Questions and Answers

It is always the priority of Headmistress Jodi that all her students are given every possibility to complete the course of training each year. If you do not find the answer to your question here, please feel free to contact us at wasatchleather@gmail.com

“Does the Wasatch Academy for the Refinement of Ladies and Gentlemen of Leather cost anything?”

There is no monetary tuition for attending the Wasatch Academy, if you are chosen to do so. The only cost Headmistress Jodi asks is that you commit the time and energy required to complete the course. There are some material cost for supplies you will need, however.

“What will I need to acquire for the academy?”

A ruled college lab notebook, like those found on a campus bookstore, as well as writing implements. Inexpensive.
A corset. This can be bought from a corsettier or homemade but will need to be custom fitted to your body and comfortable enough to wear without harming yourself for at least one month, so you will want one that is not off-the-rack from Fredericks. Cost varies greatly.
A graduation dinner at the end of the course. This can be as elaborate as the students desire, can be for immediate family or the whole community as the students desire, and as costly or inexpensive as the students desire. All students are encouraged to hold some sort of fund-raiser to alleviate the cost of this formal dinner. Again the cost can vary greatly.
Optionally the previous classes have chosen to take tea at a local tea room downtown. This is a minor expense, and well worth it.

“Even men will need a corset?”

Yes, men will wear corsets during that portion of the course, just as the women will. Most men’s corsets can really be little more than a wide leather belt, though, so the cost is normally quite managable.

“How do I apply?”

Anyone who wishes to be considered for the class should submit a carefully thought out essay on why you feel it is important for you to go through this rigorous and rewarding experience. Send that essay by email–as plain text only, not an attachment–to Headmistress Jodi directly via wasatchleather@gmail.com

If you are unable for some reason to email, print your essay and deliver it to her hands in some way. Please submit your essay for consideration for the next year’s class. If your submission is not acknowledged in some way, please notify her with another email.

And of course, more detailed information will be forthcoming to those chosen from the applicants.

What the Wasatch Academy is Not

A short essay by Christopher

A lot of people approach the Wasatch Leather Academy with many preconceptions, regardless of what they've been directly told by past graduates. This essay is my attempt to clear up some of those notions to save yourself some time.

The Wasatch Academy is not a leather club or membership organization. It is a work of love and volunteerism. It doesn't have members, only students, teachers, and alumni. You don't pay a membership fee to join, nor are instructors paid for their time. The alumni are not required to pay monetary dues. If anyone tells you differently, they are lying.

The Wasatch Academy is not a BDSM technique course. You will not be taught to swing a flogger, tie a knot, or pinch a nipple with greater skill and accuracy. It is a place to learn to live your life with grace, both in and out of the BDSM-Leather-Fetish community. It touches on the more subtle information that so often eludes longtime members and even leaders in BDSM. But it does teach protocols pertinent to Leather as much as it teaches which fork to use at a formal dinner, or how to address the Ambassador of Kinkistan whether you are being introduced or doing the introducing. And if there is something you have always wanted to know in either regard, you have only to ask and Jodi will track that information down or do her damnedest to find someone who knows it / lives it to pass the information on to you.

The Wasatch Academy is not someplace you will get to play with the Headmistress in any BDSM or sexual context. It’s not the oft-seen excuse to create a secret playspace and take advantage of those simply pursuing knowledge. Jodi does her best, however, to be entertaining and engaging in her presentation of the coursework, and you will typically spend more time smiling or laughing in class than feeling negative.

Which is not to say you won't work hard. The Wasatch Academy is not easy. Self improvement is dirty work, and you have to be committed to improving yourself if you will succeed. You can't pass in and out when the subject matter that week doesn't seem to appeal to you without consequence. The process is fair, you will be given all the help you truly need and every opportunity to succeed—but you will not be coddled. If you don't want to work toward learning what is being offered, you will not last through the course.

In the end, the Wasatch Academy is also not impossible. As long as you persevere and truly desire to take away the knowledge that is being offered—not only by Jodi but by the many guest instructors—you will find yourself falling back upon that knowledge again and again for the rest of your life.

Christopher