T. was indisputably the
most charming man we met, with a proper British accent that made us want
to give him special dispensation to say a few words. J., my only personal
friend to respond to the call for comely menservants, had excellent
massage skills, sure to compensate for what he lacked in scone service. R.
was Hawaiian/Chinese, one of our youngest servers, and won our hearts in
his interview when he turned his chin up and closed his eyes for his
interview photo. "Just like a choirboy," I exclaimed. "I was a choirboy,"
he said. Instant winner. Finally, S., our blond, tan L.A. kid, who won his
place only because he wrote a follow-up letter saying he would be the best
slaveboy ever, summed up his interest with the Gestalt that he thought it
would be a "real trip."
Now that our slaveboy acquisition was complete, I faced an unexpected
problem: our two dozen guests were not exactly RSVPing en masse. Now mind
you, I only asked women writers of the finest bearing and Bohemian, open
minded standards. But when I called a close friend whom I expected would
be picking out her hat and gloves, she surprised me with the awful truth.
"I don't know about this kind of treatment," she said, I would never
approve of naked women waiting on men, so why should I care to endorse the
reverse?"
If there ever were a case to prove how ridiculous the idea of reverse
sexism is, this kinky tea party was it. Women are utterly unaccustomed to
having their needs anticipated, and their desires understood and attended
to without speaking a word.
Others of my peers were more blunt and less politically correct about
their fears. "What if one of them hands me a cucumber sandwich and I'm eye
level with his ding dong?"
Another vexing query came from a couple of my lesbian friends, who failed
to see how being waited on by nude men would be anything less than
nauseating.
Indeed, the sixteen women who did attend were all beauties, intellectually
and visually. Rupa arrived as Cleopatra, with a golden snake headdress and
sandals. Lily wore a corset laced over the most mind-shattering body ever
sprung from the foam. Honey Lee wore a tuxedo like she was born to it, and
Susan's creamy curves spilled out of a purple patent leather strapless. I
myself started out in a black leather skirt that laced up the back, but
ended up in nothing but my slip and my straw hat with the yard of veil. I
got awfully hot.
My friend Tom O'Conner made the most exquisite feast for us: lox and
strawberries and madeleines and nouvelle sandwiches and three different
kinds of scones. Photographer Michael Rosen turned Amy's upstairs library
into a Victorian portrait studio. Any exhibitionist could take a slaveboy
in tow and sit for a formal photograph, her hands clasped primly and her
feet kissed with appropriate photogenic fervor. I asked that Michael be
nude too, but I drew the line at the cook-the position of ultimate
dominance.
I believe our finest hours were the literary review, where several of our
poets stood before the fire and burned suitable prose into our ears. Much
of it was so erotic that I could barely concentrate on the lovely slave
loosening my stockings from my garter. He rolled them down to warm my bare
feet with oil, and my toes grazed the soft hair on his chest as he rolled
and squeezed them. Very distracting. My hair was brushed until it shone by
our blond S., who unaccountably disappeared two-thirds of the way through
the party. In a shocking kitchen gossip revelation, J. later told me that
S., "didn't think the babes were hot enough." All I can say is that he
combed my every strand with utmost sincerity.
At one point R. came up to me in distress; beneath the kitchen window,
he'd spied a group of men scrutinizing the house. "Oh them, they're just
architecture students," Tom said. But the postman was another story. He
took one look, then another, then ran as fast as he could.
I don't think I really relaxed until the end. No matter how many massages
or sips of brandy-laced tea, I didn't feel I could take my skirt off until
the final hour, when we toasted all the company, particularly the
servants, and went upstairs for a final hostess/slaveboy photo."Do you
think you could all lift me up, like a human cradle?" I asked my five
remaining angels. And to P., at my right, "Could I claw at your chest just
for the camera?" I collapsed as beautifully as possible into their ten
strong arms. What a day. The youngest and the oldest guests left with the
words that they had never been to such an elegantly wonderful party in
their lives. How silly were those who rejected our invitation in fear of
sexual pressure or humiliation! Has everyone but we sixteen souls
forgotten the meaning of style? The meaning of fabulous? How was the Bay
Area supposed to keep an avant-garde reputation if a few enlightened
perverts didn't work their fingers to the bone? I called my dear friends,
Laura, Lisa and Amy, the next day. "I have only one regret," I said.
"Right there at the end, when all of the boys held me up to the camera? I
changed my mind about our rules. I would have loved a bit of sex right
then."
Susie Bright's
book is available on Amazon.com
|